ubuntuubuntuIssue 1

FELA KUTIthe King of Afrobeat

that will awake the African in you

6 songs

contentsAfrobeat - a musical genre and a political movement page4...................The rise of Afrobeats page 6...................Six songs that will bring out the African in you page 8...................Young Paris - anew generation of electronic rap page 11...................Sneak peak to next issue page 14

editorial“ I am because we are”. This is the core principle of ubuntu, an African philosophy that is based on the power of “we” over “I”. Its translation from Zulu to English reads “human kindness” or virtue.When I started UBUNTU, I had a very clear idea in mind. I wanted discover and write about the immense source of ar-tistic and creative talent that is the African continent, hop-ing that will somehow change perceptions about its wealth (in all senses of the word). Leaving economic and financial issues to a side, Africa and Africans have been target to misconceptions, discrimination and a great deal of ignorance.Since the beginning of the colonisation process in the 15th century that enslaved millions of black Africans, being white (and western, especially) meant being superior. Eu-ropeans took advantage of the power of the gun over the spear and doomed the sub-Saharan region to centuries of exploitation.Although I am not African (or an expert in Africa), I am hoping you will join me in this discovery of its arts and cul-ture.Grabbing the concept of Pan- Africanism, which challeng-es the misconceptions and physical tortures of being op-pressed, restoring the Continent to its former glory, UBUN-TU is also a challenge to ourselves and our knowledge (or ignorance) of these issues. In each issue, published at the end of each month, we will explore different areas of African culture, from North to South. In this first issue, we focus on Western African music, from the legendary Fela Kuti to the barefoot Diva Cesária Évora. Nigeria was a highlighted for a new socially-aware musical trend, started by Kuti, with strong political messages that had him arrested for several times in the 1960s and 1970s. This inspired many artists of his generation and still is in-fluencing today’s artists to deliver songs with a meaning and purpose.

Adriana Calado, editor

Afrobeat / a musical genre and a political movement

Africa’s biggest musical ex-port is Afro-pop, which plays both in night club dancefloors and house-

holds. Though irresistibly catchy, Af-ro-pop lacks the politically-driven motivation of Afrobeat, which led to the arrest of many artists in the 1970s, especially Fela Kuti in Nigeria. Lagos was the birthplace of Afrobeat and Fela Anikulapo-Kuti was its fa-ther. Born to an influential family in the human rights and political sectors, Kuti’s fate was to achieve greatness. Drawn to music like metal to magnet, he blended elements from West Afri-can Highlife (a Ghanaian music genre characterised by jazzy horns and mul-tiple guitars) with Jazz and Soul music, and thus a new genre was born – the Afrobeat, an unmatched style of exper-imentation. Afrobeat can be described as a fusion of traditional Nigerian (and Ghanaian) sounds with a touch of jazz, a sprinkle of highlife and a hint of funky groove

accompanied by chanted vocals. Kuti named his musical experiments 1963, but it was not until the next de-cade that it would flourish at the peak of his creative geniality. After return-ing to Nigeria from a trip to Los An-geles in 1969, he formed his celebrated band Africa ’70, which produced an immense amount of groovy tunes and turned Afrobeat into a world sensa-tion. Kuti would entertain his audience with lengthy performances supported by female dancers and political raps.The political raps and messages be-came the fundamental trademark of Fela’s Afrobeat. It became much more than purely artistic entertainment; it was more of a social and political mis-sion with a touch of inner rebellion against the ruling institutions. This fight for justice is included in tracks such as “International Thief Thief ”, an attack on multi-nationals, and “Zom-bie”, a satire to the military thought-lessly following orders. It is important to highlight that Nigeria was under military rule for most of the 1970s,

after a political coup in 1966. In fact, many African countries were suffer-ing political unfairness and military corruption while in transition from American and European colonial ex-ploitation which lasted for nearly four centuries. Despite the cool funkiness of the Afrobeat sounds, Kuti’s performances would hardly allow the crowd to dive into the tune, as the most songs were intensely lengthy and demanded intel-lectual response. As Afrobeat spread across Africa, many bands took on themselves the duty of political activ-ism and social change through music. It has also influenced international-

