Published: July 22, 2012 Updated: July 24, 2012

Anaheim shooting:

2 cops on leave,

1 dead, 5 arrested

 

Firefighters from the city of Anaheim put out a dumpster fire set by demonstrators protesting the Anaheim Police Department's shooting of Manuel Diaz on Saturday. Diaz died as a result of gunshot wounds sustained.

STUART PALLEY, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

 

SLIDE SHOW:
Anaheim shooting: 2 cops on leave, 1 dead, 5 arrested

VIDEO:
Anaheim Police Chief: 'There was a lot of chaos last night'

GRAPHIC:
Shooting location

MAP:
Shooting location

• Anaheim shootings: Trash bins set on fire
• Fatal police shooting incites melee in Anaheim
• Anaheim battles spike in violent crime
• MAP: Shooting location
• Latinos meeting with Anaheim officials after 2 shootings
• Anaheim has had six officer-involved shootings this year
• Anaheim protesters hit streets, blocking lanes
• Anaheim shootings: In neighborhood, 'Everybody's mad'

More from Anaheim

• Anaheim police union statement backs officers
  1 hour & 5 minutes ago
• State Democrats' chairman coming to O.C.

 

 

VIDEO: 'There was a lot of chaos last night'

Man shot by police

RAW VIDEO: Melee after shooting

The shooting climaxed an incident that began around 11:20 p.m. Sunday, when anti-gang officers spotted a known gang member on probation in what they soon determined was a stolen car, Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said. They were pursuing the vehicle when the driver lost control on on West Guinida Lane, and two men and a woman bailed.

“The officers were in foot pursuit for about a half-block when one male suspect fired at the officers,” Dunn said. “The officers returned fire, striking the suspect, who was dead at the scene.”

A gun was found next to the body, he said, adding that the second male suspect was detained, but the female got away, and a perimeter search for her was under way.

It was not immediately determined if the suspect who fired on officers was the gang member on probation, Dunn said.

----------------------

ANAHEIM – Two police officers have been placed on paid leave after one of them fatally shot an unarmed man as he attempted to flee on foot in a residential alleyway, police Chief John Welter said Sunday.

The shooting victim, 25-year-old Manuel Angel Diaz of Santa Ana, was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 7 p.m. Saturday after being shot in the alley a few blocks northeast of downtown Anaheim.

Police described Diaz as a "documented gang member," and said he was shot after the officers saw three men near a car in the 600 block of Anna Drive, near La Palma Avenue and State College Boulevard. Believing the activity to be suspicious, the officers approached the vehicle, and all three men fled on foot.

The officers chased Diaz and observed him throwing unidentified objects onto rooftops as he ran, Welter said. What led one of the officers to shoot Diaz remained under investigation Sunday, Welter said.

Anaheim Mayor Tom Tait said he would be asking California's attorney general to assist in the investigation.

"I'm asking for a full investigation," Tait said at a Sunday news conference. "Transparency is essential. Whatever the truth is, we will own it."

The dead man's sister, Lupe Diaz, said Sunday that her brother was "just hanging out with friends" before the shooting.

"There is no explanation," Diaz said. "It's not fair."

The Orange County District Attorney's Office already has launched its own investigation independent of Anaheim police's, said spokeswoman Susan Schroeder, which is standard protocol for officer-involved shootings that lead to injury or death. At the conclusion of its investigation, the D.A. will either file criminal charges or explain why no charges were filed, she said.

"We don't release any comment until we're done investigating and release that full report," Schroeder said.

As Anaheim city officials held the news conference Sunday afternoon, demonstrators coalesced in the lobby of the Anaheim Police Department headquarters on Harbor Boulevard, chanting messages such as "No justice, no peace," "Justice for Manuel" and "Cops, pigs, murderers" in front of a row of five police officers.

Anaheim police "are not judge, jury and executioner. Nobody is given their due process," said demonstrator Theresa Smith, a community organizer whose son, Caesar Ray Cruz, was fatally shot by Anaheim police in 2010.

"My heart is breaking right now for the mother who lost her son last night," she said. "I'm really hoping we can resolve this in a civil manner."

Sunday's news conference came a day after near-rioting by Anaheim residents protesting what they characterized as a series of senseless, unnecessary officer-involved shooting deaths in Anaheim in recent years.

On Saturday, as demonstrators gathered at the scene of the shooting, Anaheim officers fired bean bags and pepper spray into a crowd of protestors. Welter said Sunday the move was in response to "some known gang members" who had begun throwing bottles and rocks at officers.

Also, Welter said a K-9 police dog accidentally escaped from an officer's vehicle and rushed into the crowd, biting demonstrators in an attack caught on video.

At least one person received medical treatment; it was unclear if anyone else was injured, the chief said Sunday.

"Officers in this situation can't retreat," Welter said, defending the officers' decision to fire at the demonstrators. "If we would have abandoned the scene, we would not be doing our job."

Welter said some in the crowd seemed to be inciting the violence. Five people were arrested – two unidentified minors from Anaheim and Placentia, plus:

•Gabriel Calderon, 20, of Brea, described by police as a "documented gang member" and arrested on suspicion of public consumption of alcohol and later booked on suspicion of murder and street terrorism stemming from a May 2012 gang-related homicide in Anaheim.

•Jose Armando Herrera, 26, of San Bernardino, arrested on suspicion of resisting arrest and described as a "documented gang member."

•Jose Jaime Aguilar Lopez, 46, of Anaheim, arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault and the forceful taking of an individual from the custody of an officer.

"I don't have a problem with people exercising their First Amendment rights," Welter said. "I do have a problem when people start throwing bottles and rocks at my officers."

But Welter apologized Sunday for the K-9 dog that escaped.

"We are extremely sorry for the people who were bit," Welter said. "The city will be responsible for all medical bills associated with the dog. The canine officer responsible for the dog is devastated by this."

Also on Saturday night, a trash bin was lit on fire at least three times and rolled into the middle of the street, blocking traffic. Officers removed the bin each time.

Some of that same unrest unfolded again Sunday night. Trash bins were rolled onto the street at least twice, and the fire in one grew so intense that firefighters were called to snuff it out.

On Sunday, city leaders appealed to the community for calm while they continued to look into what happened.

"We will do everything we can to find the truth about what truly happened out there," Anaheim Councilwoman Lorri Galloway said.

Added the mayor: "As with many people, I viewed the events and was very, very concerned with what I saw."

SATURDAY'S SHOOTING

Anaheim's police chief confirmed Sunday the shooting victim on Anna Drive was unarmed. There were no weapons recovered at the scene that could have belonged to Diaz, Welter said.

Welter said he could not immediately confirm how many shots were fired or precisely where Diaz was shot, other than it was in the 700 block of Anna Drive.

The neighborhood surrounding Anna Drive has experienced escalating gang activity, which is why police have been regularly patrolling the area, he said.

Although just one of the two officers shot at Diaz, both were put on paid administrative leave, Welter said. Their identities were not released.

Diaz was taken to a hospital in critical condition, and died at 7 p.m., Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said. The two other men got away, and the car they were standing next to when the officers approached them was impounded, he said.

