Eu tenho f’e para uma Angola justa
(I got faith for a just Angola)
One of the boisterous chorus’s chanted out by the participatory audience at the MCK concert held last night at the Tivoli in downtown Luanda. The concert I witnessed was the sixth attempt by internationally recognised Hip hop artist MCKapar to reach his devoted audience. The concert had been censored five times by the previous dos Santos regime, his apartment was ransacked, his passport confiscated and his fans beaten up by the authorities. MCK is an important radical voice of resistance. His lyrics address the disparity and disenfranchisement that ravages the 70 percent of the 7.8 million Angolans living in the Musseques (slums). Angola now has a new President but it’s still the same political party. MCK is an engaged Rapper, an activist and the voice of resistance for the Angolan masses. In fact, resistance musicians have played very important roles in the various regimes that have existed in Angola for instance Bonga, during the 1970’s and is still currently active, and Paulo Flores, during the dos Santos regime, more on that history later.
People let me add, I’m very happy to report that over the weekend I was hanging out with Sacerdote – a great Kudurista1. I visited his recording studio which is situated in Sambizanga2, a musseque3 not far from where I live. With a group of local musicians, producers and a Spanish ethnomusicologist we listened to the phonograph recordings of Herman Baumann and Karl V Laman. Today, Sacerdote and I will start creating the beats for the Afro-Sonic Mapping album.
1 A person who produces Kuduro music.
2 This neighborhood has a long tradition of being home to many musicians.
3 A Shantytown; Favela/Ghetto.
Afro-Sonic Mapping 