Voltando a receita para um “jet-set” nacional (Angolano ou Mocambicano): Uma Segunda Leitura, Um Olhar Diferente…
5. Rappers give a voice to Angola's cry for democracy
(Thursday, June 17, 2004 )
Angola, a melting-pot of African, Portuguese and foreign musical influences, abounds in locally produced pop music. Much of it is recorded non-commercially and sold by street vendors. Most of it is cheerfully apolitical. But rap music is emerging as a medium of protest. In many nations rap is viewed with suspicion by the authorities as subversive and anti-establishment. This is no different in Angola - but in this southern African country, the "subversive" message of rappers is criticism of the country's lack of democracy.
There is already a small but vocal political opposition to the government, which last week joined forces at a pro-democracy forum to press President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to call new elections. Angola also has an outspoken independent press, but newspapers are little read outside elite urban circles. The spoken word - and in particular the growing number of songs from political rappers - therefore have great power in a country where fewer than half of all adults can read. Compact discs and tapes by political rappers such as MCK and Brigadeiro 10 Pacotes (Brigadier Ten Packets) are copied privately and eagerly passed from hand to hand. MCK, an underground rapper formerly unknown outside hip-hop circles, sprang to unexpected notoriety last November.
Several of President Dos Santos's guards allegedly killed a man for singing anti-government lyrics from MCK's song, "The Technique, the Causes and the Consequences". Eyewitnesses say the enraged men beat, dragged and drowned the victim, a car-washer at Mussulo quay, at a departure point for ferries to Luanda's beaches. A criminal investigation was launched, but no charges have yet been brought against the men. "The song cost this guy his life because it reflects Angolan reality and strikes at the people in power," says the rapper. "We still have a government that doesn't allow freedom of expression."
Two years after the end of their nearly three-decade civil war, some young Angolans such as MCK (pronouncedEmcee Kappa in Portuguese) are beginning to demand greater accountability from their leaders. President Dos Santos's MPLA party rules in a government of national unity with Unita, its former guerrilla foes. The government's political opponents and Angola's foreign partners, led by the US, have been pushing the president to call elections. Pressure is also growing for greater transparency in the management of Angola's abundant oil and other resources, which could help stimulate growth in this poor country. "Each discovery of an oil well widens the gap between those who have and those who do not," MCK says. "Unfortunately, oil shines for just a few." The 23-year-old rapper - a university student of philosophy by day - declines to give his real name for fear of reprisals. He says he has received threats, and commercial stations will not play his music. He lives in Luanda's working-class Chaba neighbourhood, where open sewers run down mud alleys between a labyrinth of cramped houses.
Malaria, spread by uncollected rubbish and stagnant water, is common in Chaba, as in Luanda's other poor quarters. The son of a driver and a retired charwoman, he began singing in 1995. "I come from a family that's typically religious and self-examining," he says. "I was lucky to live with siblings who were in the habit of asking questions." By the subversive, even violent standards of much US rap and hip-hop, MCK's lyrics are mild. "We have more firearms than dolls, fewer universities than discos, and more bars than libraries," the song that sparked November's alleged murder claims.
Friends of the victim, Arsenio Sebastiao, draped another MCK lyric over his coffin: "Who speaks the truth ends up in a coffin/ What sort of democracy is this?" Brigadeiro 10 Pacotes's lyrics are more militant, alleging that Mr Dos Santos is corrupt and calling for his overthrow. A full-time rapper and inhabitant of Luanda's squalid Hojy ya Henda quarter, like MCK he sells CDs by word of mouth. "The government plays a different tune and song/ But people no longer want to dance or smile/ We are fed up with the situation," his best-known song goes. It has become an anthem of Luanda's working poor, often heard in minibus commuter taxis. Recently in Huambo, a provincial inland city, Angolans listening to a recording by the rapper on a street turned it down as a group of strangers approached.
Source: Financial Times
More articles on this and related issues can be found, among other places, here, here and here.
Angola, a melting-pot of African, Portuguese and foreign musical influences, abounds in locally produced pop music. Much of it is recorded non-commercially and sold by street vendors. Most of it is cheerfully apolitical. But rap music is emerging as a medium of protest. In many nations rap is viewed with suspicion by the authorities as subversive and anti-establishment. This is no different in Angola - but in this southern African country, the "subversive" message of rappers is criticism of the country's lack of democracy.
There is already a small but vocal political opposition to the government, which last week joined forces at a pro-democracy forum to press President Jose Eduardo dos Santos to call new elections. Angola also has an outspoken independent press, but newspapers are little read outside elite urban circles. The spoken word - and in particular the growing number of songs from political rappers - therefore have great power in a country where fewer than half of all adults can read. Compact discs and tapes by political rappers such as MCK and Brigadeiro 10 Pacotes (Brigadier Ten Packets) are copied privately and eagerly passed from hand to hand. MCK, an underground rapper formerly unknown outside hip-hop circles, sprang to unexpected notoriety last November.
Several of President Dos Santos's guards allegedly killed a man for singing anti-government lyrics from MCK's song, "The Technique, the Causes and the Consequences". Eyewitnesses say the enraged men beat, dragged and drowned the victim, a car-washer at Mussulo quay, at a departure point for ferries to Luanda's beaches. A criminal investigation was launched, but no charges have yet been brought against the men. "The song cost this guy his life because it reflects Angolan reality and strikes at the people in power," says the rapper. "We still have a government that doesn't allow freedom of expression."
Two years after the end of their nearly three-decade civil war, some young Angolans such as MCK (pronouncedEmcee Kappa in Portuguese) are beginning to demand greater accountability from their leaders. President Dos Santos's MPLA party rules in a government of national unity with Unita, its former guerrilla foes. The government's political opponents and Angola's foreign partners, led by the US, have been pushing the president to call elections. Pressure is also growing for greater transparency in the management of Angola's abundant oil and other resources, which could help stimulate growth in this poor country. "Each discovery of an oil well widens the gap between those who have and those who do not," MCK says. "Unfortunately, oil shines for just a few." The 23-year-old rapper - a university student of philosophy by day - declines to give his real name for fear of reprisals. He says he has received threats, and commercial stations will not play his music. He lives in Luanda's working-class Chaba neighbourhood, where open sewers run down mud alleys between a labyrinth of cramped houses.
Malaria, spread by uncollected rubbish and stagnant water, is common in Chaba, as in Luanda's other poor quarters. The son of a driver and a retired charwoman, he began singing in 1995. "I come from a family that's typically religious and self-examining," he says. "I was lucky to live with siblings who were in the habit of asking questions." By the subversive, even violent standards of much US rap and hip-hop, MCK's lyrics are mild. "We have more firearms than dolls, fewer universities than discos, and more bars than libraries," the song that sparked November's alleged murder claims.
Friends of the victim, Arsenio Sebastiao, draped another MCK lyric over his coffin: "Who speaks the truth ends up in a coffin/ What sort of democracy is this?" Brigadeiro 10 Pacotes's lyrics are more militant, alleging that Mr Dos Santos is corrupt and calling for his overthrow. A full-time rapper and inhabitant of Luanda's squalid Hojy ya Henda quarter, like MCK he sells CDs by word of mouth. "The government plays a different tune and song/ But people no longer want to dance or smile/ We are fed up with the situation," his best-known song goes. It has become an anthem of Luanda's working poor, often heard in minibus commuter taxis. Recently in Huambo, a provincial inland city, Angolans listening to a recording by the rapper on a street turned it down as a group of strangers approached.
Source: Financial Times
More articles on this and related issues can be found, among other places, here, here and here.
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