A 17-year-old who lives in the neighborhood said she saw the shooting from about 20 feet away. She said Diaz had his back to the officer and was shot in the buttocks area. Diaz went down on his knees, and she said he was struck by another bullet in the head. The other officer handcuffed Diaz, who by then was on the ground and not moving, she added.

"They searched his pockets, and there was a hole in his head, and I saw blood on his face," she said.

(The Register is withholding the girl's name at her family's request, because she is a minor and they are concerned for her safety.)

Police reportedly tried to buy any video taken by witnesses on their cellphones, residents said.

Dunn said he didn't know whether the allegations were true. He said it was unclear whether it's against Anaheim Police Department policy to do so, but said that the agency would investigate.

In the past, Dunn said, officers have asked for cellphone video as evidence, but he said he didn't know of instances where officers would pay for it.

Daisy Gonzalez, 16, who identified herself as Diaz's niece, said her uncle likely ran away from officers when they approached him because of his past experience with law enforcement.

"He (doesn't) like cops. He never liked them because all they do is harass and arrest anyone," Gonzalez said Saturday after lighting a candle for her uncle at the scene of the shooting.

SATURDAY'S MELEE

At the scene of the shooting on Saturday, where about 100 demonstrators had gathered to protest, officers shot bean bags and pepper balls into the crowd after some began throwing rocks and bottles at police.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the officers gave any warning, Dunn said.

Yesenia Rojas, 34, who lives in the neighborhood and knew the man as a "good person," said she was hit by a bean bag, pointing to a red and purple welt on the side of her stomach.

"Why kill this man?" she said.

Rojas said a stroller with her 1-year-old grandson was toppled over and the baby was nearly attacked when the K-9 police dog escaped from its handler.

Throughout the night, police in multiple marked and unmarked squad cars attempted to control the unruly crowd gathered near the shooting scene. Officers cordoned the intersection at East La Palma Avenue and Anna Drive with the same yellow crime-scene tape used by police where the shooting happened.

About 9:30 p.m., an Anaheim police helicopter was observed hovering above the crowd while police on the ground brandished batons and other weapons at the crowd, attempting to keep order.

Some in the crowd reported they had inhaled some of the pepper spray fired by police. Demonstrator Joel Hunt, 21, of Fullerton, who was in the area visiting a friend when the shooting happened, said Saturday night his throat was still burning from the effects of being sprayed.

On Sunday, Elizabeth Aguilar, 19, displayed a welt on her upper right arm where she said she was hit by a bean bag fired by a police officer at close range.

Aguilar said that when the K-9 dog was released on demonstrators, she was struck by a bean bag after trying to hit the dog as it lunged toward a stroller with a baby inside.

Her father was struck three times by bean bags and had to seek treatment at a hospital, she said.

"I thought (the police) are supposed to warn us if they are about to do something like that to clear the crowd," Aguilar said. "But they just started shooting at us.

"I used to look up to the police when I was a kid," she added. "But now I have no respect."

SUNDAY'S PROTEST

On Sunday, about 50 community members and activists staged a march from the scene of the shooting to the Anaheim Police Department's headquarters about two miles away.

Carrying signs that read "Stop the killings" and "You may be next," they entered the front lobby of the police station and chanted through bull horns: "No justice, no peace" and "Shame, shame."

Protesters also created a chalk drawing on the sidewalk outside police headquarters, writing messages such as "Shame on Anaheim P.D."

"I think when you see a community act up like that and lose their fear of police, it's a clear sign that they are angry over an injustice," said demonstrator Doug Kauffman, 24, a Long Beach resident and organizer with the Campaign to Stop Police Violence. "A man was murdered by police on their street. Of course they are angry and are going to protest."

A line of five police officers stood stoically at a doorway that led to the briefing room where Sunday's news conference took place.

Just as the meeting was about to begin, Diaz's family was escorted into the room along with reporters and photographers.

Lupe Diaz, 29, the man's sister, said her brother was unemployed, but had worked in offices and as a general laborer.

"He was a bright soul. Fun. Caring. He'd never hurt a soul," she said. "He had such a big heart."

HISTORY OF COMMUNITY TENSION

Saturday's shooting was the latest by the Anaheim Police Department, which is under scrutiny for several recent officer-involved shootings.

For nearly two years, families of others who have been fatally shot by Anaheim police in recent years have been holding protests at Anaheim police headquarters each Sunday.

Those protests led city officials last month to order an independent investigation of "major police incidents," several of which resulted in suspects being killed.

Galloway said Sunday that city officials were still working to find "a truly independent investigator that can find the truth."

Galloway, who has been on the council for eight years, headed a community initiative that worked to improve conditions in the neighborhood where Saturday's shooting took place.

She said her heart ached when she saw television footage of a police dog overturning a stroller and bean bags being fired at community members.

"I take this very personally because I know many of the people out there and there are a lot of good people in that neighborhood," Galloway said. "And I've also heard their cries about the rampant crime and the need to clean it up.

"I don't know the context of what happened out there yet, and that's why we need to find the truth."

RELATED STORIES

OC Register's Day 1 coverage of Saturday's officer-involved shooting: http://bit.ly/MhrPf0

CBS2/KCAL9 video of the Anaheim melee and police response: http://cbsloc.al/Qo2MM4

OCRegister coverage of a March 2012 officer-involved shooting in Anaheim: http://bit.ly/M4BkCP

Occupy Orange County's video coverage of this weekend's protests: http://www.ustream.tv/user/orangecrew

–Register staff writers Sonya Quick, Scott Martindale, Fermin Leal, Eric Carpenter, Cindy Carcamo and Sean Emery contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: squick@ocregister.com

 

Related:

• Anaheim shootings: Trash bins set on fire
• Fatal police shooting incites melee in Anaheim
• Anaheim battles spike in violent crime
• MAP: Shooting location
• Latinos meeting with Anaheim officials after 2 shootings

__________________________

Anaheim Residents

Continue Protests

After Cops Open Fire

at Women, Kids [Video]

by Jorge Rivas, Monday, July 23 2012

25th Anniversary

of the Battle of

Cuito Cuanavale

This summer marks the 25^th Anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, a chapter of the Angolan Civil War (1975 to 2002) in which Cuba played an integral part.

Five years ago, for the 20th anniversary of the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, José Steinsleger wrote, “Havana, near the end of 1984: ‘Is it worth dying so far away?’ The young woman in olive green, sitting next to me in the famous Cuban ice cream parlor, Coppelia, dropped her ‘compañero’ attitude and gave me a fearsome stare of contempt. ‘Look, sir. This country was made with the blood of millions of slaves.’ Then she turned away and left me there, alone and blushing with embarrassment, with a lost appetite for my stupid ice cream.”

