Tupac in Africa

This week, fifteen years ago, the rapper Tupac Shakur was gunned down on a Las Vegas street. The combination of his personality–he was a “gifted storyteller“, an explosive personality and had an intensity that was unrivaled among most pop stars. As Robert Pierre writes on his blog at The Washington Post: “… Whatever he was doing, he was all in. All in with black nationalism for a while. All in with his love for black women. All in for the West Coast. All in for the Thug Life. All in.”

Tupac, of course, came from a very political family, so he must have understood his impact. (He acknowledged as much in interviews.). And as we know, his intensity did not just appeal to just young people here in the United States, but also on the continent.

As a 2003 Woodrow Wilson Center report on young people in the developing world, notes:

Tupac Shakur is famous across Africa, most particularly among urban youth. His music is as common in many urban neighborhoods as Bob Marley’s once was. His face and poses, pictured on clothing and in murals, are now widely familiar. A popular T-shirt has a black background, showing Tupac (spelled “2Pac”) looking alert, with U.S. dollar signs ringing the collar and his most popular slogan, “All Eyez on Me,” across the bottom. “All Eyez on Me,” indeed—Tupac’s lyrics expressing his alienation, fury, and his conviction that his quest for revenge is thoroughly justified, the police sirens in the background of many of his songs, the belief that he was not really murdered but is still alive (often proclaimed in “Tupac Lives” graffiti), all conjure an image of a defiant, proud antihero, and an inspiration for many of Africa’s young and alienated urbanites.

In a section on young people and war the report’s writers note his impact on young soldiers in Sierra Leone’s late 1990s civil war. There, rebel soldiers adopted Tupac as their “patron saint”:

“The rebels wrote Tupac’s lyrics on the side of their vehicles” during the Freetown invasion, one Sierra Leonean refugee later recalled. “They wrote ‘Death Row,’‘Missing in Action,’ ‘Hit them Up,’ ‘Only God Can Judge,’ and ‘All Eyez on Me’ on them” … the rebels “favored Tupac T-shirts and fancy haircuts”.

This was also the case in the civil wars in the Democratic Republic of Congo and most recently Cote d’Ivoire and Libya. And as Paul Rogers (of LA Weekly) blogs this week, rebels fighting Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s regime now also take inspiration from Tupak Shakur. One young rebel fighter told a British journalist:  ”I only listen to 2Pac before going to shoot Gaddafi boys.”

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The Commonwealth Writers’ Prize

I saw this. Noted it and forgot about it. Then I was reminded by Afro Europe that last month the British writer of Sierra Leone descent, Aminatta Forna, was awarded the 2011 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for her novel “The Memory of Love,” set in the country of her father. It is worth celebrating. In the video,above, recorded in 2010, with the BBC’s Bola Mosuro, Forna talks about some of the characters and themes of the novel.

Sierra Leone’s WeOwnTv

WeOwnTv is a nonprofit organization that works with film as a tool for social change. It was co-founded by the American filmmaker Banker White and Sierra Leonean musician Black Nature.

During a visit to San Francisco in March, I interviewed the two co-founders, while they were working on new songs and film projects. Check out the interview with Black Nature and learn more about WeOwnTv and hear a exclusive private performance by Black Nature. Unfortunately, the sun was setting while the interview took place, so some of the footage is a little too dark.

* Meanwhile, WeOwnTv are working on a new film project about 50 years of independence in Sierra Leone. They have started a Kickstarter project and they have almost reached their goal. You have until Wednesday to support the project.

Sierra Leone 50 Years

Today, April 27, marks Sierra Leone’s 50th independence anniversary. The participants of We Own TV are getting in on the celebratory action by making short videos on various topics related to the idea of 50 years independence.

For the above video they teamed up with the Sierra Leone Refugee All Stars to see what people on the streets of Freetown have to say about independence. Check the We Own TV kickstarter campaign for more information and a sneak peak on what looks like will be a very interesting set of videos.–Boima Tucker.

Coming to America

Boima Tucker
It would be difficult for me to write this post without revealing my excitement at discovering the talents of Sierra-Leonean, American, Atlantian, New Yorker filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu. After seeing her work, it almost seems like films that I had been wishing into existence my entire life have suddenly materialized. I selfishly (reppin’ Salone) cheer Nikyatu on as her emergence in the public spotlight has come as an answer for many unrealized personal visions.

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‘Fambul Tok’ in New York City

John Caulker and Libby Hoffman of the organization Fambul Tok International will be making rounds in New York this week along with filmmaker Sara Terry for talks and screenings of their film “Fambul Tok.” The tour will culminate in the launch of the book about the project this Thursday April 7, in DUMBO, Brooklyn.

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Sierra Leone Has Style

Short, tight video profile of Freetown, Sierra Leone-based designer Adama Kai and her label Aschobi Designs made by UK production company, Nomad Productions.

‘Jew-Man Business’

Within the inner city of Freetown, Sierra Leone lies an area known as ‘Belgium’. Hundreds of youth, many of them ex-combatants, are hustling in this area on a daily basis. Jew-Man Business, a documentary made by anthropologists Maya Mynster Christensen, Mats Utas and Christian Vium, portrays three young men in their daily lives, doing ‘Jew-man business’ in ‘Belgium’: Bone Thug lives on the street, Junior tries to leave the street life behind, Ice T is a former rebel soldier.

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Community Media and Civil Society

The Media and Culture Concentration in The Graduate Program in International Affairs  at the New School invites you to a panel discussion titled:

Community Media and Civil Society: Then and Now

What are the most effective strategies for achieving social and political change through community media?

How is new media advocacy changing grassroots media practice?

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Music Monday

In which the super crew from Sierra Leone, Bajah + The Dry Eye Crew, remix Vampire Weekend and Paul Simon, who are well known, of course, for remixing (appropriating?) sounds from across the African continent. I’m a fan.

Happy Monday.

Via

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