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| Mali Yaro and Goumbe Star |
On Saturday, your blogger attended a
performance by
Mali Yaro and Goumbe Star at the Calvary Center in
West Philadelphia. It was put together by
Crossroads Music, which
bring musicians from all over the world and promotes understanding
and cross-cultural respect through music. Mali Yaro (Doulai Boureima)
and his expected guest, Hadiza Mangou are from Niger, in the Sahel
region of West Africa. Their music deals with social issues, like
disease, armed conflict, and women's issues.
The performance was very entertaining.
The combo was Mali Yaro as lead singer, Mahamadoul-Habibou Elh Amadou
on bass, and Seydou Mounkaila on percussion and Omar Tankari on
guitar. (The last two might be incorrect, as they were only
introduced very briefly at the end of the concert.) Apparently,
sometimes there are additional musicians, including a rhythm
guitarist and a trumpet player, but they were not there Saturday. The
music ranged from slow love songs to upbeat, bluesy numbers conducive
to dancing.
The true pièce
de résistance
was their dancer, who appeared to have dwarfism. He was an energetic
and acrobatic performer, who encouraged audience participation and,
at one point, engaged in a frenetic dance-off with a particularly
enthusiastic audience member. The other aspect of the audience
participation was something common to griot (jeli) performances,
where audience members shower the performers with dollar bills. Both
the West African members of the audience and others took part in this
ritual, which created a sense of complicity in the room. Since the
majority of the songs were in Hausa, at various points throughout the
evening, an audience member came up on stage and explained the themes
discussed in the music. A couple of songs were sung in French, one
“Niger uni et prospère”
which talks about different groups in Niger coming together and
laying aside their arms in order to build a better future.
Besides
being an enjoyable experience, music like this is important for two
reasons. The first is the ability to circulate messages within
societies, especially those where the populations are spread out and
rural (as in Niger) and where other media, like TV or the internet
might be hard to access or incomprehensible to populations with high
levels of illiteracy. The second reason goes beyond Niger and
encompasses the cross-cultural element that Crossroads seeks to
facilitate. Experiencing the music and dance of another culture is a
window for others onto that culture, and helps create links and
mutual respect and understanding. This is particularly important,
given the current political context, where we have an unfortunate
tendency to view other cultures with hostility and suspicion.
The
New York Times had an interesting
op-ed about music and its political
power. It focuses on rap and explains the power that rap has to
communicate ideas among young people. More controversially, it
considers the case of Youssou N’Dour and asserts:
“...mbalax
singers are typically seen as older entertainers who often support
the government in power. In contrast, rappers, according to the
Senegalese rapper
Keyti,
'are closer to the streets and can bring into their music the general
feeling of frustration among people.'”
However,
the assertion that older singers, or singers who use a different
style, are close to the government is problematic. First of all, as
Mali Yaro and Goumbé
Star demonstrate, singers using different styles are capable of
transmitting powerful social messages. Another example is
Salif Keita, whose music also carries an important social message
and speaks out against discrimination.
While
the Times article argues that this is inaccessible to many people,
since “Rapping can simulate a political speech or address,
rhetorical conventions that are generally inaccessible to the
marginal youth who form the base of this movement.” your blogger
finds this reasoning to be condescending. Later in the article, the
author draws an analogy between the way rappers convey messages and
the traditional art form of griots. If West Africans were able to
understand the (sometimes complicated) cultural conventions of griots
in the past, there is no good reason that they should now lack this
ability, unless they are ignorant of their own cultural heritage. If
so, that is a larger problem.
Furthermore,
the article takes an overly rosy view of the messages that rappers
transmit. While some might critique the corrupt actions of government
or pernicious social problems, others might use rap to attack others,
like in the case of the
rapper Psyco-M.
Additionally, rap is not necessarily the product of mature
reflection, but people can be taken in by fine words, and be
persuaded by form rather than content.
However,
whatever the message that rap contains, it is certainly useful to
create a conversation. Societies across Africa and the Middle East
that were previously subject to strict controls on speech are now
able to express themselves freely. It's a process, and like electoral
politics, it would be naïve to expect these processes of transition
to be overly smooth.
As
mentioned earlier, music serves a broader purpose as well. It allows
people around the world to see into other cultures and to gain
appreciation and understanding for them. The internet makes it easier
to diffuse music and other creative art forms and makes it possible
to exchange ideas that are not only on an elite or professional
level. Music helps people to relate to on another and to remember
that even faraway people share many of the same hopes and dreams that
we do. Each little step towards greater solidarity, each small
concert, has a worth, that when put together, is far greater than the
sum of its parts.
