NEO•GRIOT

Baloji explains...

By: Oroma
Words: Baloji
Photo: Nicola Karakatsanis
Thanks: Bart Deweer

A few weeks back, a friend put me on to Baloji an artist from the Congo with a sound, video and vibe nothing short of magnetic. The concept of his video, "Karibu ya Bintou" sparked an interest  and  given that I don’t understand French, I asked Baloji to explain some things particularly, the mask on his album cover, the skeletal outfits in the video and the history of wresting in the Congo. If you have not seen Baloji’s video “KARIBU YA BINTOU” please watch it here to better understand my questions and his explanations. “Baloji means sorcerer in Chiluba and Swahili It’s like a curse, like carrying part of the devil or the bad side of things and you know how sorcery is viewed in Africa. People fear them, fear their powers, fear that they can put bad spirit inothers food and drinks and assumed that they are connected to bad forces. They call this curse the shadow because it follows its host until it gets what it is asking for ! So I struggled with my name for years before asking my mother why she chose this name. She explains it was to pay hommage to an uncle who had the same name and saved the life of my very own father….so in the same sense, sorcerers can also save people to contrary belief and that is what the poet is talking about in the intro of karibu vidéo. The mask in the vidéo is part of this fétish Africans have with sorcery. The album cover is also referenced to the mask. It has a Persian motifs and looks Mexican but it is really inspired by the Congolese art forms.  ( more on this in Pop'Africana ) Congo has a tradition of wrestlers based on the US WWF(WWE) but with an African twist which is so because of the  religious and mystical aspect to it. Think of it as the (dragon ball meets hulk hogan and the street fighters video game characters) So the vidéo is telling my story- of how I am going into Kinshasa, coming out of the lake city center saying we make visible the mask everybody is wearing by hiding. The second aspect of the video is where the wrestlers were preparing in the morning of the fight by using rituals and going in the street at noon with their trucks and fanfares to inform the city that there will have a match at 4 o’clock ! describes the energy and excitement of Kinshasa I wanted this vidéo to describe Kinshasa as I see it « a madmax décor/backdrop » It’s frentic and chaotic! Nothing is predictable or under control, the justice is lost in their own mess but people have such amazing strength that they keep on fighting even if nothing works. It’s like they keep on trying to prétend that nothing happened since the end of the Zaire regime, that the situation is manageable. Kinshasa is wild and on the other end it keeps waiting for help like a motherless child. More of this conversation and Baloji’s explanations in the coming issue of Pop’Africana.