ly relevant musicians and producers, such as Brian Eno and David Byrne, who worked on Talking Head’s 1980 album Remain in Light – an album that inaugurated the influence of Afrobeat sounds in Western music. American rock band Vampire Week-end and American musician Paul Si-mon.From Ray Ayres to Randy Weston, Afrobeat remained alive even after its creator’s death in 1999. Femi Kuti, the son of the King of Afrobeat, continued his legacy and still does, ensuring the continuity his father’s most precious heritage.

Fela performing at the Shrine. He would of-ten times put on tradi-tional paitings on his face during his lengthy shows

The rise of Afrobeats might sound familiar.

Maybe because of our previous article, or maybe because the genre has had such a huge success in Eu-rope over the last years that…well, how could you not know it?However similar to Afrobeat, the young and flourishing Afrobeats has nothing that can be compared to Kuti’s groovy creation. The sim-ple addition of a letter takes us to a completely different dimension and a much younger generation, as if a new chapter in the world of pop has begun. Much like Kuti’s Afrobeat, this new genre was coined by a pioneer art-ist who melted influences to create something new. DJ Abrantee is the men responsible for the very first

track of this new genre, which com-bines western rap influences with Ghanaian and Nigerian pop music. Afrobeat is an umbrella term, which means it includes hiplife, highlife, Nigerbeats and juju music and has a much younger feel to it.Abrantee says he played Afrobeat tracks for years before bringing it to the world of mainstream. When Nigerian artist D’Banj reached glob-al success with his hit Oliver Twist, Afrobeats’ settling in the western panorama became official – it was here to stay.The target audience is vast, and anyone is likely to feel seduced by these new beats that have already reached UK dancefloors. However, under-18s looking for an alternative

Afrobeatsvibe to British pop. “It’s striking how young they are,” Abrantee ad-mitted. “When I do these Afrobe-ats events there’s thousands of people, and they’re all youngsters, really.”However, Abrantee recognises that the youngest are in norm the first ones to adhere to new trends. The music genre is attracting UK and American artists too, with new collaborations coming soon. Alex-andra Burke and Tinchy Stryder are a few names on the list. Amer-ican superstar Kanye West signed D’Banj after he partnered up with Snoop Dogg . As that happened, Akon had already signed 2Face Idiba, singer of iconic track Afri-can Queen, P-Square and Wiz Kid.

D’Banj, the man behind the massive dancefloor Afrobeats hit Oliver Twist that took UK charts by storm

Six songs that will bring out the African in you

From the legendary King of Afrobe-at Fela Kuti to the Ivory Coast Zouglou masters Magic System,

Sub-Saharan African music gives any lis-tener a fuzzy, warm feeling of belonging. When the Portuguese started a race for colonisation in the 15th century, together with Spain, they brought a dark age upon the continent. Black slaves were taken to Europe and America, forever changing

the course of the future generations. To an African descendent whose roots might be buried beneath a layer of Westernised acculturation, these origins may be in-tensified when listening to music.This list compiles a few of the most wide-ly known songs of the Sub-Saharan Afri-ca, which take any afro-descendent on a journey back home.

This song is said to be played at ev-ery Nigerian party, being one of

the most popular tracks in the conti-nent. “No matter what language you speak, it touches people in Africa. It’s a classic,” said Skepta, an English rapper of Nigerian heritage. Prince Nico Mbarga, who is both Ni-gerian and Cameroonian, and his band Rocafil Jazz released the song in the 1970s and it has been a success ever since. “Sweet Mother” is a highlife song

(note that highlife is a music genre originated in Ghana that later spread to western Nigeria) celebrating mother-hood. Its lines “You fit get another wife, you fit get another husband/But you fit get another mother? No, at all” clearly send a message to the listener – moth-ers are to be cherished.It sold over 13 million copies and is often called Africa’s anthem, having been voted as Africans’ favourite song in 2004 by BBC readers and listeners.

1. Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga

2. Sunshine Day by Osibisa

“Sunshine Day” became a dancefloor hit not long after its release in 1975.

Osibisa were probably the first African heritage band to achieve global suc-cess. The Afro-pop band was founded in London in the late 1960s by four expatriate Africans and three Caribbe-

an musicians, who spent most of the 1970s on international tours, playing to Japanese, Australian, Indian and Afri-can crowds. Osibisa’s flair inspired many emerging African artists of their time and over the last 40 years.

Six songs that will bring out the African in you

3. International Thief Thief by Fela Kuti

It is hard to choose only one of Fela Kuti’s songs to be in this list.

The King of Afrobeat, as he was of-ten recognised, created a whole new music genre and along with that, a new generation of artists was born.Kuti was born in Nigeria, and was not any less than a rather contro-versial personality. Kuti’s musical geniality spoke louder than his ret-rograde views about women, who he believed should stay at home (he married dozens of them). The Ni-gerian singer wrote politically-mo-tivated songs, in a time where the country was under military rule, which led to his arrest for sever-

al times. International Thief Thief (I.T.T.) was written by him and its meaning is not hard to guess. Sahr Ngaujau, who played Kuti in the musical Fela!, once explained in a TV show that even though it is about theft, it is on a larger scale – it is an attack to multi-national corpo-rations. Hence, it might not be sur-prising that the song title’s abbrevia-tion corresponds to the same name of a multi-national manufacturing company.I.T.T. is certainly less groovy than some of Kuti’s previous jams, but it is still Fela Kuti. Irreverent and a scream for morality.

4. Sodade by Cesária Évora

The Cape Verdean popular sing-er wrote this song describing a

feeling of longing for a homeland. In this case, the land is Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking Island in the West of Africa, where she is from. The word “sodade” means exactly that – longing for.Évora was often called the “Barefoot Diva”, as she would perform with-out shoes on stage, or the “Queen of Morna”, a Cape Verdean traditional type of dance.

When she released her first album in 1998 titled La Diva Aux Pieds Nus (Barefoot Diva), which was recorded in France, she immediately gained international recognition. Her 1992 album Miss Perfumado, wich in-cluded the track “Sodade”, sold over 300,000 copies worldwide and gave her a Grammy Award. In 2013 the Belgian musician Stro-mae honoured her memory in a song called “Ave Cesaria”, dedicated to her.

Pat Thomas (a.k.a. Nana Kwabena Amoh Mensah) was once coined

the Golden Voice of Africa. Since a very young age, the Ghanaian singer acknowledged his passion and inten-tion to pursue music and gave up on education– which turned out to be an arguably rather wise decision.His inspiration came from listening to artists such as Miriam Makeba, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and Ray Charles.

In Sika Ye Mogya, Thomas tells the listener how we all need money to live and without it you cannot sur-vive. However a serious issue, be-cause of daily struggles with money, he sings of it in a cool, unperturbed way, because life should not be taken so seriously.Thomas has toured around the globe and his album Sika Ye Mogya has won an award for album of the year in 1997.

5. Sika ye mogya by Pat Thomas

6. Premier gaou by Magic System

The Ivorian group Magic Sys-tem is always a breath of fresh

air, no matter who you are or where you are from. The band’s animated, easy-to-dance-to style takes even the stiffest pair of shoulders on an invol-untary rhythmic choreography.1er Gaou literally means “first fool” and is an autobiographical track of the lead singer Salif Traoré, whose girlfriend broke up with when he was just an inspiring musician and

poor. After reaching fame, she tried to get back to the singer, who re-fused her. The song became a massive indie hit in France, where it sold over 300,000 copies and achieved a Gold Status.It was first released in 1999 in their native language Abidjan and became a hit in Côte d’Ivoire. However, it was its remixed version in 2002 that the band’s breakthrough to interna-tional fame began.

