Public Enemy Africa

Hip-hop was taken to America and Europe – essentially – by West African peoples who had become known as African-Americans by virtue of their ancestors having been slaves.

Most of the descendants of Africa who introduced hip-hop to the United States, in particular, were slaves who were in Latin America.

They trekked to the US when slavery was abolished in that country and started trying to establish themselves in the knowledge that mot of them would never see Africa again.

Naturally, one of the ways they sought to settle down was to preserve those elements of their culture that had been retained throughout the years of slavery.

And of course music and poetry/orature were the best ways to preserve aspects of culture in the Diaspora of those days.

Those descendants of slaves who trekked to North America when slavery was banned, set up bases in the Bronx.

They introduced to an unsuspecting America a form of entertainment and education never seen before in those parts.

It was the message of the griots and travelling singers.

A griot is regarded as a unifier, a historian, an educator and a lyricist all in one.

In many cases, griots were musicians and orators.

Their job was to preserve a society’s culture and history through the word.

Not only were they just musicians, but they were also advisors who give spiritual guidance to communities.

As such, in them were vested some very important duties.

One such modern griot who comes to mind is Mali’s Kasse Mady Diabate who, in his song “Moving Away” advises the youth to live and work  hard.

He sings: “Let’s be proud of ourselves, get to know yourself and you will get to know someone else/ Oh world, the entire world, Africans and Europeans, let’s be together/ This is the best thing that could happen.

“Let’s help each other; this is the only way we can succeed.”

This is the kind of thing the griots of North America did and thus paved the way for hip-hop.

With changing times and social contexts, this orature evolved and by the 1970s it had incorporated various other forms to make it more appealing.

Hip-hop, thus, became associated with rapping, d-jaying, emceeing and break dancing.

A peculiar appendage to hip-hop is graffiti art.

The graffiti/artworks – because of the urban nature of the modern griots – had the hue of ghetto poverty, aspirations, gang relations, institutionalised oppression and success stories.

Among the pioneers of hip-hop as we know it today are Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmaster Flash and DJ Kool Herc.

Afrika Bambaataa says, “Hip-Hop means the whole culture of the movement.”

Afrika Bambaataa goes on to say rap, emceeing, d-jaying, the dressing, the language, the dancing and how the musicians act are all part of what makes hip-hop.

“… the music is colourless … Hip Hop music is made from black, brown, yellow, red, white … whatever music that gives you the grunt … that funk … that groove or that beat … It’s all part of hip hop,” Afrika Bambaataa adds.

Grandmaster Flash says anything with a beat that could accommodate a rhyme fits into the definition of hip-hop.

“When I laid this foundation down, the key was we could take almost anything musically just as long as it had a beat to it so that the rhymer who flowed over the top of it could syncopate.”

The Jamaican-born DJ Kool Herc says hip hop is a “whole chemistry from Jamaica”.

DJ Kool Herc is one of the people who popularised hip-hop in New York when he was just 13 years old.

“It started coming together as far as the gangs terrorising a lot of known discoteques back in the days.

“I had respect from some of the gang members because they used to go to school with me,” DJ Kool Herc says.

There are two other reasons given to the rise of hip-hop apart from the African-Americans’ connection to West Africa’s griots.

One was that it was cheap and simple to do hip-hop in terms of the equipment and skills needed; and other forms of music were not having much traction anymore with poor urban youths – mostly blacks and Latinos – in North America.

It was the time when disco had been killed as the alternative voice for marginalised communities, and blacks were not keen on embracing funk and other disco derivatives.

So they took the disco beats, add the griot’s methods and came up with hip-hop.

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Wonder Guchu

Joshua Tuyishime Polly, better known by his stage name Jay Polly, is among well-known Hip-hop artistes in the country – but the star has another talent that only a few people knew about.

Hip-Hop star J Polly doing what he knows best on stage

Born on July 5, 1988, Gikondo, a city suburb in Kigali, Jay Polly is a prolific visual artist, having started painting at a tender age of five, using illustration books. At the same age, he was also practicing singing in his neighbourhood church.

Jay Polly and his two brothers were single-handedly raised by their mother after their father passed away when Jay Polly was only 7.

Having grown up in Gikondo, the star says the environment captivated him and nurtured his talents; as a rapper and painter. Jay Polly studied painting from ETO Kicukiro for three years.

“My art conveys different messages. Usually, I enjoy making art that predicts real situations that happen in the society – as well as the situation I am in. Art is like any other mode of communication but some Rwandans don’t see it that way,” said Jay Polly.

Unfortunately, only a handful of Rwandans turn up for his art exhibitions, which are usually held in June and July every year. Instead, the show is mostly attended by foreigners, who are passionate about art.

Jay Polly explained that he decided to organise his art exhibition in June and July because that is the season when most tourists visit the country.

The rapper/painter wishes the government comes up with well coordinated projects, such as the ‘Agaseke’ for women, which support painters in the country, and the local entrepreneurs to support the entertainment sector.

He, however, commended some organisations and groups supporting local artists, such as the Art Rwanda and MTN.