Steinsleger describes the battle with a fascinating, if chilling, image: “Luanda, Angola, November 5, 1975. The Polish journalist Ryszard Kapuscinski, hardly a friend of the Cuban Revolution but the best illustrator of Western cowardice toward our intervention in the heart of Africa, described the situation of the purebred dogs abandoned by the Portuguese colonists, fleeing the city en masse, ‘…locked up and condemned to die.’ Boxers, bulldogs, greyhounds, dobermans, dachshunds, cockers, lapdogs, mastiffs, Scottish terriers all in search of food. ‘If the dogs went to the north, they’d find the FNLA. If they’d gone to the south, they’d find UNITA.’ The National Liberation Front (FNLA, backed by Congo Kinshasa and the United States) and the National Union for Independence (UNITA, supported by the racist South Africans) was about to capture Luanda to prevent Agostinho Neto, head of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) from proclaiming the Portuguese colony’s independence.”

This is also a good moment to read Black Stalingrad: The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale, by Peter Polack. Polack, a criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands, who says his interest in Angola was sparked by a meeting in 1992 with two Cuban refugees who had fought in Angola. He then made a trip to Cuba where he acquired several books on the war in Angola and the battle that took place there in 1987 and 1988 where two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union, “collided in a monstrous battle fought by their satellite nations of Cuba and South Africa who were assisting“ Angolan groups. The author explains that the battle was significant because it represented the last major incursion in Southern Africa by Russia and the USA, the start of the Angolan peace process, the end of Cuban international intervention, and the end of the cold war.

For a video presentation of Black Stalingrad, see

Peter Polack was born in Jamaica in 1958. He has worked as a criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands since 1983.

José Steinsleger is a prolific Argentine writer and journalist based in Mexico. He is a regular columnist for the leading Mexican newspaper La Jornada.

[The excerpt from “The Battle of Cuito Cuanavale—The 20th Anniversary of an Example of International Solidarity” by José Steinsleger was translated by Machetera. She is a member of Tlaxcala, the network of translators for linguistic diversity, and editor of the blog http://machetera.wordpress.com/.]

For reviews of Peter Polack’s Black Stalingrad, see http://reporterregrets.blogspot.com/2010/02/black-stalingrad-or-angolas-verdun.html and previous post http://repeatingislands.com/2010/03/13/amateur-historian-writes-book-on-cuban-soldiers-in-angola/

Also see http://www.caymannewsservice.com/local-news/2011/05/25/local-lawyer%E2%80%99s-book-acquired-portuguese-publisher and http://www.facebook.com/black.stalingrad

See Steinsleger’s full article (in English) at http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?lg=en&reference=4891

For more information on Cuban participation in Angola, see http://www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/48547

Photos from http://www.tlaxcala.es/pp.asp?lg=en&reference=4891 and http://archive.worldhistoria.com/africa-vs-latin-america_topic2702.html

theartsdesk Q&A:

Musician Jimmy Cliff

One of reggae's breakout stars speaks on everything from Peter O'Toole to bongo drums

by Thomas H Green

Sunday, 22 July 2012

The ever cheerful Mr Jimmy Cliff

 

Jimmy Cliff (b 1948) is one of Jamaican music’s biggest names. Raised in the countryside, he went to Kingston in his teens and persuaded record shop owner Leslie Kong to record him. The resulting song, “Hurricane Hattie”, was the first of a string of local hits but in the late Sixties he moved to London and, working with Chris Blackwell’s Island Records, his songs such as “Wonderful World, Beautiful People” and “Vietnam”, the latter a favourite of Bob Dylan, reached a far wider audience, becoming hits in Europe.

In 1972 Cliff played the lead role in the film The Harder They Come, about a Jamaican musician who turns to crime, and composed much of its classic soundtrack. Songs from it such as “You Can Get It If You Really Want” and “Many Rivers to Cross” would go on to become among reggae’s most renowned. Cliff was now an international star, a peer of Bob Marley, and toured extensively, building huge fanbases in Africa and South America. Throughout the Seventies, after leaving Island, he produced a series of albums that stylistically pushed reggae’s boundaries before returning to his roots with 1981’s Give the People What They Want. He was heavily involved with Steve Van Zandt’s Artists Against Apartheid in the Eighties and has worked with a wide range of artists including the Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello.

He currently has a new album, Rebirth, his first in eight years, and is touring some of the summer’s festivals, including Camp Bestival next weekend. I meet him in a central-London hotel on a Sunday lunchtime. Casual of dress, svelte of figure, smiley of face and shaven of pate beneath a cap he continually toys with, he sits down in a booth in the bar area with a coffee (or possibly hot chocolate), and answers my questions in a keen, gentle voice tinged with a West Indian lilt.

THOMAS H GREEN: Have you seen Julien Temple’s film about Joe Strummer, The Future is Unwritten?

JIMMY CLIFF: Actually I’ve not but that’s one I want to see. I’ve been too busy.

The reason I ask is because he was a friend of yours. Was he an influential figure in your life?

I wouldn’t say influential, more inspiring. We have a sameness of mind. When we used to meet we never had time to sit and talk, until the last time, doing “Over the Border” on my last album [Black Magic]. We had time to talk for two weeks. I liked his mind, very bright he was. I miss him.

Listen to Jimmy Cliff and Joe Strummer's "Over the Border"

And on your new album you cover The Clash song "Guns of Brixton", a great song. What do you reckon to the affiliation between punk and Jamaican music?

Punk addresses the political and social issues in the same way. Of course musically the punks adapted something from reggae and put it with rock and came to a unique music style. To be a punk you’re against the system and we were like that in reggae so there was a kinship there.

 

You cover the Joe Higgs song “World is Upside Down” on your new album too. Tell us about him.

He was a very important character in the reggae business. I knew him before this but a notable thing was he taught Bob and the Wailers harmony. Joe Higgs loved to be of service. His head was full of knowledge but he didn’t write a lot of songs. The few he wrote are so profound. He had another song called “Songs my Enemies Sing”. He was an amazing figure. He didn’t have dreadlocks but he was a true rasta.

You updated the lyrics, singing lines such as “so much war and poverty whilst you enjoy prosperity”.

Joe Higgs’s take was maybe not as universal as mine but he meant the same thing. Joe understood a lot about the church and state psychology, which is global. Where communism rejects the religious side of things - he said if they reject that, they’re a religion themselves, so Joe understood the political system of the world. I’m glad you asked me about him because he’s one of the unsung heroes.

 

You’ve worked with so many, such as Dean Fraser, the saxophonist – talking of whom, would you say the jazz abilities of Jamaican musicians have been unfairly overshadowed?

Go back - at beginning of ska, of reggae, all those musicians were jazz musicians. We came in with maybe an idea about the song and they would frame it for us. I had in mind a long time ago to write a book called The True Story of Reggae because of all these unsung heroes. People need to know about them because they see the light bulb shining but they don’t see the transformer, to know where the power is. Jamaican jazz is really underappreciated – Dean Fraser, Roland Alphonso, Tommy McCook, Lester Sterling, Headley Bennett, [Stanley] Ribbs, all great sax players. Of musicians generally, Ernest Ranglin was voted the number two guitarist in the world at one time. He used to come over here and play jazz at Ronnie Scott’s. I would go as far as to say that, as a guitarist, Ernest Ranglin could give George Benson a run.

