Thoughts On The Hybrid Nature Of The African/ Afropolitan Inspired By Music

The world in general is becoming more and more hybrid in a myriad of ways.  Some of us are accepting these blurrings, fragmentations and fluidity kicking and screaming.  But any true Afropolitan is so used to their identity being in constant flux that the instability and unpredictability of their own world as well as the world we live in is oddly comforting.  I have been meaning to start posting about this for a while.  It seems only fitting that this be my last proper post before I journey back to the motherland.  I have gotten used to this constant moving to and fro from the continent to the West.  If I am not on a plane within 3 months I feel weird, due to having gone to boarding school since 11.  This is proving to be rather expensive as I now have to finance these trips he he he ;}

I was moved by Nneka's video, Africans, this week as the lyrics really spoke to me.



It made me think of how colonisation has made all us Africans hybrids, straddling Western influence and African tradition and culture, trying to marry and recognise, accept and adopt the two to forge ahead into the future.  It made me think of how Zimbabwe is suffering from the constant scapegoating instead of moving forward.  It is time to stop blaming, to stop crying over spilt milk because its already been spilt - there is nothing more to do but to mop up the mess and learn how to not topple the bowl again.  Nneka's afropolitan nature due to race, culture, music and style got me on thinking more about how music and musicans reflect how we are redefining ourselves and communicating who we are as Africans in our diversity and similarity.

Ayo first came to mind as like Nneka, she is also half Nigerian and half German, as well as having released a video for Life is Real earlier that seems to have inspired the Africans video aesthetic.



I love how the lyrics encourage people to be real because life is real.  Take what people say with a grain of salt and ultimately do what you want to do and be who you want to be unabashedly and pridefully.  As Mr. Darcy said "Yes, vanity is a weakness indeed. But pride -- where there is a real superiority of mind, pride will be always under good regulation".  Yes he may be a fiction character of Jane Austen's making, but he does have a point.  Vanity is what leads people to be the people they think they should be using whatever means, regardless of the damage that ensues as a result.  Pride, when checked is what allows people to stand firm, to care about who they are and to be vanguards.  But there is a proviso as I have said with engaging this emotion, you really do need to temper it with humility.  We have seen how our own African pride has gotten us into all sorts of messes about the continent, like with tribal and ethnic wars for example.

I also got introduced to a lovely Zimbabwean artist through MIghTy African called Tinashe.  He expresses what it is like to become the chameleon that many of us end up being as we traverse the globe and are constantly moving through different scenery and cultures on his Facebook Page and again on his blog. I really do not like the terms oreo at black folk, coconut at brown folk, and twinkie and banana at east asians when they are not fitting into some stereotypical representation of self.  The joy of human life is in our variety.



This video plays his two singles Saved and Zambezi.  You can check out his website too for more info.

Identity is on the brain as I begin my sojourn back home for an indeterminate period of time.  I am excited to remember what it is like to be physically part of a family and to nourish my soul in the motherlands soothing balm of sunshine.  At the same time I am journeying with trepidation as I think about how I am going to represent myself, something I always struggle with wherever I am, but what troubles me most about the way it is at home is that feeling of belonging but not belonging at the same time and how to reconcile that. Questions and thoughts a of womanhood, Africaness, adulthood and presentation are on constant loop in my head right now and I have two long haul flights to continue to ruminate, dissect, and torture myself :(

Salt: A Spy Movie Full Of Women's Issues

After Inception, I do not expect to be wowed by what Hollywood is offering, and I haven't.  I'm expecting to be entertained and I was watching Salt.  However, there was something lacking in the movie.  Was excited to see Angelina Jolie in a role originally intended for a dude, in a Mission Impossible-esque fashion.  Kind of like when back in the day Will Smith getting the lead role of in Enemy of the State was a big deal as it was originally written for Tom Cruise and everyone was wondering: Could a black person carry such a film and be believable?  Well as they say art imitates life and vice versa ala Barack Obama becoming the first black president.  Now that we have proved that a black man can do what a white man can do in America, it is only a matter of time before the same is done for women.I love how Hollywood underestimates the audience and our intelligence and always finds ways to perpetuate stupid and discriminatory conventions.   Craziness that this sort of thing still goes on in our world....