Today, Jay Polly and his fellow painters at Ivuka and Uburanga art studios in Kacyiru and in Kimihurura, respectively, run the business. They also opened two websites where they showcase their awe-inspiring art pieces.

According to Jay Polly, many artists in many African societies are either considered to be having nothing else to aspire in life, or idle citizens.

Music

Jay Polly started his music career in a group called Tuff Gang – which he is still a member to.

The ‘Ndacyariho’ star has over 24 singles under his belt and two albums. He has also won Salax and Ijoro ry’urukundo Music awards – as Best Hip-hop Artiste. In addition, he has been nominated for Regional music awards, such as PAM Awards, and is a contestant in the ongoing Primus Guma Guma Superstar competition.

He is an instrumentalist, specialising in guitar, piano and African drums. He would like to perform, where there are people who understand or would like to understand his lyrics.

Jay Polly urges the youth to have a focus in whatever they set out to do in life: “Doing something with all one’s heart and mind reaps you great fruits.”

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BEN GASORE

I love African music from the 1970s. From Congolese rumba to Ghanaian highlife, Angolan semba to Malian national orchestras—pretty much anything from anywhere is dope. This might come as a surprise to some, because my label hardly focuses on oldies. One time, a critic told me to, “peddle some more of that PC generated Auto-Tune rubbish.”

But deep inside, I am a sucker for African band music, especially soukous. What is puzzling to me is how lost and forgotten this music has become in Africa. Hardly any of the beatmakers I meet would ever be caught dead sampling old highlife or rumba songs. Luckily, there are some odd heads out there who still like to distill the classic sound into their hip-hop beats. One such person is DJ Juls from Ghana, who did the beat for Kay-Ara’s “Me Dough”. (Read more about him here.)

But today we turn our heads to the other side of Africa, Tanzania. A place I am dying to visit, it Swahili culture fascinates me, in particular the music. But this is where it gets sour. I started digging for Tanzanian hip-hop, and found that many of the beats are an approximation of sub-par American Top 40 beats. Not my territory, so I had to get schooled, again. This time by a veteran hip-hop activist, Zavara aka Rhymson of the infamous Kwanza Unit crew.

Back in the mid 1990s, hip-hop emerged as an underground culture in Dar-Es-Salaam, much as it did in Ghana and other parts of Africa. At its epicenter was the Kwanza Unit crew, a collective of artists who single-handedly opened up avenues for hip-hop in Tanzania. Inspired by conscious and underground rap, they built a strong foundation for it in Dar, but alas, within a few years, some members passed, others left the country, and overall the scene got progressively diluted.

Diluted, but not dead. While mainstream radio favors the same hip-pop sound you hear from Dallas to Jozi, Rhymson has kept a strong influence on the underground hip-hop scene, and has been encouraging budding producers to soak in their own Swahili culture. “When I go to the studios, I tell them the US style is so basic and easy, you gotta be more creative to capture a bigger audience around the world,” he says.

Rhymson was probably the first to sample old Tanzanian music to craft his beats, and he’s been encouraging beatmakers to do so ever since. The establishment, radios in particular, discourage the use of samples, claiming they cannot be cleared. Rhymson quickly dismisses this stance. “Really, you can speak to the musicians, they are fine with it.” He acts as a bridge between the old and the new generations, and thanks to him, young producers can create beats like the one showcased here for rising MC Zaiid.

Muziki Asili Yake Wapi. Zaiid asks, where did music originate? His verses blend biblical account with street appeal, with lines like, Awali ilikuwa kimya na giza (in the beginning the universe was dark and there were no sounds) and Sauti ikaleta nuru muumba akaagiza (the creator ordered and sound brought light forth).

I don’t speak a word of Swahili, but at first listen, this guy can seriously flow. It was a pleasure to hear Rhymson tell me Zaiid doesn’t just flow, he has a lot to say. Starting out in 2007, he was guided by Rhymson and the Kwanza Unit crew. As the story goes, he was initially told to, “rip apart all of [his] lyrics, and start over.” But since most of us reading this may not speak much Swahili, let’s focus on the beat. it samples a famous song by Remmy Ongala, a Congolese-born guitarist and singer who strengthened soukous’ stronghold in Tanzania with his Orchestre Super Matimila in the ’80s. His legacy lives on today thanks to the work of Pallah, who produced Zaiid’s song.

“I want to do something different,” Zaiid tells me. Not mimic the American stuff, which is what you hear on the radio in Dar. It’s a more hazardous road, given that getting airplay is trickier, and that radio dictates a lot of what happens with music in Tanzania. So at the moment you may not hear Zaiid at any of the more mainstream music events in Dar. But backed by Rhymson and the Kwanza Unit crew, Zaiid aims much further than Dar’s airwaves.

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BENJAMIN LEBRAVE

Before the end of the first colonialism African nations were properties of their colonial masters who did what they could to rape the continent of whatever resource they deem good for the development of their citizens in Europe. Out of nowhere and without any consultation with the people in the continent the Europeans met and divided the continent amongst themselves in what has been termed the scramble for Africa.  Through the scramble France, Britain, Belgium, Spain, Portugal, Germany and Italy all went on a looting spree raping Africa of her resources without putting any of the proceeds back for the development of the continent.

