African Underground Slide Show
March 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Screening in LA - April 5th - Echo Park Film Center
March 21, 2007 | Leave a Comment
African Underground: Democracy in Dakar screening!
Where: Echo Park Film Center
When: April 5th - 8 pm
Echo Park Film Center
1200 N. Alvarado Street (@ Sunset Blvd)
Los Angeles, CA 90026
Google
Map
213-484-8846
echoparkfilmcenter@hotmail.com
Democracy in Dakar, Episodes 5 and 6!
March 19, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Episode 5 "Galsene: Hip Hop in Senegal" explores the history of hip-hop
culture in Senegal. From the old school MCs to the younger generation of
rappers - Episode 5 lays out the who, what, when, and where of the
hip-hop scene, and sheds light on both its political past as well as its
present state. The episode ends with the song ‘Hip-Hop’ from Pikine rap
super group - Tigrim Bi.
In Senegal all rappers have a dream. Whether that dream lives in the
spiritual, political or material realm, they all seek success and fame
in these realms. But can this dream be achieved in Senegal - a country
where the recourses are vastly limited and thousands of youth die every
year trying to flee to Europe in small boats? Episode 6 - "The African
Dream" addresses this question, and the desire for rappers in Senegal to
export their music and live abroad. Featuring an interview (and
freestyle) with legend Didier Awadi (of Positive Black Soul fame) and
the track "Fresh Time Pt 1" by Zoo Squad off the album African
Underground: Depths of Dakar.
Brazilian Government Invests in Culture of Hip-Hop
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
By LARRY ROHTER
SÃO PAULO, Brazil — In a classroom at a community center near a slum here, a street-smart teacher offers a dozen young students tips on how to improve their graffiti techniques. One floor below, in a small soundproof studio, another instructor is teaching a youthful group of would-be rappers how to operate digital recording and video equipment.
This is one of Brazil’s Culture Points, fruit of an official government program that is helping to spread hip-hop culture across a vast nation of 185 million people. With small grants of $60,000 or so to scores of community groups on the outskirts of Brazil’s cities, the Ministry of Culture hopes to channel what it sees as the latent creativity of the country’s poor into new forms of expression.
The program, conceived in 2003, is an initiative of Brazil’s minister of culture, Gilberto Gil, who will be speaking on digital culture and related topics on Wednesday at the South by Southwest Music and Media Conference in Austin, Tex. Though today one of the country’s most revered pop stars, Mr. Gil, 64, was often ostracized at the start of his own career and so feels a certain affinity with the hip-hop culture emerging here.
“These phenomena cannot be regarded negatively, because they encompass huge contingents of the population for whom they are the only connection to the larger world,” he said in a February interview. “A government that can’t perceive this won’t have the capacity to formulate policies that are sufficiently inclusive to keep young people from being diverted to criminality or consigned to social isolation.”
As a result of the Culture Points and similar programs, Mr. Gil said, “you’ve now got young people who are becoming designers, who are making it into media and being used more and more by television and samba schools and revitalizing degraded neighborhoods.” He added, “It’s a different vision of the role of government, a new role.”
As the ministry sees it, hip-hop culture consists of four elements: M.C.’s (rappers), D.J.’s, break dancers and graffiti artists. At the Projeto Casulo, a community center here on a narrow, winding street at the foot of a favela, or squatter slum, all four art forms are being taught to dozens of young residents.
“This program has really democratized culture,” Guiné Silva, a 32-year-old rapper who is the director of the center, said during a tour of its simple concrete building. “We’ve become a multimedia laboratory. Getting that seed money and that studio equipment has enabled us to become a kind of hip-hop factory.”
Though links to music run strong and deep in Brazilian culture, the notion of using taxpayers’ money to encourage rap and graffiti art is not universally accepted. But because Mr. Gil’s musical judgment is widely respected, the level of skepticism and resistance is lower than might be expected.
“Gil still has to fight against other parts of the government in favor of things that everyone else there thinks are alienating junk, but he’s willing to do that, whether it’s on behalf of rap or funk or brega,” another style of music considered vulgar and lower class, said Hermano Vianna, a writer and anthropologist who works in digital culture programs. “He looks at that sort of thing not with prejudice, but rather as a business opportunity.”