You worked with the troubled but brilliant bassist Jaco Pastorius a couple of years before his death in 1987. How did you find him?

Sometimes people are really brilliant - you can call it troubled, but he was brilliant. He came into the studio and he liked me, he give me a big hug, then he wanted to show me who he was. He put his bass down on the ground and he started to jump around it and the bass started playing something. People think he’s crazy but something came out of that bass.

As I understood it, by that stage in his life he was pole-axed by a combination of mental illness, booze and drugs.

He certainly did have problems, but maybe the music kept him alive.

What’s your earliest memory?

In the mountains as a baby, three years old, eating what we call wet sugar, the sugar made from the cane where the mule turns it to get out the juice, they’d turn that to wet sugar. This lady who used to sell it in a big tin would say, “Come here, boy, sing like your mother, laugh like your mother,” and she’d take some sugar and give it to me.

What did your parents do?

My parents were farmers. My father was also a tailor and my mother was a great cook, but most of my family were farmers, whether ground provisions or sugar cane, also cattle, cows, goats. I had to participate in that world but I hated it. I was like the odd man out because when it comes to that I’d go and hide somewhere. “Where is James? I can’t find him.”

 

__________________________

Five Must-See

Jimmy Cliff Videos

BY Jim Allen

>via: http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/07/17/best-jimmy-cliff-videos/

Mala is one half of Digital Mystikz: South London’s finest purveyors of meditational bass weight. Dubstep originators, producers, DJs as well as label owners and promoters, they unleash a dense concentration of dubwise good vibrations that would make Jah Shaka and Aba Shanti equally proud. Being longtime friends from South London, Mala and Coki began with a shared love of jungle, dub, roots reggae, garage and house. Together they began forming their own distinct styles of music. Championed at the infamous ‘Forward’ nights, their Pathwayz (on Big Apple) and distinctive, fresh music like Mala’s Neverland, Anti War Dub or Coki’s Stuck and Shattered, began raining down on unsuspecting Londoners and the rest of the world in no time. It goes how it goes, and the Mystikz’ own label DMZ is kind of a flagship now and has become a figurehead imprint for this thing called dubstep. The London institution Soul Jazz is also fond of them, together with their mate Loefah, they release on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label and run a self-titled label night in deepest Brixton. Their bass weight meditation is spreading far and wide.

Mala’s

Mala In Cuba

album unveiled

“This is the record that reevaluates and realigns the dubstep movement within sound system culture.”

So says Gilles Peterson of Mala In Cuba, due to be released through his Brownswood label on September 10. In May 2011, Mala, dubstep trailblazer and one half of Digital Mystikz, travelled to Havana with Peterson to record and collaborate with local musicians – Mala In Cuba, a full-length album, documents the results of this unlikely culture clash.

“The plan was literally just go to Cuba, link up with some musicians, check out the vibes, and then see what happens.”

A couple of clips have surfaced online in recent months, but below is your first chance to listen to two tracks in full – namely ‘Cuba Electronic’ and ‘Calle F’, which will be released together on a 12″ in advance of the album, on August 6.





“I was a little bit unsure about it, to be honest with you,” Mala told FACT last night when asked about the project’s beginnings. “It felt way out of my comfort zone. You must understand – I’m pretty low-key, I do my thing in a particular way, and I’m happy doing things that way, because it’s right for me.

“But when Gilles approached me it did seem like a serious offer – you know, I’ve had many offers over the years from a vast range of many different people and companies to do all kinds of projects, but usually I shy away them because they don’t feel right. Something about this f elt right.”

“You have to do these things in life to change and grow, to learn about yourself and to learn about other people as well.”

Once in Havana, Mala found he had an instant connection with the musicians, despite still being unsure what direction the project would ultimately take.

“We just kind of jammed,” he recalls. “I was totally out of my element, but you have to do these things in life to change and grow, to learn about yourself and to learn about other people as well, you know. I knew from the start it was going to be a real learning experience – when we first went out there we didn’t even have a concept for what we were going to do. The plan was literally just go to Cuba, link up with some musicians, check out the vibes, and then see what happens.”

But a plan did soon emerge. “We ended up working with a guy called Roberto Fonseca and his band. It wasn’t until the very morning that we went into the studio in Havana that the concept came about – which is that they were going to record traditional Cuban rhythms for me, but at the tempo I enjoy writing music at… around 140.

“Just watching them attack that tempo with what they do was just…it’s just something you can’t put into words. I’ve never been around musicians of that calibre – all of them were phenomenal. They’d set up, literally practice for five minutes and then bang, knock out a five minute improvisation for me to take home. I ended up coming home with about 60GB worth of their playing, just from the first trip.”

“It’s Havana meets South London, you know?”

From the sounds of it, Fonseca’s band were as intrigued by Mala’s music as he was by theirs. “They don’t really have that kind of culture out there. I’m thinking, I don’t know if I can even work with these guys because they’re on a totally different level musically, and I feel so inferior, but then you play them something of yours, and it’s not that they feel the same exactly, but they don’t know how you created what you created. So you’re both in an unknown, so to speak.

“I like to think that it was interesting for [the Cuban musicians] to hear what they do in a completely different context,” he says. “I wanted [the album] to feel Cuban in a way, to respect the musicians and the culture, but at the same time I still wanted to make music that I could play to my audience, and in my environment – on a soundsystem. It’s Havana meets South London, you know?”

Look out for the full interview with Mala on FACT later this week.

Mala in Cuba tracklist:
01. Introduction
02. Mulata
03. Tribal
04. Changuito
05. Revolution
06. Como Como feat. Dreiser & Sexto Sentido
07. Cuba Electronic
08. The Tunnel
09. Ghost
10. Curfew
11. The Tourist
12. Changes
13. Calle F
14. Noche Suenos feat Danay Suarez

__________________________

>via: http://www.xlr8r.com/podcast/2011/05/mala

__________________________

The 2012 Caketrain Chapbook Competition is now open to entries in the fiction genre.

Deadline

October 1, 2012

Final Judge

Michael Kimball

Awards

publication, $250, and 25 contributor copies to winner

publication and 25 contributor copies to runner-up

Eligibility

This competition is open to English language fiction manuscripts (both novellas and collections of shorter works are acceptable). While previously-published stand-alone pieces or excerpts may be included in a manuscript, the manuscript as a whole must be an unpublished work. Translations and previously self-published collections are ineligible. Simultaneous submissions are acceptable; please note, however, that reading fees are non-refundable, and Caketrain is to be notified as soon as possible if a manuscript is accepted elsewhere. Manuscript revisions will not be considered during the reading period. Please do not include cover artwork or photographs with your submission. The author must not have a close personal or professional relationship with Michael Kimball or any Caketrain Journal and Press staff member; if an author is unsure whether this policy applies to him or her, Caketrain will gladly address inquiries.

Reading Fee

Entrants may choose between two reading fee amounts: either $15 for consideration or $20 for consideration and a copy of the winning book upon its release in May 2013. (The $20 option is available to domestic U.S. entrants only.)

