Diamonds in the Rough: documentary on Uganda's politicized hiphop scene
Diamonds in the Rough is a fantastic documentary about the role that hip-hop is playing in organizing the anti-war/anti-poverty movement in Uganda. Narrated by Michael Franti, it tells an gripping story of the way that Ugandan rappers risk political reprisals by creating anthemic rhymes that tell the stories of the victims of the bloody civil war and the long, increasingly corrupt reign of Musoveni. The movie's on the festival circuit now. Diamonds in the Rough on YouTube, Diamonds in the Rough
the latest
latest episodes
Rolling down the savannah sniffing' Jenkem, sipping that monkey's blood. Laid back, with my mind on my junta and my junta on my mind.
Speaking of dope African hip-hop, give this a listen:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiIa2i29PZ4
Change the language and you change the whole game. If you are a rap fan, you should check out some foreign artists. You don't even have to speak the language. You still get a feel for the flow and it's interesting how the linguistic differences affect the music as a whole.
Also, listening to V de V has definitely helped improve my Spanish!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violadores_del_Verso
"Monkey's blood"? I know you're just trying to be funny, but it smacks of ignorant ethnocentrism when you repeat these tired stereotypes of Africa.
But Jenkem was perfectly ok with you?
Anyhow "bushmeat" is often ape flesh, and blood drinking is not at all uncommon on the African continent. While the dietary laws of Islam do forbid it, it is still somewhat prolific.
See it may be ethnocentric, but since I'm well aware of blood/black pudding/sausage consumption as well as African blood drinking it's probably not ethnocentric. It't just that the article had nothing to do with blood sausage eating people common in England or other parts of Europe and apes are more easily associated with the African continent (maybe I could have said "lion's blood" but unless we're talking Masai it would be completely inaccurate).
As far as ignorance goes you're the one who seems unaware of the existence of such consumption.
This reminded me of the documentary Curtain Raising by Andreas Johnsen, it's also about African hip hop (shot in Uganda, Kenya & Rwanda). There is a trailer available at http://rosforth.com/
"But Jenkem was perfectly ok with you?"
No, what faulty logic are you using to arrive at that? None of the post was ok with me. I thought I made that clear.
For the record, I'm Kenyan...lived in Kabaa until I was 15 and I've been back many times since. American's ideas of what Africa is like are often ignorant and cliched, and your joke reflects that. Don't presume to teach me about my home continent, particularly if you're going to exaggerate things like monkey blood drinking and jenkem use. And inserting the word "junta" into your parody as you did is simply off-base considering the topic of the documentary. But I see you googled "Masai" so you must be an expert.
Many Americans go to churches where they handle snakes and speak in tongues, but I don't immediately think of that when I think of Americans. The fact that you think about jenkem and drinking monkey's blood when you think about Africa tells us more about you than it tells us about my people.
This looks like a fantastic film.. I hope it comes to Wisconsin soon!
Speaking of bushmeat.. I just got to try some recently. My parents went to South Africa on business and brought me back some delicious kudu jerkey. I'm sorry if I'm being ignorant by calling it bushmeat, however since I don't think the animal is domesticated I believe it's still accurate.
Anyways, I always love to see hiphop culture being used as the beautiful, subversive and empowering thing it was meant to be. Not that I don't love me some Snoop Dogg and Dre on a nearly daily basis, but they have nothing on these guys.
I always thought kudu was game and if it looked like you it was bushmeat.
wiki sez that bushmeat is game specific to the humid tropics of the Americas, Asia, and Africa, I don't really know of a more authoritative source on the matter, unfortunately.
mmmph, always heard "bushmeat"in the pejorative sense of poached protected primates.
It's very sad that some hundreds of" illegal" Africans in NYC have killed each other over the bootleg coach bag and bootleg hip hop trademark clothes industry. NYC cops don't care about this crime just think the(well you know the word)help em by knocking
each other off sort of doing the NYPD a favor at
28th street and Broadway.
How is is that such a great culture that gave us
perhaps the first medical surgery thousands of years
ago came to be this low?
I know these events could be a very moving HH song in the afro arts.
LogrusZed, less prickliness would be good. Darth, if you're trying to embarrass someone into better behavior, you want to ramp up less rapidly than that.
Darth Grabass: heheh,
Like you Googled Africa and immigration and figured Kenya was a safe bet for a nationality to pretend to be?
No, I don't actually have any reason to assume you lied about being Kenyan, just like you have absolutely no reason to assume I don't know about the Masai people from some source other than the internet, but even if I did why would it matter?