On the other hand, some important exponents of hip-hop culture in Brazil, like the rapper Manu Brown and the writer Ferréz, remain skeptical and have chosen to keep their distance from the government program. Others are participating but complain of the bureaucracy involved.
“The idea is great because it has brought about a level of recognition we didn’t have before,” said the rapper Aliado G., president of an entity called Hip Hop Nation Brazil. “But people get frustrated when a project of theirs is approved, and they can’t get the money because they don’t know how to do all the paperwork.”
Brazilian rap, at least as it has developed in poor neighborhoods here in the country’s largest city, tends to be highly politicized and scornful of lyrics that boast about wealth or sexual conquests. In contrast, the funk movement in Brazil, also imported from the United States but centered in Rio de Janeiro, is unabashedly about celebrating sex, bling and violence.
“When U.S. rap groups come here and try to be ostentatious or do the gangster thing, they get booed off the stage,” Mr. Silva said. “We feel a kinship with Chuck D and Public Enemy” — known for their political commentary — “but we don’t have any respect for people like Snoop Dogg and Puff Daddy.”
Since established commercial radio stations and publishing houses have shown minimal interest in the music and poetry that new hip-hop artists are producing, or want to impose contract terms that are too stringent, rappers have developed their own channels to distribute their work. These range from selling their discs and books themselves on the streets and at shows to having the works played on a network of low-power but linked community radio stations.
“There is an entire industry being built in the informal sector,” Mr. Vianna said. “If you were to apply all the laws in place today, no producer can release a record from a favela. So you have to create a new model, and Gil is willing to do that.”
At the Projeto Casulo, the Culture Points program has produced a pair of documentaries about housing problems, complete with a rap accompaniment, that were broadcast on commercial television. The center has also generated a radionovela, a fanzine and a community newspaper and plans next to set up an online radio station to broadcast the rap songs that its musicians and those at similar community centers here have composed and recorded.
In addition, a Culture Ministry grant enabled Hip Hop Nation Brazil to publish a book called “Hip Hop in Pencil,” a collection of rap lyrics. After a first edition of 2,000 copies quickly sold out in 2005 and was nominated for a literary prize, a conventional publishing house was interested enough to negotiate a deal to publish subsequent editions.
“We had never before seen our story told in a book, and at first the publishing houses didn’t take us seriously,” said Toni C, one of the editors and authors of the collection. “Books had always been used as a weapon against us, and people didn’t know that such a thing as hip-hop literature existed. Now they do.”
Brazilian law also offers tax breaks to companies that contribute to cultural endeavors like films, ballet and art exhibitions. Rap music has now been granted similar standing, and as a result, some of the country’s largest corporations have begun underwriting hip-hop records and shows.
At a recent event in Campinas, a city of one million an hour’s drive from here, the sponsors included a power company, a bank, a construction business and an industrial conglomerate. As a troupe of break dancers strutted their most flashy moves, D.J.’s and M.C.’s railed against social, economic and racial inequality with lyrics like “Reality is always hard/for those who have dark skin/if you don’t watch out/you’ll end up in the paddy wagon.”
“It took a while for companies to wake up to the potential this offers,” said Augusto Rodrigues, an executive of the power company and the director of the cultural center where the show was held. “But there’s a hunger for cultural programs like this, in which for the first time in 20 years, the ideology of the periphery can express itself.”
Statement on President Abdoulaye Wade’s Re-Election in Senegal
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The United States congratulates President Abdoulaye Wade on his
re-election victory in Senegal’s elections last month. We further
commend the people of the Republic of Senegal for their unprecedented
high voter turnout. Their involvement is a testament to Senegal’s
commitment to a healthy democratic system. The United States stands
with the Senegalese people on this occasion and will continue to support
their efforts to build a safe and prosperous democracy.
Democracy in Dakar, Episode 4: Wade wins
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Democracy in Dakar, Episode 4 - "Wade Wins". This episode shows the calm after the storm. A very eerie calm indeed as all of Dakar seems stunned by the election results, where Wade has seemed to have won 56% of the vote. This episode shows the calm on the streets and some incisive interviews with journalists and artists.