Guidelines (for print submissions)

Print entries must be postmarked no later than October 1, 2012. Please submit 40 to 80 pages of typed fiction (approximately 12,000 to 26,000 words). Include page numbers, table of contents and, if applicable, an acknowledgments page. Submissions should include two cover pages: one with the manuscript’s title, the other with the title, author’s name, postal address, and email address. The author’s name should not appear anywhere else in the manuscript. Print manuscripts will be recycled at competition conclusion. Please submit manuscripts through the United States Postal Service. A reading fee of either $15 or $20 (entrant’s choice, as detailed above) must accompany each submission, made payable to Caketrain Journal and Press. Submissions may include an SASE for notification of competition results. Results will also be announced via email and posted at www.caketrain.org in January 2013. Submit print entries to Caketrain Journal and Press, Box 82588, Pittsburgh, PA 15218.

Guidelines (for Electronic Submissions)

Electronic entries must be received no later than October 1, 2012. Please submit 40 to 80 pages of typed fiction (approximately 12,000 to 26,000 words) as an email attachment in either DOC, PDF, or RTF format. Include page numbers, table of contents, and, if applicable, an acknowledgments page. Submissions should include two cover pages as the first two pages of the attached document: one with the manuscript’s title, the other with the title, author’s name, address, and email address. The author’s name should not appear anywhere else in the manuscript. Once the manuscript has been sent, the reading fee of either $15 or $20 (entrant’s choice, as detailed above) can be paid by credit card through Paypal by using the following links: $15 reading fee, $20 reading fee with copy of winner. A reply email will be sent once the manuscript is downloaded and verified intact. Results will be announced via email and posted at www.caketrain.org in January 2013. Submit electronic entries to editors@caketrain.org.

A few hundred years ago, chapbooks were pamphlets of popular tales or ballads, hawked in the streets for pennies. 21st century echapbooks are the contemporary equivalent with the potential for reaching many more readers than do limited print editions.

Wordrunner eChapbooks publishes four collections of fiction, poetry or memoir (personal narrative) per year on this site, each featuring one or two authors, and an occasional anthology.

We don't simply post stories in these pages. We collaborate with authors to edit their work and each collection has its own professional design. All authors are paid and there are no submission fees.

Honoring the "E" in echapbook, hyperlinks to photos, videos, background articles, maps, poetry and artwork add a kind of immediacy that only web-based publication can provide.

SUBMISSIONS will be accepted from July 1 to August 26, 2012 for the fall 2012 anthology (fiction, memoir and poetry). This will be our 14th echapbook.

Previously published echapbooks may be read in the ARCHIVES.

Please visit the site again and often. We will be offering our readers a wide variety of original, high quality writing in the years to come.

Click here to sign up online for quarterly email reminders of each issue and upcoming submission deadlines.

 

   Vist our Facebook page to comment on echapbooks.

All Nationalities

Ecouraged to Enter:

Save the Frogs

Poetry Contest

($100 top prize

| international)

Deadline: 15 October 2012

The 2012 SAVE THE FROGS! Poetry Contest will run from January 15th to October 15th, 2012. All ages and nationalities are encouraged to enter!

Peace FrogsYou can view the 2011 winning frog poems here. Congratulations to Michael James Faulkner of Ada, Oklahoma, the 2011 SAVE THE FROGS! Poetry Contest Grand Prize Winner and reigning Save The Frogs Poet Laureate! The 2011 contest received 700 entries from 33 countries. Thanks to Peace Frogs for providing the cash prizes! Thanks to all the contestants for their fabulous frog poetry!

ABOUT THE COMPETITION

Amphibian populations worldwide are in the midst of a mass extinction crisis, yet most people are completely unaware! We need your help in getting the word out. This contest will raise awareness of the amphibian extinction problem by getting people involved and interested. The best frog poems will be used in a book of frog poetry that will be sold to raise money for amphibian conservation efforts. This book will feature artwork from our concurrent SAVE THE FROGS! Art Contest.

WHO CAN ENTER?

Anybody! We encourage students and teachers to get their writing classes involved on Save The Frogs Day. We encourage amateur and professional poets to take part as well. And the more countries represented the better! Did we mention that it is indeed FREE to enter the contest?

The Japanese poet Basho wrote a famous haiku in the 17th century:

古 池 や
蛙 飛 込 む
水 の 音

Furuike ya
Kawazu tobikomu
Mizu no oto

Which is translated as:

The old pond
A frog jumps in
The sound of water.

Please send us your 21st century poems of any length, form or style.

The old pond
Frogs are in danger
Poets jump in.

HOW DO I WRITE A FROG POEM?

We welcome any poems that mention frogs, salamanders, newts, toads, caecilians, amphibians, savethefrogs.com, and/or SAVE THE FROGS!

Here are some ideas for your frog poems:

(1) Find out about a particular kind of frog and describe the world from that frog’s point of view.

(2) What if you found the last frogs alive on the planet … What would you do? How would you feel?

(3) Write a poem that makes the reader understand the importance of saving frogs, or one that makes them realize the danger frogs are in.

(4) Write a poem about any of the threats to frogs.

(5) Write a poem about how ridiculously cool frogs are!

(6) Imagine all kinds of brave, extravagant and daring ways in which you could save the frogs.

PRIZES

Did we mention that there will be prizes? Aside from fame and the admiration of your peers, the Grand Prize Winner and Honorable Mentions may all see their poems featured in a book of Frog Poetry we will produce. Contest winners will also be acknowledged on this website, alongside a copy of their poem. And to top it off:

The Grand Prize Winner will:

(1) Receive $100 CASH (or check!).

(2) Receive $50 worth of "Frog Cash" to be used for any of the cool, environmentally-friendly merchandise in the SAVE THE FROGS! Gift Center.

(3) Become an official judge of next year's SAVE THE FROGS! Poetry Contest.

(4) Receive frog fame.

Category Winners will:

(1) Win $50 CASH (or check!).

(2) Receive $30 worth of "Frog Cash" to be used for any of the cool, environmentally-friendly merchandise in the SAVE THE FROGS! Gift Center.

CATEGORIES

Category winners will be chosen from the following categories. Note however that the Grand Prize Winner may be chosen from any category.

(1) 18+ years of age

(2) 13-17 years old

(3) Under 13 age group

CONTEST RULES

(1) Submitted poetry must be your original creation!

(2) Be sure to mention at least one of the following: frogs, salamanders, newts, toads, caecilians, amphibians, savethefrogs.com, and/or SAVE THE FROGS!

(3) You may submit up to two poems. Please always give us the title of each poem. Please do NOT name your poems "Save The Frogs".

(4) Submission of poetry constitutes your agreement to the Poetry Contest Terms & Conditions. Please read these over, as they describe your rights to the submitted poetry as well as ours.

(5) All entries are to be submitted no later than 11:59pm U.S. Eastern Time on October 15th, 2011. Email submissions must be RECEIVED by October 15th, 2011. Mail-in entries must be POSTMARKED by October 15th, 2011.

SUGGESTIONS

(1) The word frog, toad, newt, salamander, caecilian or amphibian should appear somewhere in the body of the poem.

(2) No religious content.

(3) Check your spelling.

(4) Be original and creative!

(5) No need to write a long poem...though you are welcome to if you are so inspired!

SAVE THE FROGS! Nonprofit Organization (www.savethefrogs.com) has announced the international Frog Poetry contest, with prizes including the chance to have your poems published in a book they will sell to raise funds for their amphibian conservation projects. Please visit www.savethefrogs.com/poetry to learn more. The goal of the competition is to raise awareness of the mass extinction of amphibians that is currently taking place worldwide. Please spread the word to any poets you know. Thanks!

READY TO SUBMIT YOUR POETRY?

Unless you are a teacher trying to submit a class' handwritten poems, you must submit your poetry via our digital submission form.

Digital Submissions: We prefer digital submissions. If you wrote your poem in sand at the beach, or recited it in a cave after curfew, please now transcribe the poem using a computer and word processor. We suggest you compose your poetry and save it to your computer prior to uploading to our system. Have you read the Rules and the Poetry Contest Terms & Conditions? If not, please do so now.

Snail-Mail Submissions: We strongly encourage all contestants to digitally submit their poetry, as this saves our unpaid staff considerable time and effort.

NOBODY EXCEPT FOR TEACHERS MAY SUBMIT PAPER ENTRIES.

Whenever possible, teachers should incorporate typing and computer lessons with the Frog Poetry Contest, or ask the students to have their parents type up the poetry and submit it. If this is not possible, then please do mail us the class' poetry, being sure to include this Mail-In Contest Entry Form.

PLEASE NOTE:

(1) Poet's name and age MUST be written on the page with the poetry (not just on the entry form).

(2) The Mail-In Contest Entry Form must be paper-clipped to the back of the poem. No tape! No staples!

(3) Teachers should please count the total number of submissions in their packet and include the number in a note on top of the submissions.

(4) If poems were digitally created (i.e. Microsoft Word documents), but you do not wish to use the digital upload system, you should burn them to CD and send the CD, as we always prefer digital format. In other words, if someone typed the poem, we want the digital version, not the paper version! Still include each student's Mail-In Contest Entry Form.

Note that Mail-in entries will NOT be returned. Teachers are welcome to bundle their classes' submissions in a single package. Again, please bear in mind that we strongly prefer essays be submitted digitally. Questions? Email poetry@savethefrogs.com.

Download: Contest Entry Form

CONTACT INFORMATION:

For queries: poetry@savethefrogs.com

For submissions: via the poetry contest submission form

Website: http://savethefrogs.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feature Interview:

Olumide Popoola

 

Photo Credit (c) 2011 Regine Romain

 

Thank you so much for agreeing to be featured on SOGI Naija! We’re excited to have you on here. For those unfamiliar with you and your work, could you tell us where you’re from and what you do?

 

I’m Nigerian-German, spend some years in Nigeria as a child, some more in Germany and have been in London for 10 years now. I’m a writer of fiction, for the stage, poet and performer.

Did you start writing at a young age? When did you realize you wanted to make it your main focus?

 

I started at age 6, which is when I learned writing. I don’t know what prompted it, probably my love for reading and stories, but I decided and proclaimed then that I would be a writer. I wanted to make it my main focus in my late teens and early 20s but was doing more performance poetry then. Fiction came to me as a surprise only about 5 years ago. I had written a few stories before but not lots. I feel like fiction freed me as artist/ writer. It gave me a new dimension, new levels of exploration.

 

In addition to writing, you’re also a guest lecturer and a speaker. Could you tell our readers what the scope of your work is in all these different avenues, and what you choose to address or explore through it?

 

I’m currently completing a PhD in creative writing for which I am producing a cross-genre novel. As part of that I also think (and of course read) critically a lot, in terms of structure of narrative, how a novel could be broken down, “disturbed”, other influences added… Theoretically it might be around themes such as cross-genre, code-switching, border-crossing. So when I get invited to speak I could discuss my work in a larger context of these explorations.  But of course also in regards to the themes I use content wise, thinking process in regards to writing and ‘voice’ itself etc. I kind of like to involve myself as well, what does it mean to be writer for me and create certain characters and let them out into the world.

 

 

How do you choose to identify? (as queer/lesbian/gay/none of the above?)

 

Queer

 

Mercy Killing: A poem by Olumide Popoola that appears in Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion & Spirituality

 

How does your identity play a part in your writing?

 

I think my life, not just my personal one but what I see on the perimeters of my horizon(s), is reflected in the characters I create. Themes that interest or disturb me in real life find their way into the story. What I can personally imagine possible, permeates the work.

 

What was the coming out process like for you? How did your family react?

 

Only my father had trouble with it at first, initially disowning me for a while. But we reconciled and he was then genuinely fine with it (he passed a few years back). Funny is that his reasoning for accepting me was the fact that I am half German. That made it somehow OK.

 

What’s your opinion on the current state of queer issues in Nigeria, especially the pending anti-gay legislation? How can we work on improving the situation?

 

Awareness. It takes a lot of brave people to stand up and say things, contest homophobic attitudes in public. Recently a straight Nigerian man stated on facebook that he wanted to de-friend all homophobes, as he was tired with their un-informed and ignorant views. The vendetta was endless and painful to follow. He had incredibly well scripted arguments, based on thorough research and quotes from the bible to defy the common same-sex un-African and un-Christian claims. Yet the hatred was potent. Again, in the end his own acceptance was explained on the fact that he no longer lived in Nigeria, which was an untrue claim.

 

I think that a lot of organizing and lobbying is happening continent-wide and hopefully it’s a matter of time for more and more people to speak up and defy homophobic views. Networking and being supportive in the way that we can is important. Listening and following the lead of local activists and which direction they are taking in addressing the issue.

 

'water running from my mouth' w/ Leon Michener from Olumide Popoola on Vimeo.

 

 

What was it like winning the May Ayim Award back in 2004? How did that affect you as a writer?

 

It was one of the greatest honours! May Ayim was a very important writer for me and in my development. It still casts waves as people still talk about the award.

 

Tell us about your recently published novella! Where can we get a copy?

 

Short: it’s about the unlikely friendship between two women who grace each other’s lives by sharing moments of beauty, understanding and love.

 

Longer:

 

In this is not about sadness, an unlikely friendship between two complex and traumatised London-based women, one an older Jamaican, the other a young South African, is explored through each character’s use of specific language to relate to space, memory and silence. The lyrical dual-narration allows vernacular language to shape the structure and flow, echoing call-and-response modes familiar to international storytelling traditions.

 

The novel follows pensioner Mrs. Thompson’s and young activist Tebo’s developing friendship and the problems that arise due to their different views on political issues. Their conflictive personalities make for an unusual pair and both carry unspoken trauma. When Tebo cries one day to offer empathy for Mrs. Thompson’s pain, the silence is broken. Their bond is sealed through the acknowledgment of the other’s pain; the personal histories arrive in a space where understanding difference creates possibility for healing and alliance.