The film was good. It has the twists and turns to keep you intrigued, although the beginning is a little slow, but purposefully so, though you only become aware after the fact that it makes sense to be  like that.  The action is great. Enough plausible moves to make the implausible believable.  The script however needed to give us a bit more exposition and the little that was there was disjunctive and/ or inadequate. I was unable to really emotionally attach and really root for Salt.  Instead of thinking about being clever, all the way down to the spy being name being Salt, a wink at the SALT, the acronym for Strategic Arms Limitations Talks between the US and Russian during the Cold War, they should have been thinking about how to beef up the dialogue and story. At least the movie has served a higher purpose - go to school, study International Relations, and you'll be able to spot random stuff like that like my little ones! ;}

Chiwetel Ejiofor, a Naija-Brit actor, also features. LOVE HIM!  I don't think I have ever seen him act badly, even if the film was suspect like, ahem, Four Brothers. He is so talented and his roles are so diverse and intriguing.  Such a chameleon.  He makes me happy.  His role was limited in this installment, but if sequels are on the cards, it is clear that he is going to have more screen time and that is absolutely fine with me he he he.

Speaking of African connections, in the funeral scene how did I know there were Africans? This is the third film this summer, after STC2 and The A-Team, that I have seen that has some sort of African clothing in them with the big head wrap and the hat on the guys head and things and looking very Nigerian to show Africans are about.  Not hard to spot amongst the people who they are sitting with due to the fact that everyone else is wearing black and they are situated right bang centre in the middle of the shot! These guys need to take a lesson from Inception, or forget about us all together. It's ok, we are quite happy to be invisible if you are going to keep making us caricatures of ourselves.

After the movie, had a very intense conversation with my movie buddy for the night, a "proud" Canadian with whom I see eye-to-eye on a lot of things in the world, especially the illusions and the nonsense.  Having read an article about Salt in Entertainment Weekly, I was aware that they had the scene where her husband saves her at the beginning so as not to emasculate him.  The man has bigger problems if he is not able to relinquish power to his significant other when they are the more qualified in the situation.  Perpetuating these archaic beliefs that a woman has to temper herself so that lesser men can feel they are more is nonsense.  Or that even if the guy is all together you still have to.  If men's egos are so fragile then something needs to be done about it.  It is stifling always having to be around 60-80% of yourself for fear of hurting some dudes feelings or making him feel less of a man.  A real man assesses the situation and allows the right actions to take place for a positive outcome. Even if that means letting a woman take the lead. Jeez!

This movie also brought up the issue of women being "men" - as in doing a job as well as a man can.  Emotions are not the devil, they are part of human nature.  Men are forced to bury theirs and most of the time they feel caged and unable to express themselves for fear of being a pansy.  Being in control does not mean acting like a robot - that is what robots are for. It is about being aware of oneself, the good and the bad - and emotion can be both.  To their credit, they did a couple of laudable things to show that women can do spy work and gave it a womans touch.  They didn't thankfully make Salt ugly and unfashionable because those are the only kind of women that are smart and can act like men as they have nothing better to do.  She used feminine items to help herself out in tricky situations. The fact that they show that she has a deep love for her husband and will do anything to save him shows that emotion in a woman can propel her to do amazing things rather than being self destructive or debilitated when men and/ or love are in the mix.

However, after certain things occur in the movie, Salt is not allowed to grieve.  When we are first presented with the situation, it is clear why she cannot.  But in the aftermath, I'm sorry, if she really feels the way we are led to be believe before embarking on her revenge, she would have taken a moment in the bathroom to cry and regroup.  I know a lot of strong women whom many believe never cry, but they find their moments where no one can see to let go.  This sort of twisting of how a woman should act if she is going strong is erroneous and perpetuates the myth that strong women are not women and/ or have no feelings. We always either have to be overly-emotional or completely stone cold.  But is ok for Maximus in Gladiator to take a moment to cry when he finds his family slain and for him to cherish their wooden figures and use his emotion to avenge the emperor.  Because that kind of love and honour and sense of justice is only for men.  Women are just there to bring it about.  DRUGS I TELL YOU DRUGS!!!!

This made me think of my love of Jane Austen, and how I really relate to her characters need to fight to be a woman free to be who she is, love as she pleases and pursue her goals without stereotype.  Most of her heroines were fighting to be able to marry for love, without monetary considerations usurping the choice to marry freely.  Now it seems we are fighting to be able to have a head and a heart.  It seems right now we are being forced to chose between one and the other.  Salt was set up to be a sequel, this is evident from the ending. They have a good enough base to build on. I hope that Angelina Jolie takes the opportunity to use her clout further to really make sure that the script is the shiznit and that Salt has an emotional core that doesn't hinder, but enhances her abilities.