For the past year or so, I have had a lot of time on my hands and therefore been able to add a lot of knowledge to what our education system had already offered me. A prime time to review my goals and ambitions in life and more importantly, my identity. One of the fascinating things about me is that I am a cool guy and a musician but apart from that, an African. At this point, I wish to stress how important it is for me to be an African. I believe that I have better opportunities than any other race (not that I have anything against my international friends), but I just believe so. Primarily because Africa is at a period of self definition. The past fifty years have been spent trying to become someone else other than African and that is the tragedy of our continent. In this tragedy, two observations have been made:
1. Black Africans are not totally proud of being African.
2. White Africans are more proud of being African compared to black Africans.
What does that have to do with anything???
Well, it is common but uncommon knowledge that you cannot be anything else apart from yourself, a concept few human beings seem to grasp. We see it in our dressing, speech, value systems and everything else that touches on our identity. Most musicians are also plagued with this crisis. Looking to every corner of the world for our musical identity except inwards.
I however, do not mean that we are not allowed to admire and be inspired by Switchfoot and Lecrae, there is no crime in that. I just want to suggest the idea that Africans have something to offer from within. It's like inviting someone over for dinner then buying take-away food for the occasion. It beats the purpose of the invite.
A good friend of mine and pastor once told me that Africa is the only region yet to offer up its own sacrifices to God. She had a point there since the rest of the world has given of itself and its potential except for Africa. I figured our identity crisis has a role in this. Same thing musically and economically. So what is it that we have to offer or what have people offered musically as an example?
I used to look at this issue from a perspective of genre, but upon further deduction, I realised a genre is a carrier of a MESSAGE, not the message itself. The message may have several thematic expressions but the message is usually one resounding message. A good example would be reggae. There are many different themes people sing about in this genre; love, peace, emancipation and all that but it carries one message and that is the message of freedom. It is funny because the birth of reggae coincided with the independence of Jamaica. Reggae therefore became a symbol of independence. However, most Jamaicans still sing of coming freedom for they are legally free but still mentally enslaved. Thus preventing them from celebrating freedom.
Black music is another weird one. Full of emotive energy and screams. If you listen to James Brown, he says the screaming is a scream borne out of pain and oppression of the black people in America. Black music as it originally came from the church represented hope for a better day. It's not a vocal technique they purposely pursued, but rather chose to freely express themselves the best way they knew how to. The message from black music is that of hope.
I could go on and on but the rest is upto the inquisitive mind to investigate for oneself.
However, the more fundamental question here is what story does Africa have to tell the world??? I unfortunately do not yet have the answer though it lies somewhere resident within my identity. It lies within us all.
An African movie writer once described Africans as natural storytellers. Every night after supper, African families used to conglomerate around a fire for stories. This culture did not belong to one community only but to the continent as a whole. It probably explains why songs like Malaika did well and other great songs. Most are just simple stories, nothing extraordinary. But told by extraordinary beautiful fellows because it is part of who they are. Just a thought.
Final story.
One of my favourite bands, delirious, once wrote a song titled, "majesty" co-written by Martin Smith and Stu G. Both are English men. That song was their most popular song and many churches still do it. If you listen to the lyrics, you can understand the sense of awe associated with monarchs. Combine the recognition of the English monarchical system and the the gospel and you get a powerful song like that. I am not proposing this as the ultimate formula for songwriting but I hope it summarises this post.
