Sean Jacobs's Blog, page 673

'Real African Music'

Boima Tucker

Thanks to HavePlentyMusic I saw that big time house producers experimenting with Kuduro for a few years, are perhaps finally ready for Coupe Decale (Click through to listen to the remix). Kind of full circle really, as I really think Bob Sinclair's and similar productions were a big influence on the sound of Coupe Decale, and the Euro pop surge of Magic System, Jessy Matador, et al to begin with. Boddhi Satva a house producer from Central African Republic is the perfect ambassador to bring it to the scene at large. Watch him shake his Bobaraba in a recent video interview.

Traxsource who is selling the DJ Arafat (Côte d'Ivoire) single as remixed by Boddhi describes it as "real African music." I've noticed that while sites like Traxsource and the house scene in general have managed to support music that helps to redefine notions of what "African music" means, there is a tendency at the same time to hold the music back dealing in descriptions that rely on rehashed stereotypes and notions of authenticity.

Boddhi Satva does more, real Central-African-Belgian-House-Remixing below:

Teju Cole takes the City

Our man Teju Cole's novel "Open City," set in post-9/11 New York City, is doing better than very well. The critics can't stop raving about it. Now people need to buy it. A lengthy review in "The New Yorker" (reviewer James Wood writes: "Cole has made his novel as close to a diary as a novel can get, with room for reflection, autobiography, stasis, and repetition"). The review was illustrated with a full page drawing by Swiss graphic artist/designer Grafilu (above). New York Magazine's popular "Approval Matrix" deemed it "high-brow brilliant," The Daily Beast's reviewer liked it, The New York Daily News, so does Bookslut, etcetera. Cole was also interviewed by NPR, by David Ebershoff (watch the video at the link), his Random House editor. Even The New York Times is on board ("a masterly work").

You can also keep with him at his website. (Also, get his earlier novella, published in Nigeria, "Every Day is for the Thief." Congratulations to Mr Cole.

Secrets of Slave Cities

What is it with these "facelifts" that tend to uncover the dirty sinews of yesteryear? Back in Cape Town, South Africa, as the "Mother City" attempted to cover up all its dirty divisions in preparation for meeting the requirements of the FIFA overlords, out came slave burial sites. Now, in Rio, as the city begins a massive cleanup leading to the 2016 Olympics, archaeologists have found the remains of one of the busiest slave ports, "a filthy, bustling harbour where hundreds of thousands of Africans were sold into a life of exploitation and abuse," where hundreds of thousands of Africans were sold to plantation owners.

Famished, exhausted and with their heads half-shaved, the slaves were herded off ships, groomed in "fattening houses" and dispatched to sugar and coffee plantations across Brazil.

Now, nearly two centuries after Rio's notorious Valongo wharf began operating, local archaeologists believe they may have located the slave port's ruins during a multibillion-dollar, pre-Olympic renovation of the city's harbour. "As soon as the discovery was made I went there," said Washington Fajardo, Rio's secretary for cultural heritage. "It is a moving experience, seeing an existing city and then another city two metres below. You feel a bit like Indiana Jones."

Read the article here.

The Good Patrician

Al Jazeera's Kamal Santamaria interviews David  Cameron onYoutube: questions are submitted by viewers, as part of the Youtube World View Program, where one "world leader" is interviewed every month.

First question, submitted on video:

Cameron is about to go on tour in North Africa, with several reps from weapons manufacturers–undoubtedly to push those governments yet more weapons that will be used on their civilian populations (as we saw happen in the last month's revolutions and uprisings). Isn't he sending mixed messages?

Second is a text question: In 1999, NATO bombed Yogoslavia because "[Y]ugoslav authorities were responsible for crimes against humanity" against the Kosovar civilian population. Doesn't the UK, as a founder of NATO, find Libyan authorities doing the same?

See the whole interview, and watch Cameron "disagree with most parts of that question" and the next question and the next question and play the Good Patrician  here.–Neelika Jayawardane

Konfab's Lost Tapes

Pioneer Unit's on fire. Yet another release by the Cape Town label, this time a collection of 'lost tapes' by Lesotho-born musician Konfab, who describes himself as a "presently disadvantaged, previously dissed and damaged, seriously pissed-off, with anger mismanaged, half-foreign, urbanised darkie." This is one of the featuring collaborations (with AIAC favourite JAAK):

(Picture by Ann-Sophie Leens.)

The Women of Tahrir

Images by anthropologist Yasmin Moll. For more work by Moll, watch Fashioning Faith or read her recent contributions to The Revealer.

The American Right doesn't like Kenyans

Mike Huckabee, who considers himself a serious Republican challenger for the 2012 American presidential election and who the media takes seriously (he's also host of a TV "news" show), made up facts about Barack Obama on a far-right radio show earlier this week. This included that Obama "grew up" in Kenya; and that Obama grew up with his father. This is patently false; Obama grew up with his mother, in Hawaii and Indonesia. Obama only met his father in his early teens–once–in Hawaii. Huckabee also claim Obama shared his father and father's view of the Mau-Mau, prominent in the struggle against British colonialism. In contrast, "the average American" supports British colonialism. And I thought the United States was born out of an anti-colonial struggle against British colonialism? The purpose with this baiting is that Huckabee is playing to a base for whom Kenya is equated with anti-American, i.e. not us, alien, "socialist," and not white America. There's tons of people debunking this nonsense daily in the US, including some in the mainstream media–the clip above is from MSNBC's "The Last Word"–but it still sticks. Last month a poll showed that half of all Republicans believe Obama was not born in the United States.