Gaston bring their appropriate and haunting track "Wallo" to this episode, as well as participate in a deep interview.
Also featured are interviews with Keyti, Rose Skelton, Serigne Ndiaye, Pape Guey and Matador.
Court rejects Senegal election fraud appeal
March 14, 2007 | Leave a Comment
afrol News, 12 March - Senegal’s
highest judicial authority, the Constitutional Court, yesterday
rejected an appeal filed by some opposition leaders to annul the
results of the 25 February presidential polls. The court consequently
confirmed the re-election of President Abdoulaye Wade, who polled 55.9
percent of the valid ballots.
A panel of constitutional judges, who
disclosed their verdict to the media, ruled out any "cheating or
irregularity" in the conduct of the polls, arguing that the opposition
petitions "lacked grounds."
At the polls, Mr Wade was followed by his former Prime Minister,
Idrissa Secka, who scored 15 percent of the votes. Mr Seck had been
quiet since the results were first declared.
But he convened a news conference today to finally concede defeat as
well as congratulate President Wade on his victory. The former Prime
Minister was not among the opposition that questioned fairness of the
results.
Mr Wade, who had earlier announced to settle scores with some
opposition leaders, accusing them of harming the state through official
corruption, said he does not care about Mr Seck’s congratulatory
message. Mr Wade wondered why Mr Seck would wait until last minute to
congratulate him.
President Wade accused Mr Seck of stealing over franc CFA 40 billion
(euro 60 million) from the state coffers and to have deposited them in
foreign banks accounts.
President Wade said he had forgiven all those who harmed him personally
but that he would not forgive those who harmed the country. He said he
was waiting for the elections to pass so that the state resumes its
normal life.
The leaders of Socialist Party (PS) and Democratic League/Movement for
the Labour Party (LD/MLP) - Ousmane Tanor Dieng and Abdoulaye Bathily -
had filed the appeal against the provisional results, insisting that
the voting process was marred by irregularities, although international
observers had not questioned the outcome of the polls.
While Mr Dieng ranked third position with 13.57 percent, Mr Bathily sat
on the sixth position with only 2.21 percent of the votes.
The PS spokesperson, Aissata Tall-Sall, said she was disappointed with
the court’s decision because "our arguments were absolutely
indisputable because the results from 31 of the 35 regional districts
failed to tally, for they were contained in ballot boxes without stamps
of the Autonomous National Electoral Commission."
She said her party leadership had expected the nullification of the results and not the other way round.
By staff writer
© afrol News
Senegal’s Wade hopes to build nuclear power plant
March 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment
DAKAR - Wade, who won a second five-year term in a landslide "It was not just a statement he made during the Power shortages continue to hamper economic development Despite increasing world interest in nuclear power as an They say large regional markets for nuclear power need to Grand infrastructure projects such as a new coastal
Senegal’s newly re-elected President Abdoulaye Wade has contacted
foreign experts to advise on building a nuclear power plant, part of an
ambitious programme to develop the country’s creaking infrastructure.
re-election last month, has already started building new five-star
hotels and airports in the West African country and has plans for
museums, theatres and a nuclear plant.
campaign," one of his advisers, Christian Sina Diatta, told
pro-government daily newspaper Le Soleil in today’s edition. "It’s an
option the head of state has been working on for some time and he has
already been in contact with nuclear powers who are behind Senegal," he
said. He gave no details on which countries had been contacted for
advice.
across sub-Saharan Africa. In Senegal, one of the most stable countries
in West Africa, regular blackouts - some of them lasting more than 10
hours - forced the government to requisition oil stocks late last year.
alternative to coal and oil-powered generation, massive costs and a
lack of specialists could scupper Africa’s nuclear ambitions, at least
in the medium term, energy experts say.
be developed before such big investments become viable. If Wade’s plan
comes to fruition, it could be energy-starved Africa’s first nuclear
power plant outside SA. Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia have also announced
intentions to build nuclear power stations in the long term.
highway around the capital Dakar and the promise of new schools helped
Wade win re-election in the February 25 polls, although many of the
city’s rubbish-strewn suburbs are mired in poverty.
