Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 672

Music Break

Alsarah & The Nubatones came together out of a collective love for Nubian music and a genuine belief that Soul transcends all cultural and linguistic barriers. Inspired by the pentatonic scale they blend a selection of Nubian 'songs of return' from the 1970s-today with original material and traditional music of central Sudan. Their set is a musical journey through diaspora and migration from an urban lense.

Listen here.

File Under No Comment

Another of those pending posts. The video for "Flying High" for the British rapper Chipmunk who is also variously known as "the UK's Justin Beiber." I don't think that's a compliment. The video was shot in South Africa. A throne, grass skirts, references to "The Lion King," etcetera. It is in Africa.

'Nigeria's first fashion magazine'

Part promotion, part video profile of "Mania," a new Nigerian magazine billed as a first of its genre for that country. Not sure about that. (There must have been and are fashion magazines in Nigeria?). Also not sure if the magazine is out yet. Great video though. The video is directed and edited by Joel Benson. (The publisher is photographer Kelechi Amadi-Obi.)

'America as … point of reference'

The artist Dawn Okoro (take the link to her blog) on her most recent work:

I've just completed a set of drawings [colored pencil, ink, and watercolor on paper; the one above is 'Woman in Igbo Print Dress'] … This drawing is called "Woman in Igbo Print Dress." The pattern on the dress is inspired by Ukara cloth. This kind of cloth incorporates symbols that are designed to give it meaning and power … Although I have roots in Nigeria, I have never been there and I want to explore that side of my ancestry. However, I feel that I am learning about Nigeria while naturally using America as my point of reference.

March 6

At is late already, but today is March 6: Ghana Independence Day.

Dutch rapper Kno'Ledge Cesare pays tribute in this video shot in Accra.

Music Break

Mos Def, "Umi Says," Live at the Austin City Limits Festival 2009.

File under Found Objects, No. 12

Following my brief post (more a series of video clips) about African-American comedians and their 'Africa' jokes, blogger/musicologist Wayne & Wax alerted me to this album cover for Richard Pryor's self-titled, debut comedy album in 1968. A few google searches later I was on the blog of Gary Burden, the cover designer, who has a post about the politics behind the cover art:

"… Richard mentioned that he would like to do something kind of Roots-y. This was before the television series. I thought, roots for Richard would be some kind of tribal thing, an African thing. So I got the idea to get authentic African artifacts and weapons and things from a store, which was called 49 Steps. They had real, museum quality artifacts. It was logical to go there to find things that would fit the idea of a tribal bushman. We were in the middle, mind you, of mansions in Beverly Hills. Everything was entirely civilized … Richard said that he knew where there was a cave right near there in Beverly Hills, just in the foothills. It looked perfect. I thought that all of the artifacts would be fine the bow and arrow, the necklace and the belt and all that but I had some reservation about asking him to put in the authentic, brass nose-ring. I thought that might be pushing it a little too far … he immediately went for it in a huge way … He wanted to be even more deeply into this bushman and more authentic. I found charred sticks from a previous fire that had burned through those hills, and placed them like it was his little fire in front of his home. Totally in character, he became very protective over that spot. Aiming his bow and arrow at us in a threatening manner. Seeing how primitive he looked, the photos suggested to me the look of National Geographic so I had my friend Rick Griffin … do artwork that looks like their magazine border, he made a very elaborate drawing. The cover looked totally real, like a cover of National Geographic."

Dakar Modern

I've been wanting to post this for a while now about the Digital Diaspora Family Reunion. It is primarily the work of the filmmaker Thomas Allen Harris (remember his film, "The Twelve Apostles of Nelson Mandela," about his South African step father?). An "interactive, multimedia project," it involves asking New Yorkers–mostly Africans and African-Americans–showing Harris their family photos and photo albums and telling the stories behind them. Great project. In the video above, from the project, Pierre Thiam, chef at the Senegalese restaurant Le Grand Dakar in Clinton Hill, Brooklyn, not far from my house, gives Harris a look at a newly independent Senegal of the 1960s and 1970s.

The first-encounter aesthetic rush

If you're wondering what took us so long to say something about South African rapper Spoek Mathambo's new music video–for his cover of Joy Division's "She's lost control." Well, we're still not decided what we think about it. The video got a lot of attention when it first came out in late February as it was directed by Spoek's countryman, the photographer Pieter Hugo. Hipsters love the video, though we don't learn much from them beyond repeating the PR copy.

First up the positives: We're fans of Spoek Mathambo. Whether his music or his far out blog.  As for what he did to the original tune: Spoek infused a nice South African flavor into it ,which makes us appreciate both songs more. The choice of cover also makes sense. Spoek has spoken about his admiration for Joy Division's music elsewhere: "… I am into Joy Division more than rap … I went from being super into rap my whole life, to a point where I was specifically anti-rap, and then into obscure and avant-garde jazz. When I was probably twenty-one, I got 10GB of music which opened me up to this world of white music that had been hidden from me my whole life."

But like most things, the video also left us with more questions than anything else.

The selling point of the video is that it depicts the world of "township cults and teen gangs." That sounds interesting, but we don't see much of that in the video. Instead we get kids–apparently members of a Langa,  Cape Town-dance troupe–and Spoek. And lots of chalk-blowing. Also, we wondered whether the trance-like dancing featured in the video is really that big in Langa (or any other Cape Town neighborhood).

More generally, we're trying to figure out why the videos that generally make it out of especially South Africa and into popular "hipster" circles or sites based in North America and Europe, tend to be the crazy other-worldly type video?. Nollywood is a big reference and inspiration in these videos–Pieter Hugo, the photographer who did a book on Nollywood, directed the video. Some of us doubt that Nollywood retains a sustained interest amongst hipsters beyond the first-encounter aesthetic rush.

John Akomfrah in New York City

British filmmaker John Akonfrah will be artist-in-residence this Spring at New York University's Institute of African American Affairs. He is joined by the Ethiopian-American musician Meklit Hadero. The institute has a number of events planned around these two with the theme "The African Diaspora And/In The World." They're described as being "at the forefront of … [the] politics of new Pan-Africanism formations." The institute's website does not say much else (nor do the email notices),so we'll find out over the next two months. It is the first time I hear of Hadero, but Akomfrah, born in Ghana and raised in Britain, is a brilliant filmmaker. He has made almost 20 films (including on Martin Luther King Jnr. and Malcolm X).  Try and see his 1986 film "Handsworth Songs," about racism and racial violence in 1980s Britain; a masterpiece. There's also "The Last Angel of History/Mothership Connection" (1995). I have also heard great things about his most recent film, "Mnemosyne."

At various point they'll be joined by filmmaker Jean-Pierre Bekolo (from Cameroon), academic and poet Fred Moten, some of the participants of the Black Portrait Symposium, Ethiopian-American musician Danny Mekonnen, and artist Coco Fusco.

Details here.

Separately, Hadero will perform a concert on April 3rd. Here's a sample: