the african way...

For the past two years or so, I’ve been having this “Holier Than Thou” attitude. Not with regards to religion, (that really isn’t my strong point) but in regards to music, and the black culture in general. I shunned the “bling-bling” mentality, the baggy jeans and white Ts with the stunner shades, pop locking and dropping while crankin that soulja boy and hollering a bay bay stuff…because to me, I felt there should be more to rap music. That’s when I got into this whole neo-soul/ conscious hip-hop tip. I even changed my look, cut off my perm, grew a fro, which I recently also cut off, that was me trying not to conform, but in not conforming, I did conform. I conformed to the standards of those into that type of thing. I still went on with the music though, some thing I’m still doing up to today… no pun intended to gangsta-rappers, but I’d rather listen to more laid back stuff, unless of course when getting high, and that’s another story.

A few days ago, I was watching Dave Chapelle’s Block Party (the DVD, I wasn’t actually there!) ummm, yeah, they had all these artists like Erykah Badu, Jill Scott, Dead Prez. Mos Def, Kanye West, Common, The Roots, John Legend, The Fugees (yes, all of them, together, on one stage), and Talib Kweli. It was an amazing concert. The music was awesome, even more for me because that’s the type of music I’m into. I felt, you know. Like I was doing my part, sticking with my heritage, I felt like I could relate because they weren’t talking about poppin bottles and booty shaking, they were talking about real stuff, you know, poverty, racism, hip-hop, society, even their songs about love were about real love, not just tappin some ass. I was on a musical high. Then, there was this part if the concert where they got really pensive and started talking about how far they’ve come as black people, how they still weren’t completely free, how they shouldn’t forget where they came from, they started talking about slavery, and the Black Panther’s and how the white man was still poisoning them… that was when I realized that I couldn’t relate anymore. I’m in Africa, I didn’t experience they whole slavery thing, o rracism, my ancestors didn’t work in cotton fields. I’m not saying that independence for my people came easy, I’m just saying that that isn’t my history. And that got me thinking again.

I knew then that I was a hypocrite of some sorts because I was hating on people who embraced the bling bling culture and here I was embracing one that wasn’t my own. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for diversity but I believe that we need to know where we’ve been before venturing out to other cultures. I’m trying to make a habit of reading, I realized that although I have read several African Writers’ works but not enough. Not enough to know my own heritage. Besides the history I was taught in school, I have never bothered to know more about the struggle for independence that took part in my country. Here I was, totally distracted by their music, I almost forgot about the music from my home. I realized that I had been ignoring the local. The poetry and literature, the traditional art of story telling and conversing. Even worse, how I am not a fluent speaker of my own tribe’s language. It all hit me. Thee is so much to have to learn, so much culture to take in, so much I don’t know about my own people.

Most of us have fallen victim to the west. Or rather, we have gotten carried away by the west. So much so that we have forgotten about our own cultures and traditions. I was watching TV the other day and they were showing young Zulu* girls in their rite of passage ceremonies. Thousands of girls performing a reed dance, some rural, some urban, but all in their traditional regalia. It is their right. I feel like we are slowly losing their heritage. I’ve met people who’ve lived in Kenya all their lives and still can’t speak Kiswahili*. What’s up with that? This is who we are. We should all do something to keep it alive, so that our kids and their kids can know where they came from.

* look it up!!!