Senegal election authority declares Wade official winner of presidency
March 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment
DAKAR, Senegal:
Senegal’s electoral authorities on Sunday confirmed President Abdoulaye
Wade as the winner of last month’s election, rejecting charges of
cheating and officially giving the octogenarian president five more
years at the helm of the West African nation.
Wade won with about 1.9 million votes, or 56 percent of valid
ballots, compared with 15 percent for runner-up Idrissa Seck, declared
Senegal’s constitutional council — the final authority on elections.
The winning candidate needed more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid
a runoff.
The council also rejected claims by two of the 14 opposition
candidates that irregularities in the voting process should invalidate
the results. Marxist candidate Abdoulaye Bathily, who finished sixth
with 2 percent of the vote, had said some ballots were not properly
signed by election officials and that voting continued for five hours
after the polls officially closed on the night of Feb. 25.
Ousmane Tanor Dieng, who finished third with about 14 percent of the
total, had also asked for annulment of the vote, though his campaign
did not release his specific complaints.
The petitions by the candidates were "without foundation," said
chief clerk Ndeye Maguette Mbengue. He did not provide further details.
Nomadic Wax Travels to The Depths of Dakar
March 11, 2007 | Leave a Comment
The compilation African Underground: The Depths of Dakar
furthers Brooklyn label Nomadic Wax’s mission statement of uncovering,
recording, and distributing new talent from Africa, but to catalog the
disc as a mere label sampler would be misleading. Released in
conjunction with the label’s Democracy in Dakar documentary (co-produced with partners Sol Productions), Depths of Dakar acts as both a study of hip-hop’s influence on Senegalese politics and a mouthpiece for the people.
Despite notable media sources, such as the BBC,
upholding it as one of Africa’s model nations, Senegal has experienced
rampant poverty and unemployment within its borders. Thousands risk
their lives every year taking dangerous boat journeys to Spain’s Canary
Islands, seeking better lives. Freedom of speech is, according to many,
becoming a rare commodity, with radio stations and journalists being
harassed and sometimes harmed for their “biased” viewpoints.
Music
is no exception. Hardly the American stuff of bling bling, Senegalese
hip-hop might be seen as a cathartic means for the country’s youth to
express the state of their country–and the dangers that rise with
voicing such opinions.
“Rap music in Senegal is no game,” says Nomadic Wax founder Ben Herson,
who makes periodic trips back to the country seeking new talent. “[The
artists] have been threatened, beaten up, and censored, yet they
continue to speak for the people and get their voice heard. The Democracy in Dakar project is all about providing a platform for people worldwide to hear the story straight from the source.”
With
that in mind, Herson, along with partner-in-crime Dan Cantor, set up
shop in the capital city in 2003 to capture that story. The two
constructed a temporary studio in Dakar and opened its doors to anyone
willing to drop by and pick up a mic. “Keeping things open like this
has allowed me to discover some incredible talent that many in Senegal
had not had the opportunity to discover,” explains Herson. “Rather than
take artists out of their element we bring the studio directly to them,
in an environment they are most comfortable in.”
The result of
such “guerilla-style” recording is a selection of rising stars,
established artists, and unknowns spitting sharp lyrics over tightly
arranged beats that demonstrate both the politics of hip-hop in Senegal
and the country’s rich musical tradition. “We want our audience to get
the clearest picture possible of what these artists are going through,”
says Herson, “and the hardships that rappers in Senegal face to get
their music out.”
Jennifer Marston
Depths of Dakar is out May 15, 2007 on Nomadic Wax.
Listen to Sen Kumpa’s “Niawal,” from the compilation, available now at XLR8R’s Downloads Section.
Tracklisting
1. Sen Kumpa “Niawal”
2. Pato “Keep It Real”
3. Zoo Squad “Fresh Time pt 1”
4. Foumlade “sing With Us feat. Bag Blin D”
5. Nightmare “Geble Night in Blue feat. Yella”
6. Adama “Aduna Bi”
7. Omzo “Goor Yombul”
8. Jojo “All I Want feat. Gofu (Yat Fu)”
9. Zoo Squad “Fresh Time pt 2”
10. Fatim “Real Woman”
11. Tigrim Bi “Hip-Hop”
12. Omzo “Li Guen pt 2”