 

In Germany:

http://www.unrast-verlag.de/unrast,2,361,19.html

 

In the UK:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/this-about-sadness-Olumide-Popoola/dp/389771602X

 

In the US:

http://www.powells.com/biblio/389771602X?&PID=32322

 

or here (US):

http://www.alibris.com/booksearch?qsort=p&isbn=389771602X&siteID=GwEz7vxblVU-IYRZ3Yxntkgzb4vCEp2z7w

 

You’ve done collaborations with musicians before. How does music intersect with your work?

 

I love working with live musicians and I did it more often when I still performed more spoken word sets. It gives another layer and dynamic as both have to listen to each other, respond, let the music and the words have their own and a common place. It can take a poem somewhere else and give it a different melody or rhythm than it originally had. It can also allow me to find something new, get out of my own patterns. I’ve also collaborated with various DJs, sometimes for “regular” spoken word sets or even in clubs as live PA. I’ve recently recorded a poem for Edward Maclean, a super talented and amazing Ghanaian-German bass player. I’ve played with him a few times when I lived in Berlin. He’s currently working on a solo project called Adoqué and I put words to one of the tracks. I don’t know any release details yet though, alas. But it’s a great track, that has a subtle haunting melody, and can’t wait for it to come out!

 

Olumide Popoola reading excerpt from 'this is not about sadness' (novella) from Olumide Popoola on Vimeo.

 

 

I see you have a BSc in Ayurvedic Medicine! Could you tell us a bit more about that?

 

Oh… I have to confess that after a short stint as a practitioner I no longer practice. I decided to study Ayurveda because I was deep into Yoga at that time and had also started learning a little about the philosophy. Ayurveda, which is traditional Indian medicine (alternative or complementary medicine if you will), felt like a natural extension and I was fascinated with their views of getting to the root cause of a problem, rather than just pacifying the symptoms. There is also a lot on balancing various things: inside the body, what we eat/ ingest, behaviour etc.

It’s still important to me more in subtler forms.

 

What advice would you give to young queer Nigerian writers?

 

Find/ build networks. Be good to yourself. Love. Be brave. Laugh. Enjoy. Find joy, live joy, and live life as much as possible!

 

What’s next for you? What do you hope to achieve with your work?

 

I’m working on a play that if all goes well will be published next spring (2013). Also working on a novel, which will take a little longer than that. In the meantime I try and publish some poems or stories here and there or work on collaboration with musicians.

 

I hope to push the imagination a little. Say that things we sometimes pretend are not possible, are very much able to happen or take place, and that we are not bound to go along with a notion that we shouldn’t talk about them. More than anything: create space. On a recent panel discussion I described it like this: When you see lightening it is said to be Oya, when the thunder sounds it is Shango. Oya prepares the way yet everyone talks about Shango’s power. The imagination is like Oya, it paves the way. If we cannot conceive of something it cannot happen. The rest (impact) comes soon after.

 

Thank you!

 

"My name is Desdemona. The word, Desdemona, means misery. It means ill fated. It means doomed. Perhaps my parents believed or imagined or knew my fortune at the moment of my birth. Perhaps being born a girl gave them all they needed to know of what my life would be like. That it would be subject to the whims of my elders and the control of men. Certainly that was the standard, no, the obligation of females in Venice in the fifteenth century. Men made the rules; women followed them. A step away was doom, indeed, and misery without relief. My parents, keenly aware and approving of that system, could anticipate the future of a girl child accurately. They were wrong. They knew the system, but they did not know me. 

I am not the meaning of a name I did not choose." 

—Toni Morrison 

Toni Morrison

gives new voice to

Desdemona

Writer Toni Morrison, director Peter Sellars, and singer-songwriter Rokia Traoré breathe new life into Shakespeare’s Desdemona.

23 July 2012

By Miranda Kaufmann

Tina Benko and Rokia Traore perform Desdemona. Photo credit: Pascal Victor, courtesy of Oberon Books.

“My mother had a maid called Barbary,
She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her. She had a song of “Willow,”
An old thing ’twas, but it expressed her fortune
And she died singing it. That song tonight
Will not go from my mind. I have much to do
But to go hang my head all at one side
And sing it like poor Barbary.” 

—(Othello, Act IV, scene 3, lines 26-33)

 

From these few lines of Shakespeare, Nobel laureate Toni Morrison, director Peter Sellars, and Malian signer-songwriter Rokia Traore have fashioned a mesmeric performance piece which blends the music of Mali with the haunted words of Desdemona from beyond the grave. Desdemona, which played only two nights at the Barbican, offers a depth to the doomed bride and transforms the story of jealousy into a different kind of tale altogether.

The action in Othello is all over in 48 hours: the young couple elope on a Monday night and by Wednesday night he has killed her. There is little time for reflection. Othello himself has only one soliloquy- and we never gain an insight into the minds of the play’s female characters. Morrison’s play, weaved from Desdemona’s recollection of her mother’s maid, who died of a broken heart, redresses this imbalance. Iago’s malicious, doubting voice is removed completely, and the story is told from the perspective of Desdemona. We join her in the afterlife as she recalls the restrictions of her upbringing, the joy of first love and the bitterness of betrayal.

The women gather on a dark stage, dimly-lit with flickering lights, suggestive of a campfire. Lined up in rows are a range of vessels- glass jars, bottles, silverware: a familiar sight in graveyards from Alabama to Angola: a banquet laid for the spirits.  The music of the kora, which sounds like liquid sunlight and the shadowy, mysterious n’goni (both instruments that have been played in Africa since Shakespeare’s time) creates a spellbinding accompaniment to Rokia Traore’s original songs sung in her native Bambara.

Tina Benko as Desdemona, speaks not only as herself, but also gives voice to Othello, Emelia, her mother and others. This gave the eerie effect of all the action being in her head, all these characters being her memories or inventions.  In dialogue with her own memories and thoughts, she tries to make sense of her short life. “We should have had such honest talk, not fantasy, the evening we wed” is Othello’s post-mortem conclusion.

Her most powerful exchange, however, is with the black maid, Barbary, played by Traore. We can never know whether Shakespeare intended Barbary (which some gloss as an alternate spelling for Barbara, but was also a geographical label for North Africa to the Elizabethans) to be African; indeed the Willow song she sings is actually an old English ballad, not an African song. But allowing for this artistic licence brings us to a deeper truth. Madame Brabantio could plausibly have had a black maid in Venice. There were black maids in other Italian-set plays of the time, such as Zanche in John Webster’s White Devil (1611). But it would also have been possible in London: there are records of some 200 Africans living in England during Shakespeare’s lifetime.

But what is most powerful is that after almost two hours of Desdemona’s voices, Barbary finally speaks. And what she says cuts to the heart of the matter.  Her name wasn’t Barbary at all – that was just a name the Venetians had given her. Her true, African, name was Sa’ran.  She was not Desdemona’s friend in life, but her slave.  “But,” she says, “I have thought long and hard about my sorrow. No more ‘willow’. Afterlife is time and with time there is change. My song is new.” And the two women bend their heads together.