When US President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited Gambia on January 13th 1943 he was so appalled by the conditions of Gambians so much so that he made this lamentation,

“It’s the most horrible thing I have ever seen in my life….. The natives are five thousand years back of us….The British have been there for two hundred years – for every dollar that the British have put into Gambia, they have taken out ten. It’s just plain exploitation of those people”-

He continues, “I must tell Churchill what I found out about his British Gambia today,” he told Elliott his son. “This morning, at about eight-thirty, we drove through Bathurst to the airfield.” (Elliott notes it was here that his father began speaking with “real feeling in his voice.”) “The natives were just getting to work. In rags…glum-looking.…They told us the natives would look happier around noontime, when the sun should have burned off the dew and the chill. I was told the prevailing wages for these men was one and nine. One shilling nine pence. Less than fifty cents.”

“An hour?” Elliott asked.

“A day! Fifty cents a day! Besides which, they’re given a half-cup of rice. Dirt. Disease. Very high mortality rate. I asked. Life expectancy—you’d never guess what it is. Twenty-six years. Those people are treated worse than the livestock. Their cattle live longer!” US President Franklin D. Roosevelt 1943. Source: The American Heritage.

And the exploitation was not peculiar to only Gambia. Gold Coast (now Ghana), Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Zaire (now DRC), Namibia, South Africa, Congo and Angola all suffered from the same colonial exploitation and underinvestment.

For almost three hundred years the Europeans who were supposedly devout Christians and civilised, irresponsibly looted Africa’s resources and made slaves of the natives without developing the colonies. When the local population protested against the exploitation without a reciprocal investment they were brutally crashed as happened in Congo (now DRC) where King Leopold II of Belgium looted the resources, made slaves, and killed close to ten million of the Congolese.

In 1904 to 1907 the Germans led by Gen. Lotha Von Trotha also committed their first genocide of the 20th Century by killing the 90% of the Herero and the Namaqua people of South West Africa (now Namibia) when the people protested against the exploitation of their resources. And the sad stories of South Africa, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Namibia, Kenya and Angola where people were denied access to land, citizenship and basic rights and had to take up arms before they were granted independence are in many history books.

We know how Nelson Mandela (now a hero in Europe) and a number of freedom fighters endured long prison sentences, torture, exile and deaths in the hands of their devout Christians and civilised European colonisers. The idea was that through the scramble for Africa they had bought Africa and had power to do as they wish hence the rape, torture, genocide and the mass killings.

While Europeans became richer Africans became poorer. For example with the loot of Congo’s resources, enslavement, amputations of hands and 10 million deaths, Brussels which now doubles as the capital of the European Union and Belgium was built.

When they were given their ‘freedom’ the independent fathers inherited nothing more than empty treasuries. They realised that after more than 300 hundred years of colonial rule their colonial masters have left them nothing, no money and no infrastructure.

This bad situation and their eagerness to improve the lives of their peoples forced them to turn to the IMF and World Bank for assistance and when they went lo and behold the colonial masters were there waiting for them. The colonisers used their majority votes to dictate to the Bank and IMF on how these former colonies should be helped. (Of the 185 members that make up the IMF, six colonial masters and their allies made up of the United States, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, France, Italy control 42% of the votes).

The colonial masters dictated to the IMF and the Bank that for Africans to be helped, they must open their economies to allow European corporations in. This underscores the numerous conditionalities that are associated with loans from these institutions. The conditionalities are nothing more than a smokescreen designed to ensure that Europeans never loose their grip on the resources of the colonies. Some of the conditionalities include instituting secrets memorandums of agreement, subsidies to foreign corporations and massive tax concessions (such as income tax, usage fees, property tax) -the primary source of revenue for “export-oriented” developing countries.

The sad thing is that Africans thought independence would give them respite to develop but this was never to be as the colonial masters used their corporations and intelligence services to deliver vengeance against the people: encouraging and financing civil wars; unashamedly polluting rivers, wells and the soil through their oil and mineral activities; understating their profits and falsifying profit documents; undervaluing their goods, smuggling and theft; false invoicing and non-payment of taxes; kickback to public officials and bribery; over pricing of projects; providing save havens for the looted funds; and promoting the sale of guns; overthrowing African leaders; supporting dictatorships; and assassinating those who disagree with them. We know the tragedy of Patrice Lumumba and the support the West gave Mobutu.

In addition to these, the corporations who were forced onto Africa by IMF the Bank, US and Europe have been implicated in a number of cases for corrupting African leaders and stealing trillions of dollars worth of resources. Global Financial Integrity says, “$900-billion is secreted each year from underdeveloped economies, with an estimated $11.5 trillion currently stashed in havens. More than one quarter of these hubs belong to the UK, while Switzerland washes one-third of global capital flight”. Out of this $900b that is secreted away yearly $150b comes from Africa. “The idea that Switzerland has a clean economy is a joke; it is a dirt-driven economy,” says Richard Murphy, director of Tax Research LLP. The Swiss Bankers Association claims that four-fifths of the nation supports banking secrecy, which reveals a society deeply embedded in a culture of impunity and exploitation. The fact is that those who steal must find a way to hide their loot and Switzerland provide the ideal environment for such crimes to take place. And it is not Switzerland alone that does not have a clean economy. Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg can all be described as vampires.

