Dream Variants: April 2012

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Fela Kuti in Colombia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Champeta

Listening to the Palenque Palenque: Champeta Criolla & Afro Roots in Colombia compilation album refreshed my memory of Fela Kuti's influence. His afrobeat style was incorporated into the already heterogeneous mix of Colombian coastal music styles like cumbia, American funk, soukous, highlife, zouk, compas and other Caribbean/Latin music (all these styles are also African-derived themselves to varying degrees). So the entire album is essentially a pan-African, pan-Caribbean music feast showcasing Colombian groups from Cartagena and Barranquilla from 1975-91. Champeta, a dance music of Afro-Colombians practiced in these aforementioned coastal cities likely developed from this musical miscegenation of trans-Atlantic forms as well as local African-influenced genres like cumbia.

The Colombian cover of Fela Kuti's "Shakara" is a good example of how black artists from Africa and the Diaspora influenced each other's music, art, dance, instrumentation, and ideology. Though not instrumental like Fela Kuti's original, the Colombian "Shacalao" does follow Kuti's song closely. Thank le Bon Dieu for the Colombian record collector from Bogota who held onto all these old records from this golden age of Colombian costeno music. Indeed, his collection of records demonstrates how music transcends racial, ethnic and geographic barriers. Moreover, some of the song material on the album reflect a black consciousness movement in music by black artists by artists from Brazil, the US, Africa, and the Caribbean. Songs like "Quiero a Mi Gente" or the names of groups such as Wganda Kenya reflect a transnational black solidarity.

In fact, Colombia has the 3rd largest black population in the Americas after Brazil and the US, but Afro-Colombians' relative invisibility in the nation is a result of racist, exclusive national image of mestizo and Spanish identities, in addition to the overall mixed descent of Afro-Colombians themselves. Proclaiming a "black" identity in a nation where Afro-Colombians are divided along regional lines and often only partly of African descent has been a hindrance in organizing against anti-black racism and prejudice. Nevertheless, certain regions of Colombia, a nation in spite of itself due to a long history of regionalism, are racialized as black, like El Choco on the Pacific or the Atlantic coast, where Cartagena and Barranquilla are situated. Cartagena, interestingly, was the largest slave market in the Spanish Americas for centuries, thus, it is hardly a surprise that the Caribbean coast has a markedly Afro-Caribbean flavor. Another interesting fact: the word palenque refers to the runaway slave communities established by enslaved Africans during the colonial period in Colombia. Naming this compilation in honor to the maroons of the past is another stark example of a black consciousness-raising in the popular dance music of Cartagena and Barranquilla's large Afro-Colombian populations. However, one must keep in mind that this popular music in a mixed population does not necessarily make all these artists Afro-Colombian or 'black.'

Fela Kuti's original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR2LYxkLuQg&ob=av2n
Lizandro Meza y Su Conjunto: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4p5C6wpy04A
Another cover of "Shakara" from Colombia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uz67nw3y8M4
Abelardo Carbono's "Quiero a Mi Gente" has funky chicken-scratching guitar riffs could easily be afrobeat or even American funk: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLvMediR_og
Abelardo Carbono's "Palenque" sounds African: http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=bLu4B6tokVM
Another good song from the album: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kdlB1xVcoU

Thursday, April 19, 2012

Incomplete Essay on The God of Small Things

Before Spring Break I had hoped to finish this essay on The God of Small Things, focusing on Velutha as the Black Christ, if you will. Though not explicitly about blackness, race, colonialism, and color prejudice appear throughout the novel. The countless references to Velutha's ebony chest in contrast to Ammu's chestnut-brown complexion, for example, appears often. In addition, Roy's constant references to the Heart of Darkness and the extremely racist views lighter-complected Indians share toward dark-skinned folks like Velutha made it easy to begin writing an essay that would analyze over the

longue durée how the peoples of South Asia perceived "Black Africans" and darker peoples in their midst. It would be foolish to suggest that anti-black prejudice only existed in the subcontinent following the arrival of European imperialism, and India's long history of trade with East Africa included the slave trade, further complicating perceptions of blacks (look up the Siddis of India).

Moreover, I would also like to point out a powerful critique of the novel I came across from another like-minded soul on the internet. Does Roy essentially dehumanize our Black Christ, Velutha, by making him seemingly flawless? All of the novel's other characters have obvious imperfections, yet Velutha is so Christ-like he is selfless, playful and loving, and portrayed as a victim of his society's extreme prejudices and oppression without having any responsibility in his reception by said society. Thus, does Roy perpetuate the dehumanizing of the dark peoples by again not giving Velutha the full, flawed humanity found in Ammu, Estha, Rahel, and the rest? Instead of making him sub-human, like Conrad does in Heart of Darkness or in other works of the western canon, she makes a god out of him. Does this contradict the message of the novel for unconditional love and acceptance of all since the ebony-hued man is elevated above the other characters in the novel? Even the innocent children, also victimized by the oppressive forces in society, also become a Judas figure by selling out Velutha at the novel's conclusion...Regardless, this is a powerful novel whose universal message could have taken place anywhere. These thoughts were stuck in my mind after re-reading the novel in March, however, and deserve critical attention. Perhaps I shall return to this essay someday and actually write something meaningful with it.

