Global Voices Online

Stories

March 10th, 2007

Africa: Hope Raisers, “Da Bomb”, Swahili Hip Hop, & Zimfest

In the 4 weeks since my last post on Global Voices, there has been lots of activity covered by bloggers in the African music scene. Here is a roundup of just a small part of that activity.

Music from Nairobi's slums at the 2007 World Social Forum

Pambuzuka, an African news magazine that works to promote social change in Africa has a post about a special broadcast of the conscious music group “Hope Raisers” from Nairobi's slums at the World Social Forum that was held in Nairobi in January 2007. The music on the podacast is from the Hope Raisers and Tanzanian poet, writer, and musician Freddy Macha.

Praye's “da bomb”

Oluniyi David Ajao carried a post at the end of January about Praye, a Ghanian high life group. When asked about the meaning of the groups' name, Eugene Baah, one of the group members said:

Well, we chose the name Praye because this in English means a broom and since a broom is a tool for sweeping, we are also here to sweep the social vices through our music

And that they have. Praye first took West Africa by storm during a 2004 talent search contest, Nescafe African Reveleation, sponsored by Nescafe and then went on to win a Kora award, the African equivalent of a Grammy. Praye has a new album out in 2007 named “The Bomb” that has taken Ghanian airwaves by storm and is getting significant airplay. Their videos can be found on Youtube and their music can be purchased from the Big Ben Music label.

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January 19th, 2007

Africa: Dancing to soccer moves, Maasai Hip Hop and laughing at wealthy Americans

Ntwiga · 07:46 · Sub-Saharan Africa

My name is Steve Ntwiga and this is my first post at Global Voices Online. I will be trying to fill a small part of Obi's huge shoes as I post on bloggers and sites that cover African music.

From soccer moves to a dancing sytle

Lets start with Teju Cole at Modal Minority who looks at drogbacité. This is a new dancing style coming out of Abidjan based on the football moves of Didier Drogba, an Ivorian soccer player who recently won Africa's Footballer of the Year award (that's soccer for those of your who may be in North America).

Teju writes:

The first real explosion of this was in the months leading up to the World Cup, when Drogba’s brilliance steered the Elephants to an unlikely first-ever berth in the tournament. Around that time, the dance style known as Drogbacité emerged in Abidjan, nominally based on Drogba’s moves, and it was soon followed by dance tracks specifically dedicated to it.

The post includes a track, Boucantier, that is representative of the new type of music emerging around the dancing style which is taking clubs in the Ivory Coast and West Africa by storm.

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