In an article by Khadija Sharife entitled Capital Flight: Gingerbread Havens, Cannibalised Economies she wrote: “The IMF and World Bank tax policies towards the developing world is very lethal especially where the poor are now caught in tax brackets, courtesy of the IMF and World Bank’s structural adjustment programmes (SAP), instituting policies ranging from tax holidays to the privatisation of state services, carving out huge slices of natural capital at corporate auctions. Africa has collectively lost more than $600-billion in capital flight, excluding other mechanisms of flight such as ecological debt (globally estimated at a potential $1.8-trillion per annum), the cost of liberalised trade (just under $300-billion)”. Source: www.greenleft.au. Thus with the support and collusion of IMF and the Bank these corporations are paying close to nothing for the resources they take from Africa.

Africa has been labelled the world’s most corrupt region because multinational internal mispricing makes up 60% of capital outflow, with corporations declaring profits in tax havens, as opposed to the country of performance. Corporations declare about 40% of their profits in African countries where they operate and siphon the rest into their save havens accounts in order to avoid paying tax which could be used to eradicate poverty. And this is not the end of the corruption and the day light robbery story.

We know how Elf operated as an arm of the French state supporting dictators, looting the resources and establishing flush fund which was used to bribe African leaders so they will look the other way while Elf loot Africa’s oil and gas.

Nicholas Shaxson, author of Poisoned Wells, wrote of the subject: “Magistrates discovered the money from Elf’s African operations supplied bribes to support French commercial, military and diplomatic goals around the world. In exchange, French troops protected compliant African dictators.”

This explains why there are so many corrupt dictators in French-Speaking Africa than anywhere in Africa. Omar Bongo, Eyadema, Mobutu, Lansana Conte, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, Blaise Campore, Sassou Nguesso and Iddriss Deby are some of the compliant leaders who were or have been protected by France. And what happened to the non-compliant African leaders? Your guess is mine. Please find time to read more about Bob Denard, a French who made a career as a mercenary overthrowing African leaders. French author Jean Guisner says: “Denard did nothing that was contrary to French interests – and he allegedly acted in close cooperation with French Intelligence Services”.

In the Elf corruption case Andre Tarallo the real boss of Elf-Afrique “told the court in June 2003 that annual cash transfers totalling about £10m were made to Omar Bongo, Gabon’s president, while other huge sums were paid to leaders in Angola, Cameroon and Congo-Brazzaville. The multi-million dollar payments were partly paid to ensure the African leaders’ continued allegiance to France. In return for protection and sweeteners from Elf’s coffers, France used Gabon as a base for military and espionage activities in West Africa”. Source: Guardian, Nov. 2003.

The real deal is that Elf, Shell BP and their counterparts in Europe and America pay bribes to African leaders to induce them to look the other way why they plunder the resources. Ask any Gabonese or Congolese whether they have benefited from the oil and diamonds and the answer will be a big no. What is so tragic is that the people know they have oil, diamonds and see these companies processing them everyday yet do not know where it goes, who buys them and where the proceeds go.

In UK former Prime Minister Tony Blair was accused of selling a device with an ageing technology to Tanzania. “The UK sold a useless air traffic control system to Tanzania in 2001 in a scandalous and squalid deal, the House of Commons was told.” Clare Short an MP said, “The deal was useless and hostile to the interests of Tanzania”. She said, “Barclays Bank had colluded with the government by loaning Tanzania the money, but lying to the World Bank about the type and size of the loan.” Ms Short said “Tanzania could have paid much less for the same equipment which cost them £28m”.Shadow international development secretary Andrew Mitchell said “BAE had used ageing technology and said the system was not adequate and too expensive.” Source: BBC NEWS, Wednesday, 31 January 2007.

And it all happened after they had bought Tanzania officials to look the other way while a device with an ageing technology was being sold to the country. BAE colluded with Tony Blair and Barclays Bank to sell a useless commodity at exorbitant price to Tanzania. This is nothing but a continuation of the contempt and impunity in which Europeans have treated Africa before, during and after colonialism. BAE is indirectly saying that Africans do not deserve the latest technology even if they pay cat throat price. It is also a message to Africans that they must develop their own technology and not rely on the generosity of others.

It is no secrete that Shell Oil Company colluded with the corrupt Abacha regime to steal oil, pollute the rivers, wells, creeks and soil and render millions of famers and fishermen in the Niger Delta jobless. Shell “admitted that it inadvertently fed conflict, poverty and corruption through its oil activities in the country. Nigeria contributes to about 10% of Shell’s global production and is home to some of its most promising reserves, yet the country is steeped in poverty and conflict”. Source: bbcnews 18 June 2004. So Shell in addition to stealing Nigeria’s oil and polluting rivers, wells, soils also promote corruption, poverty and conflict.