Anyway, I was wondering aloud how Kenya got this reputation in US politics, particularly on the Right.

Since independence Kenya's leaders and political elites were basically pro-US, anti-Communist. More recently Kenya's government has been firm supporters of the US's War on Terror. So much so that for that support Kenyans have even been targeted by Al Quada bombers. Remember the US embassy bombings in Nairobi or the attacks on resorts there? The only logic I could come up with is that the way the right delegitimizes Obama is to say he is not American after all. Since Kenyan is not American, it must be socialist, anti-colonialist. Which is not American. And since they don't read or check their own history, this is the kind of politics you get.

What's with the American Right and Kenya

Mike Huckabee, who considers himself a serious Republican challenger for the 2012 American presidential election and who the media takes seriously (he's also host of a TV "news" show), made up facts about Barack Obama on a far-right radio show earlier this week. This included that Obama "grew up" in Kenya; and that Obama grew up with his father. This is patently false; Obama grew up with his mother, in Hawaii and Indonesia. Obama only met his father in his early teens–once–in Hawaii. Huckabee also claim Obama shared his father and father's view of the Mau-Mau, prominent in the struggle against British colonialism. In contrast, "the average American" supports British colonialism. And I thought the United States was born out of an anti-colonial struggle against British colonialism? The purpose with this baiting is that Huckabee is playing to a base for whom Kenya is equated with anti-American, i.e. not us, alien, "socialist," and not white America. There's tons of people debunking this nonsense daily in the US, including some in the mainstream media–the clip above is from MSNBC's "The Last Word"–but it still sticks. Last month a poll showed that half of all Republicans believe Obama was not born in the United States.

Anyway, I was wondering aloud how Kenya got this reputation in US politics, particularly on the Right.

Since independence Kenya's leaders and political elites were basically pro-US, anti-Communist. More recently Kenya's government has been firm supporters of the US's War on Terror. So much so that for that support Kenyans have even been targeted by Al Quada bombers. Remember the US embassy bombings in Nairobi or the attacks on resorts there? The only logic I could come up with is that the way the right delegitimizes Obama is to say he is not American after all. Since Kenyan is not American, it must be socialist, anti-colonialist. Which is not American. And since they don't read or check their own history, this is the kind of politics you get.

What the American Right's problem with Kenyans?

Mike Huckabee, who considers himself a serious Republican challenger for the 2012 American presidential election and who the media takes seriously (he's also host of a TV "news" show), made up facts about Barack Obama on a far-right radio show earlier this week. This included that Obama "grew up" in Kenya; and that Obama grew up with his father. This is patently false; Obama grew up with his mother, in Hawaii and Indonesia. Obama only met his father in his early teens–once–in Hawaii. Building on that lie, Huckabee added that Obama–while he was apparently growing up in Kenya–shared his father and father's view of the Mau-Mau, who led the struggle against British colonialism. In contrast, "the average American" supports British colonialism. And I thought the America was born out of an anti-colonial struggle against British colonialism? The purpose with this baiting is that Huckabee is playing to a base for whom Kenya is equated with anti-American, i.e. not us, alien, "socialist," and not white America. There's tons of people debunking this nonsense daily in the US, including some in the mainstream media–the clip above is from MSNBC's "The Last Word"–but it still sticks. Last month a poll showed that half of all Republicans believe Obama was not born in the United States.  Anyway, I was wondering today how Kenya got this reputation in US politics, particularly on the Right. Since independence Kenya's leaders and political elites were basically pro-US, anti-Communist. More recently Kenya's government has been firm supporters of the US's War on Terror. So much so that for that support Kenyans have even been targeted by Al Quada bombers. Remember the US embassy bombings in Nairobi or the attacks on resorts there? The only logic I could come up with is that the way the right delegitimizes Obama is to say he is not American after all. Since Kenyan is not American, it must be socialist, anti-colonialist. Which is not American. And since they don't read or check their own history, there you go.

What's the American right's problem with Kenya?

Mike Huckabee, who considers himself a serious Republican challenger for the 2012 American presidential election and who the media takes seriously (he's also host of a TV "news" show), made up facts about Barack Obama on a far-right radio show recently. This include that Obama "grew up" in Kenya with his father (this is patently false; he grew up with his mother, in Hawaii and Indonesia). Building on that lie, Huckabee added that Obama–while he was apparently growing up in Kenya–with his father supported the anti-colonial struggle against British colonialism. In contrast, "the average American" supports British colonialism. And I thought the America was born out of an anti-colonial struggle against British colonialism? The purpose with this baiting is that Huckabee is playing to a base for whom Kenya is equated with anti-American, i.e. not us, basically white America. There's tons of people debunking this nonsense daily in the US. (The clip above is from MSNBC's "The Last Word.") Anyway, though it deserves a longer post, I was wondering today how Kenya got this reputation in the US. Especially since independence its leaders were basically pro-US, anti-Communist and Kenya's government is a firm supporter of the US's War on Terror. (For the latter support Kenyans have even been targeted by Al Quada bombers.) I suppose at the heart of it is their hatred of Obama. He is not American after all, he has 'Kenyan tendencies'. Which are not American.