VOODOO VILLAGE: AFRICA

Showing posts with label AFRICA. Show all posts

Can't wait for the World Cup

My only problem with this Puma spot: why don't the use some African music instead of that fat guy from Dangermouse?

OUTSIDE A FURNITURE STORE IN CLAPTON WITH ESAU MWAMWAYA

Hard to believe that it came out two summers ago... but awesome STILL.

CARDINAL REX LAWSON & THE MAYOR'S DANCE BAND

My buddy Roy sent me some Nigerian sounds from the 70s, adding that it was the music his mum and dad danced to when they started dating.

RETRO ADS FROM AFRICA

This 1986 ad from Côte d'Ivoire is my favourite. It's for a mosquito repellent called Super Timor.

This ad demonstrates the hand-to-hand combat skills you'll inhale when you smoke Gauloises cigarettes.

This 1960 ad from South Africa aims to flog a badly-named hair product called Petrol Hahn.

This one isn't from Africa, it's from Hungary and it's for a bug spray. Compare/contrast with the top one for Super Timor.

What we in the West call "Voodoo" is called "Vodoun" in its birthplace of Benin, West Africa. The rituals of this religion are always accompanied by music featuring multiple rhythms played on drums and other bits of percussion. In the 1970s a group of Beninese musicians swapped traditional Vodoun instruments for the electric guitar, psychedelic organ and funk bass. They became known as The Orchestre Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou and they put out a heap of vinyl. Over intervening years, most of these records warped in the West African heat and were ruined. But thankfully the guys at Analog Africa have, during repeated visits to the record shops of Benin, hunted down some rare diamonds. They've since released a collection of this music entitled "The Vodoun Effect" 1972-1975 - Funk & Sato from Benin´s Obscure Labels. Have a listen.

AWESOME TAPES FROM AFRICA

The appropriately named Awesome Tapes From Africa has just put out a mix titled Praises & Ballads, a selection of rare and magical music from Mali, Nigeria, Ghana and Senegal. I don't have a clue what they're singing about, but the polyphonic synchopated harmonious vibes are b l i s s for the long weekend.

KANAGA DE MOPTI WILL EAT YOU UP

Cast your pod towards WFMU Radio Freetown, showcasing the best West African pop music from the 1970s. As a taster, you should listen to the last show which features the delectible melodies of L'Orchestre Kanaga de Mopti, as well as afro-psych-rock from the Nigerian Police Force Band.

"WITCHES" BURNED TO DEATH BY MOB

WARNING: REAL-LIFE HORROR

This jerky video footage uploaded by a Kenyan reporter shows a group of 30 or so people milling around a bonfire in a ditch by a road. Amid the flaming bushes there are four women and a man, all in their 80's. Accused of abducting a child to use for witchcraft, they are being publicly burned to death.

Some of the bodies are trying to get out of the flames, but there are men kicking them back in. One man uses a heavy stick to batter a charred-but-still-alive woman who rolled out of fire. He then hauls her agonized body back into the pyre.

There's a squatting figure, slowly rocking back and forth as the flames lick his face. You can hear the muffled crying of people being roasted alive as the baying crowd of men and women yell and holler. This goes on for almost 2 minutes.

This video is the scariest evidence of man's inhumanity to man ever caught on camera. Sure, worse atrocities have been filmed before. But the immediacy of this cruelty - being so close to real evil - will haunt me forever. Some people say that you are somehow complicit in watching the video and you'll go to hell for looking at it. Isn't it worse to close your eyes to it and pretend that this shit doesn't happen?

Witch-burning is not uncommon in Kenya and black magic murders are reported all over Africa, all too regularly. There are self-styled voodoo priests who go around slaying children they believe are possessed by the devil, as shown in this documentary about one such Bishop who killed 100 children in Nigeria. Then there was that recent spade of murders in Tanzania involving albinos, where dozens of torsos were found dismembered after witch doctors claimed that albino skin, hair and bones can produce potions that make people rich.

It's hard to believe that in 2009 superstition and religion is still brainwashing people into committing barbarous acts.