In DRC about five million people have died in a war whose motive is to satisfy the West insatiable appetite for high quality but low price cell phones, laptop computers, play-stations, jewels, diamond and coltan. And who cares for five million deaths in Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, New York or Washington anyway? Why has the DRC war not ended? Who supply the rebels their arms and for what and who buys the minerals they mine illegally? Why have Uganda and Rwanda forces crossed several times into DRC? And whose agenda are they pursuing? A report by the UN says it all.

The panel calls for financial restrictions to be levied on 54 individuals and 29 companies it said are involved in the plunder, including four Belgian diamond companies and the Belgian company George Forrest, which is partnered with the U.S.-based OM Group.

The individuals named include Rwandan army Chief of Staff James Kabarebe, Congolese Minister of the Presidency Augustin Katumba Mwanke, Ugandan army Chief of Staff James Kazini and Zimbabwean Parliament Speaker Emmerson Mnangagwa, BBC Online reports (Oct. 21, 2002). The report also accused 85 South African, European and U.S. multinational corporations – including Anglo American, Barclays Bank, Bayer, De Beers and Cabot Corporation of violating the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s ethical guidelines on conflict zones.

The guidelines they were accused of violating relate to arming Rwanda, Uganda and Congolese rebels and profiting from their illegal looting of Congo’s minerals as the following excerpt shows:

“Despite the recent withdrawal of most foreign forces, the exploitation of Congo’s resources continues, the report says, with elite networks and criminal groups tied to the military forces of Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe benefiting from micro-conflicts in the D.R.C.”  ”The elite networks derive financial benefit through a variety of criminal activities, including theft, embezzlement, diversion of public funds, undervaluation of goods, smuggling, false invoicing, non-payment of taxes, kickback to public officials and bribery,” and added that such pillaging is responsible for much of the death and malnutrition in eastern D.R.C.” Source: www.unwire.org.

And so while millions die in Africa with the complicity of the corporations, Europe and North American citizens with all their hypocrisy live to enjoy lavish holidays. And when Africans try to reach Europe the citizens say rain in on them Europe is full no more immigrants. Where do the queens and kings in Europe get the diamonds and gold that they use to show off? Is it not from the blood diamonds from Congo, Sierra Leone and conflict zones in Africa that are smuggled out and sold in Brussels, Zurich, London and New York?

And this is not their only crime. We know how Halliburton established $180m flush fund and bought Nigeria officials to secure a $10b oil contract. We know Acre International of Canada paid $260,000 to secure $8b dam contract in Lesotho. We know Swiss, British, German and French economies and banking institutions have made fortunes by providing save havens for funds looted by Sani Abacha, Mobutu, Omar Bongo, Lansana Conte, Arap Moi and the rest of the dictators in Africa. And it is no secrete Belgium is angry with DRC government for inviting China into the country because they are privy to and beneficiary of all the day light robberies going on in the resource rich but economically impoverished country.

Africans know that these corporations are making fortunes but see no benefits from these fortunes. Ghanaians know gold and diamond are being mined at Obuasi and Akwatia but they do not know where it goes, who buys them and where the proceeds go and the same is true of the oil in Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Algeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea and as for DRC a nation with one-third of world’s natural resources the little I say the better.

This corruption and day light robbery is what has been polished as globalisation which Europe, America, IMF and the Bank want Africa and the third world to join. My question is whose globalisation? Is it the globalisation that only those with blue eyes enjoy or what? If the answer is no then the IMF and the Bank should explain why the world is divided between the “whites haves and the coloured have-nots”. Is this not the second colonialism dressed as globalisation?

Dr. Susan Hawley says it all: “Multinational corporations’ corrupt practices affect the South (i.e. Africa, Asia and Latin America) in many ways. They undermine development and exacerbate inequality and poverty. They disadvantage smaller domestic firms and transfer money that could be put towards poverty eradication into the hands of the rich. They distort decision-making in favour of projects that benefit the few rather than the many. They also increase debt that benefit the company, not the country; bypass local democratic processes; damage the environment; circumvent legislation; and promote weapons sales. Bribes put up the prices of projects. When these projects are paid for with money borrowed internationally, bribery adds to a country’s external debt. Ordinary people end up paying this back through cuts in spending on health, education and public services. Often they also have to pay by shouldering the long-term burdens of projects that do not benefit them and which they never requested”. Source: The Corner House, June 2000.

And in all these, the Western media have kept silence and have not raise a voice against what their governments, intelligence services, corporations and businessmen are doing to Africans. They prefer instead to criticise China for courting the same African leaders Euro-Americans have been protecting for decades. A clear hypocrisy isn’t it? These are the same criticisms King Leopold II levelled against the Arabs who were competing with him for resources and slaves in Congo and we know what Leopold, the 19th century Hitler did in DRC in the name of Christianity and civilisation.

The meaning of their criticism is that with China as a fierce competitor, Africans now have a choice not to go to the World Bank and IMF for conditional loans. They also have a choice to either give their resources to Chinese companies or European and American cartels. It may be the beginning of the end of colonialism, slavery, instabilities, dictatorships, corruption and all the ills that Europeans and Americans have been promoting in Africa.