Young Paris / a new generation of electronic rap

Milandou Badila, a.k.a. Young Paris, is a Congolese Artis-tic Director, Music Produc-

er and Song Writer born in Paris and raised in New York whose unmatched style combines rap with electronic dance music featuring traditional Con-golese rhythms.Passion for performance has been go-ing through Young Paris’ veins from his very first breath, having been raised by a family of African performing and visual artists. His father founded the National Ballet of Congo and his moth-er was a dancer in New York.He performs alongside five out of nine of his siblings, touring their traditional drum & dance bal-let Diata Diata around Congo. Young Paris’ original flair led him to play in the 2nd edition of Kanpe Ka-naval last year, an annual event with

a carnavalesque touch hosted by the Kanpe Foundation in Haiti. It was this occasion that sparked attention to his work. Since then, he has been featured in TEDx, played in Montreal music festival and worked with award winning artists from different corners of the world, including Arcade Fire’s Win Butler as well as Jim Haynes.Young Paris’ original flair led him to play in the 2nd edition of Kanpe Ka-naval last year, an annual event with a carnavalesque touch hosted by the Kanpe Foundation in Haiti. It was this occasion that sparked attention to his work. Since then, he has been featured in TEDx, played in Montreal music festival and worked with award win-ning artists from different corners of the world, including Arcade Fire’s Win Butler as well as Jim Haynes.

Why is your music special and when was your Eureka moment - when you decided to blend two different genres into one unique sound?

I’d say my music is special because it represents myself, family and our in-tentions to what and how we can con-tribute to the world.Genre blending was actually my broth-er’s idea because I started my young rap career as any traditional NY MC and he told me “the people want to dance, man!”. I figured since I love electronic music and I have an African base, it just made sense.

Have you ever been criticised by al-tering traditional rhythms to a more modern beat? People have their opinions but I’ve never had a critique that made me question my music.For the most part everyone has been super supportive and enlightened in this idea to mix. I feel when it’s done properly and with integrity, there’s a certain amount of respect shown and that’s what I get out of it. From all the songs you have written and produced, which one is your fa-vourite or has a more special mean-ing to you?

At this point, my song Kaké plays the biggest effect on what my sound is.It is bass heavy, with and African elec-tro groove that feels ritual-like. The lyrics are one of my favourites as well and I’m more than happy with the out-come and response from the public.

What stage of your work do you en-joy the most and why?

I enjoy the performance the most. There’s nothing like sharing a live translation of what I’ve created in my mind for weeks - sometimes months. The reaction of the audience dancing and enjoying the sound and lyrics is priceless.

If you could only chose one artist or group to work with throughout your

Still from Káké videoclip

Young Paris told UBUNTU about his influences and career ambitions. have a read:

career, who would you choose?

A producer named Rancido - he’s not very famous but his beats are incred-ible. For lyrics, talent, and flow I’d say Most Def.

What is the message or purpose of your work? What is the music talking about and what are you thinking of when writing it? My goal (in short) is to create or even recreate a lifestyle primarily for black and young Africans. I’m educated in many forms of artistry and creativity, whereas I think I have the tools to up-lift people through art, imagery, video, lyricism, and design. I represent the beauty, historic, and contemporary uplifting of Africans (primarily).

What is your ultimate career goal? What do you want to achieve and

how are you planning to get there?

My ultimate future goal is to invest much of my energy and time in this genome project where Africans in America can take a blood sample and get results of their origins. I feel this would have a great impact on their lives if at a young age they have a stronger idea of what country in Afri-can their ancestry came from. Italians know they are Italian so they go to It-aly as do the Irish, the French and the list goes on.Africans in America barely go to Af-rica because they don’t know where to go. I’d like to have an effect on that.In what projects are you working on at the moment? Currently, I’m finishing up my latest album to be out this spring and I’ll be on tour throughout Canada, Europe, US and maybe bits of Africa this sum-mer / fall.

Sneak Peak...UBUNTU’s second issue will look at the contribution of African artists to the world of Creative Arts. Read our interview with Fine Arts promising talent Tunji Adeniyi-Jones

Describe yourself from an artist’s perspective - who

is Tunji and what inspires him to create new art-

work?

