Let's go there!
I have always believed that Africa as a whole has not contributed to global pop culture as much as we could have. Lots of other cultures have a voice in the global entertainment milieu what with Kung Fu movies (China/Hong Kong), anime, manga, samurai and yakuza movies (Japan), Lucha libre (Mexico), Bollywood (India) doing the rounds, with most people at least having a rough idea of what the above look or sound like. All the above things I have mentioned are not just known by people around the world, they also influence the various pop-cultures of other countries.
Where is the African influence? Oh sure there are loads of films about Africa and African situations, but African pop art has not influenced anything (as far as I am aware of). Where are the movies shot in a similar style to Nollywood home videos? Where are the…the…hmm…I can’t think of much else that we could contribute from Nigeria at any rate. Can you?
By now, I am sure you’re wondering about the Janelle Monae picture up top headlining this post. Well, it’s there because I am currently listening to her album – The Archandroid – and she is part of a current resurgence of black artists attempting to push envelopes and bring about a different “state of consciousness”. Artists like Jay Electronica, Mos Def, Erykah Badu, Andre 3000, myth makers, psychonauts, fictionauts, dream navigators, griots, reality hackers. All of the above.
This is the best time to be an African creative I think. Our cousins overseas are breaking new ground and are desperately pushing against the envelop, trying to channel that same energy of the 60s and 70s that fired up such seminal acts like Sun Ra, Sly and the Family Stone, Jimi Hendrix, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, loads of High Life musicians and a lot more. Before that there was the blues and jazz movement giving us people like Charlie Mingus, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Nina Simone etc. All these people captured a certain ‘blackness’ of spirit. Something that was unique to their various cultures. A voice that could not be replicated by anybody else. A voice that people could hear and be compelled to include in other things that they were creating.
I think another wave like this is on the way and if we are clever and lucky and work really, really hard, we can ride that wave and add something really cool and really tangible to the global conversation.
Comic books are particularly in a good place to take advantage of this current state of affairs. They are relatively cheap to produce when compared to tv, movies (animated or live action), and possibly even music (when one takes into account the production of music videos and other promo stuff). They are also an excellent medium for passing along the message of mental emancipation, enlightenment and ‘growing up’ as a people (whether as Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas etc., Nigerians, Africans, Blacks or Human beings). Comic books fall in a nice middle ground between movies and books. Providing content that can be consumed at the reader’s pace (unlike movies), images to buttress the strength of words (unlike most books), and words to help provide flavour and context for images (unlike paintings or music).
Hacking reality, hacking minds
And I emphasise the “mental emancipation, enlightenment and ‘growing up’ as a people (whether as Yorubas, Igbos, Hausas etc., Nigerians, Africans, Blacks or Human beings).”. It’s one thing to just put out entertaining content, and quite another to put out content that lifts the mind and soul. If it doesn’t do that, it should at least affect the reader’s perceptions, planting seeds of ideas and expanding their world view, even if only by them learning a new word and how to use it.
As people living in what is currently termed a developing country, having corruption and corrupt practices as a daily experience and way of life, an elite that is blatant about their exploitation of the masses and masses that would do the same as the elite if given the chance, a lack of education, low exposure to ‘culture’ and information, it is imperative I feel that we try to fill everything we can create with the power to lift us out of this mess. Show us a better way of life and challenge our systems of thought. We are developing nations and in fact, that puts us at a major advantage. Why don’t we take the mistakes of the developed nations and learn from them, leapfrogging some/most of their problems into the future.
In the movie “The Matrix”, Zion was filled with the ‘freaks’ and downtrodden of society because it was generally thought that those were the sorts of people who would come up against the illusory nature of The Matrix and want to break out. They were the ones not happy to be spoonfed and the ones that challenged the Status Quo. If it were in The Filth, they would be the sorts of people that Greg Feely/Ned Slade would be coming up against. It makes sense as being under-privileged, they would be outsiders and able to look in on the Status Quo. I think we should exploit that as a people. We are in that position already, so what better way to accelerate our development at a society and people and move humanity as a whole forward with our visions and experiences of the future?
This is our time and I think we need to get out there with our boards and surf this wave. We may not have been the ones to map the planet or chart the seven seas, but we can be the leaders in this new frontier. Myth makers, psychonauts, fictionauts, dream navigators, griots, reality hackers.
Aren’t you curious to see the Unknown Island over the crest?