It may be the beginning where Africa’s resources will be bought and payment made to the people and a new chapter that will usher in Africa’s development and close the poverty gap from five thousand years to perhaps one-hundred as observed by Franklin D. Roosevelt.

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Author : Lord Aikins Adusei

THE WATCHWORD : "FREE YOUR MIND AND YOUR CHILDREN WILL FOLLOW"

The Africanhiphop.com website was born on February 5, 1997 – exactly fifteen years ago today. Known back then as ‘Rumba-Kali home of Pan African Hip Hop’, the single page hosted by a free web space provider soon grew into a source of info for a wide range of people with an interest in African urban culture. After a few redesigns and a move to its own web space and domain, the website became the biggest online mag about contemporary African music.

In the past fifteen years a lot has happened, artists and like minded websites came and went, rappers were born and some died, even hip hop itself was declared dead every other year but just like this site, African hip hop culture is still going strong. Throughout 2012 we will be celebrating Fifteen Years Online by sharing some very special tracks, videos, archival footage and other projects with you.

First up in the Africanhiphop.com 15 Years Online series: the short documentary ’100% Galsen’, directed by Cheikh Sene, better known as the Senegalese rapper Keyti. The film was produced as part of the project ‘Redefinition: African hip hop’, a collabo between Africanhiphop.com, Optimiste Production (Dakar, Senegal, the guys behind the Senegal Hip Hop Awards) and the Faculty of Hip Hop (Cape Town, South Africa). Each partner produced a short film about their local hip hop scene and how artists define the ‘African’ in their hip hop.

100% Galsen’ (Galsen is slang meaning ‘Senegalese’) is a unique film on various levels. Optimiste Production approached Keyti (real name: Cheikh Sene) to direct the film. And while the last ten years saw many documentaries made about hip hop in Senegal (and other parts of Africa) including the great ‘Democracy in Dakar‘, there were no films entirely made by a Senegalese team – every film production involved a director from abroad, usually Europe or the USA.

Keyti, being one of the pioneers of Senegalese hip hop who has been actively involved in the scene since the mid nineties as an emcee, activist and producer, had access to all the major players in the scene, and most of the interviews he did for the production were more like talks among close friends, creating a completely different dynamic from some of the ‘shoot and go’ style foreign doccies that we have seen in the past years. As you may know, Senegalese people have a way with words, and ’100% Galsen’ features a lot of talking heads, but the combined insights of everyone from Awadi and Duggy Tee (PBS) to Xuman, Gaston, Maxi Krezy, Fou Malade, Fatim, Daara J, radio presenter Coco Jean and many more gives a unique look into Senegalese hip hop as defined by the artists themselves.

Watch ’100% Galsen’ in the Youtube-player above (Wolof and French spoken but English subtitles included) and share the link to this article – the idea of the Fifteen Years Africanhiphop.com series is to spread the treasures from our archives and educate the world about the art that we have been promoting for so long.

• Produced by Africanhiphop.com
• Executive producer: Optimiste Production / Safouane Pindra (Senegal)
• Director: Keyti (Cheikh Sene)

As 2011 entered its twilight, African youth from different nations came together in South Africa to collaborate in music productions they hope will spur economic and social development.

They spent much of December recording. They produced inspiring songs, some of which are in a new continental language they called “Tswahili” because of its fusion of East Africa’s Kiswahili and South African Tetswana, alongside other indigenous languages from across Africa.

The project was dubbed “A Dollar a Day” after a phrase used often to describe the people of Africa as poor by the West. The project collaborators want to use the project to counter this view, seeing Africa rich with culture, heritage, and natural resources.

“A Dollar a Day” is a wonderful 18-track album produced by Kenya’s South African based Akili Blaq. The project is co-produced by Kenyan artist and activist Muki Garang, founder of Maisha yetu which is an arts and culture NGO.

This musical project was birthed in the heart of Maftown – the same exact space for the Northwest Hip-Hop movement, Lefoko. The music is in an array of languages, ranging from Sheng (Nairobi slang), Swahili, Zulu, Setswana, Pidgin, Motswako (Setstwana slang), and English.

“We are reaching out to our peers in Africa, using the spoken word and Hip-Hop music,” says the South African Lerato Mosimane, one of the event organizers.

Some of the poetry by the sisters pays tribute to heroines like Professor Wangari Maathai, Miriam Makeba, Graca Machel, and others.

The recording also includes audio interviews with policy makers and stakeholders in the Northwest province of the post-apartheid nation on the use of culture to foster responsible leadership, fight against the spread of HIV, and include youth in political decision-making.

Participants included Mpho ya Badimo (SABC’s Motsweding fm), Lerato Mosimane (Formerly of Bop TV – Jo’Burg), Apu, TLS, and Relevant Source from South Africa; Mpaphi Angell Nthoi and Ngozi Chukura from South Africa; Omadada from Nigeria, Akili Blaq from Kenya; and Bra Sam bass from Zimbabwe.

The exchange program meeting was organized by both Maisha yetu (Kenya) and Platinum Africa Youth Tourism (South Africa). “We educate and engage youth into identifying opportunities linked to our culture and heritage as African people,” said the organizer, Lerato Mosimane, in an interview with Africa Review.