My life and cultural background serve as my prima-

ry source of inspiration. Although my background is

Nigerian, I was born and raised here in London. So

I consider myself to be British. This mixed cultural

placement has made for some interesting experiences

throughout my life. There’s a fascinating space between

these two cultures, and indeed between all cultures

worldwide. I’m trying to explore and highlight this

space through my work and practice.

What is the message you want to put across with

your work?

Initially, through my work, I would share my own

personal story. But I’ve since learned that my experi-

ences aren’t necessarily unique, and that I’m entering a

more global field of artists exploring their identity and

ethnicity through their practices.

My work is now more outwardly narrative driven and

less introverted, in the sense that the story I’m telling is

now less about self-discovery and more about discov-

ery on a broader scale.

What do the masks symbolise and what do you bring

of new to the world of arts?

The mask is a tool that I have used to immerse myself

in my Nigerian background. For most of my life I’ve

felt estranged from Nigeria. I used the mask to express

where I saw myself situated within this culture that I

was unfamiliar with. This was in turn a very education-

al and enriching process, and I am constantly learning

more as my work progresses. My relationship with the

mask, as a concept, is constantly evolving and chang-

ing. Recently I’ve started exploring the potential of the

mask as an individual autonomous object rather than a

supplement to my performance.

You talk about cultural expectation. So do you think

that having an African background, people expect

you to present work that portrays your ethnicity?

It’s important to question the reality of racial and cul-

tural expectation in art. Some people do firmly believe

that for artists of ethnic backgrounds to succeed, they

need to make work that is only relevant to their ethnic-

ity. It’s a necessary conversation to have as it challenges

our contemporary notions of ethnological understand-

ing and cultural assimilation.

I do believe that ethnic individuality bears great signif-

icance, and cultural difference is an unassailable trait

that should be proudly worn, not suppressed.

Is racism an issue to you?

This is always a difficult question for me. I grew up in a

really diverse part of North London, so for the first 10

or 11 years of my life I was unaware that the colour of

my skin bore any significance. When I went to second-

ary school I became a clear minority, and it was then

that I saw my race start to define me. Racism is cer-

tainly something that I’ve encountered more than I’ve

taken time to acknowledge, especially when I was in

school. I don’t address it in my work, but it is an issue

I feel very strongly about. I feel that letting it consume

my thoughts and motives would be detrimental to my

progress as an artist. But that’s just my personal bear-

ing. I am wholly supportive of those taking a more

active stance on the issue.

You are UK born, but with black skin. Do people

have certain assumptions regarding your back-

ground?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I consider being faced

with this form of assumption as an opportunity to ed-

ucate and enlighten. It’s definitely something I address

in my work. For example, I try to express beauty in as

much of what I do as possible. Beauty is something that

I feel has fallen out of people’s estimations when they

think/talk about Nigeria, and indeed on a greater scale,

Africa. One often needs to be reminded that Africa is

a beautiful and prosperous continent, as it is so often

associated with negativity and ugliness. Through my

‘Paradise Lost’ photo collage I was trying to correct

these negative associations and draw peoples focus to

the stunning landscapes and scenery.

Do you think that a piece of art work (let it be a film,

an exhibition, a book, etc.) that addresses racial

issues is more likely to have a greater impact if made

by a white person?

I’d say it’s more a question of how well the work, be it

film or otherwise, is made. Sometimes people are quick

to jump to conclusions about inequalities regarding

the reception of artwork, forgetting the importance of

quality to begin with. Regardless of your race, if your

work doesn’t reach a certain standard, you can’t expect

it to be met with high critical acclaim. There are, of

course, prejudices held by those judging and receiving

the works, but this pans out further than just racial

issues – gender and class are equally if not more so in

the equation.

After graduating, where would you like to see your

career going?

I’ve been offered a place to study a painting/printmak-

ing MFA at the Yale School of Art this September. This

is a venture that I’m really looking forward to, and it’s

very much an exciting new start.

UBUNTU ® 2015