Africa, Blackness and Velutha: Race in The God of Small Things

"Africa?" Kochu Maria sniggered. "Africa's full of ugly black people and mosquitoes."

Indian writer and activist Arundhati Roy’s sole novel, The God of Small Things, though set in the southern state of Kerala, India, is a novel about race, as well as many other things. Through the character of Velutha, whose name means white in Malayalam, to contrast with his black skin, the intricate world of color prejudice, racism, and colonialism are thoroughly explored. In the case of Velutha,, he becomes a Black Christ whose life reveals how human society erects, in the words of Roy’s narrator, “Another edifice constructed by the human mind, decimated by human nature.” The Black Christ of Ayemenem’s life serves to illustrate how the false social categories humans impose on one another, the Big Things, cannot separate us from uniting based on the Small Things. Essentially a love story, Roy’s novel becomes universal because it is a story of men, women, and children who seek happiness despite the social conditions created by history that prevent one from, in the words of Roy, “to pursue beauty to its lair.”

Important to acknowledge in any critique of Roy’s novel, is the long history of internally woven issues of race and color within India. Dating back to the Love Laws, which “lay down who should be loved. And how. And how much.” Thus, colonialism, with its pernicious influences on Indian cultures, cannot be blamed entirely for the caste system and skin color prejudice. Indian societies prior to British imperialism were far from heaven, and in fact, were places of extreme inequality along gender, caste, and age lines. The very fact that Ammu had no future after divorcing her husband, thereby losing all chances for happiness because of her dishonored status as a divorced woman, illustrates the degrees to which Indian societies were far from ideal. Therefore, one cannot “blame the white man” for everything, despite the writer of this essay’s predilection.

Nevertheless, the negative impact of European colonialism on Indian perceptions of blackness and Africa must be acknowledged. Of course the long history of the East African slave trade to India and the Middle East must be accounted for as well when studying Indian attitudes toward dark-skinned peoples. It is significant that Kairu Saipu, the Englishman who went mad in the process of going ‘native,’ who lived with an Indian boy in the History House/Heart of Darkness, is called Black Sahib. This Black Sahib, who had “gone native,” who spoke Malayalam and wore mundus, is described by the narrator as Ayemenem’s own...

Western Perceptions of the Fang in the Age of European Imperialism

Western Narratives of the Fang

Du Chaillu and Milligan provide accounts of the Fang from 1861 and 1912, respectively. In the half-century dividing the two men’s narratives, the Fang remain savages with a history of cannibalism, but Milligan’s description demonstrates a growing concern for evangelizing the African people. Soon, religion becomes the saving factor in Milligan’s account for the civilizing impact of European imperialism on the Fang. In the mid-19^th century, however, Du Chaillu shows no interest in Christianizing the Fang, preferring to exalt them into noble savages for his European and North American readership. Thus, the Du Chaillu and Milligan writings illustrate a shift in Western perceptions of Africans in the mid-19^th century to one of scientific racism and imperialism, embedded with theological justifications for European imperialism.

Du Chaillu’s account, more comprehensive than Milligan’s, nevertheless shares racist sentiments with the latter. Both writers described the Fang as primitive peoples, but Du Chaillu’s romanticization of the Fang as, “Finer looking men I never saw…” because of the martial, fierce-looking fellows exemplifies his idealization of the Fang (Du Chaillu 110). The Fang are also referred to as “the finest, bravest-looking set of negroes I have seen in the interior…” (121). These fine-looking Negroes, superior to the coastal societies familiar to the European traders, were feared by Du Chaillu to degenerate as a result of their southward migration, where they would become more like the aforementioned coastal peoples (121). The Fang, as interior peoples, are further removed from European contact and become noble savages, while the coastal societies with which they regularly traded with for centuries, were degenerate, immoral, and savage, despite their closer contact with Europeans, which contradicts White Supremacy since the African groups in more contact with Westerners would likely be the most civilized. In fact, Du Chaillu describes the Fang as the most promising people in all of Western Africa, especially for their stamina, unvarying hospitality, kindness, courage, and fierceness (129).