The content in the musical compilation is not isolated to the youth. Rather, it accommodates the wider African society, as it covers topics such themes as love, HIV and Aids, xenophobia, land reform policies in Zimbabwe, and ethnicity in Kenya.

“I like the gender sensitivity in the songs,” remarked Syliva Liabile, the Chair Person of the South African Business coalition on HIV and AIDS, “The artists have addressed issues of women development with great depth and reflection.”

South African artists Mpho Yabadimo and Apu spoke strongly against black-on-black violence in their country, “During apartheid era blacks were not allowed to move freely,” said A.P.U. “We can’t allow these restrictions to continue against African brothers from other nations in a free South Africa.”

The artists are also trying to embrace an older generation that set the pace for the South African struggle. Mosimane explains that “In marking 100 years of the African National Congress’ liberation struggle, we will package the album as a souvenir to revelers who attend an event at the Protea Hotel in Mafikeng city on St. Valentine’s Day.”

“We are reaching out to the rest of Africa to encourage cross-cultural productions that will help artists to learn from one another, following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela and Prof  Wangari Maathai,” she added.

Akili Blaq, the producer of “A Dollar a Day,” says “’A Dollar a Day’ can be interpreted to be music for border hoppers, through music and poetry we paint a picture of the effect these harsh economic times have on African youth.” For him, Blaq says, “My beats have no borders.”

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Maisha Yetu

Public Enemy has not released an album since 2007, but the legendary rap group is ready to come back strong in 2012.

According to Billboard, the 25 year vets will be releasing two albums this year. The first, Most of My Heroes Still Don’t Appear on No Stamp, will be a collaboration with Gary G-Wiz and is slated to hit stores in June. Without wasting any time, the crew plans to follow that up with the September release of The Evil Empire of Everything.

They will be “two concise statements that are connected in the same breath,” explained Chuck D. The New York native didn’t reveal many other details about the projects, but fans can be sure that they’ll have the same passion and message that mark most PE releases.

Before iPod playlists, I had a wonderful collection of ‘mix tapes’, self-made, labours of love – radio cassettes with a self-titled sticker. Since then, the mixtape has evolved from a personal music compilation to the current marketing tool for artists to make themselves known, promote their brand and speak to their fans.

In 2011, two of my favourite albums were official mixtapes. Frank Ocean’sNostalgia, Ultra and The Weeknd’s House of Balloons. It was these mixtapes that brought the artists to my attention and subsequently made me a fan. I’m on lookout for new material from these artists, from videos, to music and even blogs.

Some artists use mixtapes to avoid having to go through the regular media formula of managed promotion, interviews and back to back appearances – before presenting work and tour dates that they know their fans will appreciate, and pay money for. It’s a known fact that both Ocean and half-Ethiopian Tesfaye aren’t big on interviews; they’ve kept low profiles while still managing to collaborate with major artists like Jay-Z and Drake and continue to build significant fan bases.

Mixtapes have always played a strong role in pop and Hip-hop culture. As early as the seventies, artists like Africa Bambaataa were releasing mixtapes. It was the strongest link a fan could have with an artist; live performance recordings that would allow the listener to truly evaluate the artists’ skills. DJs would show their mixing skills, rappers would show their lyricism without heavy studio work on the tracks – it was all very raw and creative. Yet it took a while for the mixtape culture to take off on the continent, I believe the “pioneers” in Africa are Hip-hop artists.

Though Hip-hop started to blossom in Africa in the late 80s, with artists from many parts of the continent adapting the “original” template and made it their own, it’s still, to some extent, finding its feet, and many artists still get criticized for imitating American hip-hop. And I understand the criticism. In the hands of some emcees, the blueprint that is American Hip-hop is being copied and pasted with a lack of originality. But in the hands of others, the blueprint serves merely as a guide for their inspiration.

Somalian rapper K’Naan released “The Messengers” in 2009, possibly one of the most notable mixtapes by an African artist to date. The collaboration with mixtape producer J.Period was a tribute to three “messengers”, Fela Kuti, Bob Dylan and Bob Marley. “This project is really special to me,” said K’Naan on its release. “It’s not the product of ego but of passion. Far from a marketing tool, it is an honest musical offering. Nothing gives a better window into the root and concept of my own sound than The Messengers”.

A year later K’Naan became part of the mainstream following the success of Wavin’ Flag. But when this happens to an artist they sometimes risk losing credibility amongst their core group of original fans, and even, sometimes, among their peers. Dropping a mixtape can help, in such a case, to maintain your credibility with this group.

The Messengers‘ 85,000 downloads in the first few weeks of its release was impressive, but those aren’t mass market numbers. Those figures came from his core fan base. Most of the “new” fans K’Naan that came on board a year later are unlikely to have rushed to download that mixtape, and are less likely than his previously established fan-base to rush to download a new one if he decides to put one out. This new, and much larger, global audience will pay for the concert tickets, as well as the singles and albums on iTunes, but chances are it’s the smaller, established base of dedicated fans that will be yearning for, and expecting, what they see as less “commercial” or more “authentic” stuff.