Point of fact I'm interested in the Masai and have been since I was a little kid (in the 70's, pre-internet) and read about the lion killing rite of the warrior in a National Geographic magazine. I've also read a lot about Chaka and the Zulu people, the Bantu Boer war, and other topics (mostly about badass warriors).
What's really funny to me is that someone from Kenya would react so negatively to the mention of blood drinking considering the huge cultural influence the Masai have had on general Kenyan culture and how much of a part of their diet cattle blood is.
If this story was about Scottish rap I probably would have made a joke about haggis and the special relationship that a Scott has with his sheep, but it was about Ugandan rap and Juntas and jenkem and apes are something Westerners are likely to easily associate with Africa.
Nice. Can't believe that boing boing missed the opportunity to rave about the cool yellow and green Uganda hat the one guy was wearing. Only that I knew of a place where I could get such a hat!
I'm glad you're interested in the "badass warrior" aspects of African tribal culture, but that's hardly representative of all African people. For instance, cattle blood is not, and has never been, part of my diet. My only negative reaction is your assumption that this is somehow typical of Africans in general. "General Kenyan culture", as you say, is not represented by what you've read in National Geographic about the Masai. Many of us wear suits and ties and eat in restaurants and sleep in beds and watch movies on tv just like you do. I have a feeling that many Americans could look at pictures of Nairobi and mistake it for everyday life in any large U.S. city. It seems that the images that America gets from Africa are only the "exotic" and colorful tribal cultures, or the poorest slums. At least this video from Uganda shows some of the vibrant music scene that occurs all over Africa.
BB; global crossroads and thorn tree. For those that have the wit and wisdom to use it.
But, Darth Grabass, the post isn't about suits and ties and restaurants and beds. "...it tells a gripping story of the way that Ugandan rappers risk political reprisals by creating anthemic rhymes that tell the stories of the victims of the bloody civil war and the long, increasingly corrupt reign of Musoveni."
And you did get that the comment was satirizing Snoop Dogg's Gin and Juice?
"Rollin down the street, smokin indo, sippin on gin and juice (beeotch!!)
Laid back [with my mind on my money and my money on my mind]
Rollin down the street, smokin indo, sippin on gin and juice (beeotch!!)
Laid back [with my mind on my money and my money on my mind]"
hmmph, and to think when I met him he was intimidated by the crack heads
Takuan:
the vernacular definition always wins, I guess. I'll be careful now of the fancy names I try to give to the things I'm eating to impress people.
Much of this was foretold by Alvin Toffler. Arguably we should make Future Shock part of required reading lists. As if one has comprehension of certain social forces this thread's mix between facts and fantasies gets a whole different angle. Internet and Satellite TV give the initial-and potentially false- memes.
The effects accelerate when a place is commonly traveled to and from by scheduled airlines. The result is that culture travels and commonality is sought. Even false cultural. The Cheers bar franchise. Or Fast Foods. So eventually the differences cancel.
John Brunner covered a lovely explanation of his take on it. The Shockwave Rider portrayed tribes running amok world wide among it's other examples of cultural metastasis. So if the tribal warriors oft called "Ugly Americans" act as meme pollinating bees a new world flowers.
One where it's more likely to see a Cheeseburger than a Cheetah burger in your travels.
fwiw...
Europeans tend to use blood as a byproduct of slaughter and 'making the most of the remains'.
The Masai treat it very much like dairy: non-lethal periodic bleedings. The Masai are a very peculiar culture in a lot of respects, and not really typical of East Africa or anyone else for that matter -- their sense of symmetry vs balance makes many cringe.
I dont know how someone started talking about Islam/dietary laws and Africa as a hole. North Africa is predominantly Islamic, however the rest of the continent is decidedly not.
I traveled a lot in E. Africa... the swahili culture is a mix of Bantu, Arab/Muslim and European( Portuguese / and to a lesser extent Italian) influence. The coastal regions have a large Islamic population, with smaller percentages of Christianity and tribal religions. As you move inland, it changes drastically.
I was extremely lucky to spend a few months in '98 living in Mombasa with urban artists and matatu workers. My friends idolized western cultures... espescially african american culture with constant tributes in their work and styles.
I'm ridiculously happy to see the re-appropriation of western hip-hop not just become a tool to empower people, but also work its way back to western culture where the influence might become bi-directional.
This post reminds me of an excellent documentary by some friends of mine called Democracy in Dakar. They covered the 2007 presidential election there through the lens of local hip-hop artists. They've followed up with similar documentaries on the French and Venezuelan elections of the same year (I think).
http://nomadicwax.com/film/democracy-in-dakar/