This piece of transatlantic theatre, composed between New York City and Mali, deftly rebraids cultural ties that were torn so cruelly by the transatlantic trade in human flesh that cannot help but inform it. The inherited anger and pain is met with a gentle, healing river of peace flowing from Morrison’s beautiful words and Traore’s transcendent music, promoting understanding and “honest talk”.

Peter Sellars and Toni Morrison talk Desdemona:

GO HERE TO VIEW FULL DOCUMENTARY

Is Hip-Hop artist

Ismael Sankara

related to

Thomas Sankara?

Does it matter?

July 23, 2012 By Mikko Kapanen 

There are many things in life that really don’t matter all that much, but are very intriguing. The line between a person’s privacy and how to inappropriately disturb it by sticking one’s nose where it’s not invited is thin on a good day. It was this conundrum I was battling with, and a little bit of me was convinced that I should not ask Ismael Sankara – a Hip-Hop artist based in Miami and Gabon, but born in Burkina Faso – whether indeed he is related to the late President Thomas Sankara, but at the same time, quite a lot bigger part of me felt that since there’s been speculation we should try to clarify this matter.

There’s a short – approximately 20 minutes – documentary ‘The Rhythm of My Life’ out on Ismael Sankara (watch it here). The documentary implies, if only vaguely, that there’s a relationship between Ismael and Thomas Sankara and it has been said that Ismael is a son of Thomas. Extra-marital at that if that doesn’t get too gossipy, but this has also been contested by people who say they are part of Thomas Sankara’s extended family.

Implied, speculated and contested; surely it would be okay to just ask. I thought I’d give him a week to come back to me.

The documentary is beautifully shot. It’s like an extended music video for no particular song with a fair amount of context. None of the context is in any way critical – nor very analytical – and a lot of it is told to us following the exact standard of popular culture narratives. The style of the commentary, seemingly the sentiment behind it and the overarching braggadocio could be borrowed from any YouTube clip of any band anywhere at the moment. I am not suggesting that the expression isn’t genuine – after all he seems to be cultured to a large extent in the United States, so he isn’t a lost soul copying someone else’s vocabulary and style to express his innermost feelings. That kind of thing is all too commonplace. British author Patrick Neate in his Where You’re At, a book about Hip-Hop around the world, suggests that the expression particularly in this art form, oftentimes, resonates the communal prayers in that what is said is less significant than the fact that it is being said. That this global unity underneath a broad umbrella of an art form is what counts especially to a lot of younger people, rather than the individual messages shared as part of song lyrics or even interviews. I, however, feel like I am too old and perhaps too sceptical to be satisfied by a sense of global unity of any kind – as fascinating as I may find it. Of course, also, around the world the content of these interview clips may vary – none of this is absolute anyway – so if context would have been a tad more substantial and a bit less small talkish it could have gone a long way in making this more of a documentary and less of an infomercial.

Whether Ismael Sankara is a son of Thomas Sankara or not, he wouldn’t be the first offspring in direct lineage of African greatness to have embraced Hip-Hop. I am not sure what happened to the Hip-Hop crew called The Cartel from South Africa. The special thing about this group was that members were the grandsons of Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu: Bambatha Mandela and Ziyeka Sisulu. Their performance at the 90th Birthday of Nelson Mandela was rather awkward and other than that I have not heard much of them. They signed a major label deal in 2006, but never became major stars. Not that I necessarily rate major stars just because they are stars, but major labels tend to want major returns for their investment and somehow – in the most major way – I doubt that this had happened. The famous, even heroic names on the background were not enough to polish the music that admittedly needed many more hours of humble practice. These days you can hear some of their material online, which I assume is a bit more recent, without a mention of multinational corporate backing: here and here.

But back to Gabon. Or is it Burkina Faso? Perhaps Miami? A week has passed from my potentially intrusive email to Ismael Sankara and no response has reached me. It might never do, but with some further googling – both searching and translating as this story or anything to do with it is primarily told in French – I am finding some more material, which might be as straight an answer as we can get. Sankara answers the question to someone else,

“Sorry, but legally I am not the son of Thomas Sankara. To be recognized as his son, this would require an appeal to justice and would raise many sensitive issues … I do not wish to be associated with this. I am an artist, and my work is music.”

It’s hardly a straight answer to the question, but perhaps – and this is all speculation – it supports the idea that was already mentioned; that certain social pressures would make it a topic difficult to discuss. For a fact it further creates a sense of mystery around all this. While the wish of not wanting to discus the matter further is clear, the statement oozes the type of mystery that leaves us with more questions than what we had before hearing it. And yet, I feel like his privacy should be respected.

Perhaps the myth is more valuable, financially and/or otherwise, than a historically accurate version of the story. Does it even matter if he is a son of President Sankara, a relative or someone else? If he is the son, it’s an interesting detail, but understandably these larger than life characters create both blessings and shadows on the way of their offspring who will forever be treated as the son or daughter of that person. Perhaps I should not have even asked him. Perhaps he is too busy to even ever see my email. Perhaps that wouldn’t be a bad thing. After all this question has been asked to him many times before and he has indicated his reluctance to deal with the matter. Hypothetically, if he was a charlatan, then yes, that would be significant. The Hip-Hop market is flooded with artists from all around the world and in order to stand out, everyone seems to need some kind of unique selling point; at times even at the expense of their art and expression. The story told in ‘The Rhythm of My Life’ is interesting even if the opening sequence which, as later on becomes clear, is fictional, creates more confusion than clarity. But these back stories are part of artists and the marketing of their art, and the suggestion of a relation between the artist and a historical figure seems central even if unspoken. We can neither deny nor confirm its accuracy based on the information available. I am unsure how useful of a marketing tool this possible relation – the ‘myth’, as we have called it here – would be in the United States anyway. Perhaps it would make a difference elsewhere. After all he has chosen to use his full name – it’s his name and he has a right to use it and be proud of it of course – but if he wanted the matter not to be discussed ever under any circumstances he could have done what practically nearly every rapper in the world has done and used a stage name.

Perhaps I am too old for some of this music. Many of my rap heroes are in their fifties and while I still have nearly two decades to get there myself, I personally have an appreciation for lyrics that mean something a bit more. Of course none of that necessarily is age specific anyway, but perhaps, as Neate mentioned, the lyrical content of some of these younger artists is less important than the fact that they are living their version of Hip-Hop. Just as I am, in some way, living my own version. These things don’t have to match. And perhaps the suggestion that these two Sankaras are father and son creates an unfair expectation to the younger one to be overtly – or even a bit – political, which doesn’t seem to be the case. The myth remains, but for me it isn’t quite enough to carry the fascination on the music of this young man (or men, if we keep the Cartel in the same analysis), but at the same time life is long and it would be foolish to criticise young people for being young or indeed someone for making music that I am not in a target market for.

Besides contributing to Africa is a Country, the author also is a content producer on Chuck D’s And You Don’t Stop radio show and its international Hip-Hop segment Planet Earth Planet Rap on WBAI 99,5 FM (NYC) and rapstation.com.

Tom Devriendt and Sean Jacobs have contributed thoughts, links and information to this post.