Milligan also uses racist discourse when describing the Fang, but does not idealize their pre-colonial past or suspected cultural practices such as cannibalism or the use of fetishes. Attributing the problem of cannibalism to a natural consequence of fetishism, the primary problem of the Fang, and Africans generally, African religious practices become the cause of their barbarity (Milligan 241). Thus, the shift from a more scientific and comprehensive look at the Fang from Du Chaillu’s somewhat fanciful and sensationalized writing begins to rely on Christianity to further justify European racism and imperialism simultaneously. Whereas Du Chaillu also described the African as “poor people leading dreadful and dreary lives,” and using primitive technology, despite their “considerable ingenuity in manufacting iron” (Du Chaillu 102 and 122), he never resorts to attributing Fang inferiority solely to their religious customs or race. Milligan praises Christianity’s effects for convincing the African to recognize Christ as the human ideal, and therefore see the divine origin and noble destiny of humanity instead of their degrading conception of man’s nature (Milligan 242). The superstitious African, who consumes human flesh for fetish protection from enemies, will cease practicing cannibalism as soon as the Gospel becomes intelligible (243). Unfortunately, the African’s fetishism will not disappear immediately, since the grease from boiled human remains were smeared upon bodies for protection, according to Milligan (244). Regardless, the African receives the opportunity for moral transformation and the sanctity of human life because of colonialism and Christianity, while Du Chaillu, though racist himself, does not endeavor to identify the cause of Fang inferiority with African religion or race.

One must also note the different eras in which the two writers were engaged in to better understand their perceptions of Fang. Each never witnessed cannibalism, yet both Du Chaillu and Milligan assumed it was true, contradicting a European rational approach to knowledge and science because of their preconceived notions of African inferiority. Du Chaillu, however, seems to have been writing for geographical organization or secular White audience, since his account describes hunting, political institutions, food, music, trade, marriage, and weapons. Milligan’s emphasis on fetishes, religious life, and African religious deficiencies, as well the title, The Fetish Folk of West Africa, reveal a study focused on religion for Westerners in the early colonial period. For Milligan, Christianity is the salvation of Africa, and the thorough Europeanization in dress, religion, and morality will elevate the African to civilization. His contrast of a Christian woman of Gabon juxtaposed with a photograph of interior women sends that message quite clearly, since her European dress, and hair sharply differs from the naked interior women carrying cassava and firewood (246). Milligan’s purpose of writing about the Fang has a single purpose of highlighting the positive results of colonialism, as well as proving African inferiority.

Despite writing accounts in 1861 and 1912, both writers concur on African primitiveness and cultural deficiencies and the practice of cannibalism, even with the absence of eyewitness evidence. Milligan’s piece demonstrates a shift from the noble savage lens of Du Chaillu to a purely colonial, white supremacist gaze that came as a result of direct European conquest and rule. By 1912, the French had established themselves firmly in Gabon, and missionary activity had begun decades earlier, so the narrative of noble savages became less relevant politically because African backwardness needed to be depicted as poorly as possible to align with the proclaimed paternalist intentions of European imperialism. Hence, cannibalism remains a significant part of Milligan’s narrative, as well as African moral degradation.

Monday, April 16, 2012

The Best of Simon and Garfunkel

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Hit That Jive, Jack

Nat King Cole Trio

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

W.H. Auden's "The More Loving One"

Looking up at the stars, I know quite well
That, for all they care, I can go to hell,
But on earth indifference is the least
We have to dread from man or beast.

How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

Admirer as I think I am
Of stars that do not give a damn,
I cannot, now I see them, say
I missed one terribly all day.

Were all stars to disappear or die,
I should learn to look at an empty sky
And feel its total dark sublime,
Though this might take me a little time.

The Girl Is Mine

An "interesting" cover of a classic by two insane vocalists in need of serious training. Enjoy!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Black Madonna: Loa Erzulie

Here is the Black Madonna of Czestochowska, Poland

Erzulie by Gerard Valcin

Veve

Catholic European Christian iconography and art clearly influenced Haitian art and popular religion. The image of the Black Madonna could have disseminated in Haiti with the presence of Polish soldiers in the French army sent to reconquer the land under Napoleon's brother-in-law. Of course the spread of the Black Madonna image could have also arose from later Catholic influences in Haiti after the Vatican finally recognized the nation in the mid-19th century or during several Church-run "anti-superstition" campaigns against Haitians who practiced Vodou. Regardless, it's a fascinating example of how art and ideas transcend race, gender, and religious lines. Scholars disagree on the Black Madonnas of Christian Europe, but it's appearance in Haitian religious practice and art demonstrates how individuals and peoples borrow ideas and reinterpret them. Thus, the Catholic Virgin becomes a spirit of sexuality and love in Haitian Vodou.