About five years ago I came across a CD by a Moroccan Emcee, Taoufiq Hazeb, also known as Don Bigg. It’s hard to know if the album was a fan-made mixtape, an artist-released mixtape or merely a collection of the artist’s songs. The recording quality was what I would expect of a mixtape, but with the state of the music industry in many African countries, recording quality on many “studio” albums isn’t always a major priority. At the time I tried to research Bigg and his music, but it didn’t lead to much. This is a common story with a lot of African artists. Many times I stumble upon music by artists who have a weaker online presence than I am used to on an international level.

Worldwide, the online presence of artists keeps growing, and we the fans follow them on Twitter, check their YouTube channels and read their blogs. But in Africa it is still very common for an artist to be relatively popular and yet have little or no online presence to speak of. We have TV and radio introducing us to different artists all over the continent but then we are let down when we try and find out more about them and get access to more music.

In Uganda, there are English speaking rappers as well as rappers that rap in our local languages, but the former make a much greater use than the latter in using the internet to release singles and mixtapes. Which makes sense since English lyrics have a much wider potential market.

Popular Ugandan rapper The Mith, released his first mixtape as a solo artist, September Reign Vol.1. He was already well known as a the well established rap group Klear Kut, but a mixtape was the perfect tool for him to maintain and gain fans for his solo projects. “In all honesty, I released my mixtape because I felt like the audience needed to know what angle I was going to take with my music. They had heard me with Klear Kut, but my solo projects hadn’t been heard. So the mixtape route was the perfect way for me to introduce them to the new style”. Songs like So UG, became instant hits that only his fans would know came off his mixtape and not an album. His delivery was well received and paved the way for more recent hits like Fire ft.Tickie Tah. All of which gave Mith’s solo career the validation he sought.

Like other artists on the continent who do see the opportunities afforded by the internet, he uses popular online platforms to promote his music, “From blogs to the Soundclouds to the Reverbnations to Datpiff, which is a site that distributes mixtapes for artists all over the world, you get to give the fans the music”.

Once a mixtape is available online, it becomes easier to document and the work can become part of the artist’s discography, as well as part of the genre and African music culture at large.The internet also means the potential of a global audience. You would think by now that anyone releasing a mixtape would know this. The mixtape also lets an artist experiment with styles and sounds (with the hardcore fan base as willing “guinea pigs”) before serious money is spent on studio time and production. So it’s a shame that most artists in Africa are not taking full advantage of these powerful twin tools. Entertainment websites and blogs generate healthy traffic by finding and posting artists’ content while the artists themselves sit back and don’t do much for themselves.

I’m not afraid to say that some artists are just being lazy, they are leaving someone else to do it because they know that a certain YouTube channel will always upload their videos and that certain blogs will consistently write about them. Others, just don’t realize the marketing power at their disposal. Perhaps they think, ‘If my mixtape does well, great; if it doesn’t, so what?’ After all, it is common, even at the international level, for the poor reception to a mixtape to have no detrimental effect on an artist’s career. It was ‘just a mixtape’, just playing around in the studio. If I’m right, then some artists are really missing the point. Some artists get it, and, right now, those are the ones up in the mix.

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MELINDA OZONGWU

GODESSA are : Shameema “Shame” Williams (vocalist / rapper) Shame is a long standing activist and emcee in the Hip-Hop community who’s been recording and co-ordinating a number of documentaries since 1996. This vocalist’s community involvement has seen her work as a youth worker in youth correctional institutions and conducting Hip-Hop workshops. She’s taken part in a number of social events that include performances highlighting Human Rights and Youth Days.

Elouise “EJ” Jones (vocalist / rapper / producer) EJ von Lyrik has mastered the skills of being an emcee, vocalist as well as a producer. She’s had the opportunity to write and perform songs addressing the issue of HIV/Aids for a Youth Against Aids initiative.

EJ was invited to feature as a support act on the Cape Town leg of the Dead Prez’s South African tour. One of her most prized production work has been a remix of funk soul band Mood Phase5ive that has been released under the label African Dope Records.

Bernadette “Burni” Amansure (vocalist / rapper) Burni brings the spoken word element and influence to the crew. This emcee and vocalist has worked on a number of collaborations with local artists on a number of songs. She’s been blessing local Hip-Hop clubs and gatherings with her gems since 1995. As a spoken word artist, Burni’s work appears on the anthology Millienium Moments.

Grenville Williams (bass/producer).Previously with the bands Nine as well as Firing Squad, Grenville has also worked as producer for Moodphase5ive. He’s produced Godessa’s “Social Ills” single and is currently working on the group’s full album.

Ricardo Moreti (Keyboard) Ricci is currently keyboardist for Moodphase5ive and has also worked as a producer for MP5′s album. Previous stints with a band include playing the keyboard for Firing Squad.

Shawn O’Tim (Drums/samples) This former Max Normal drummer also currently plays with the jazz group Straight and Narrow.

Dub Master China (Percussions) China is no novice to the music scene, having played with Firing Squad. He’s also known in the Cape Town dance hall and ragga scene as club DJ.