Kalakuta Republic

Kalakuta Republic

Author: Chris Abani

Publisher:

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 124

ISBN-13:

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A powerful collection of poems detailing the harrowing experiences endured by Chris Abani and others at the hands of Nigeria's military regime in the late 1980s. A durable tribute to the triumph of the human spirit.


Book Synopsis Kalakuta Republic by : Chris Abani

Download or read book Kalakuta Republic written by Chris Abani and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 124 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A powerful collection of poems detailing the harrowing experiences endured by Chris Abani and others at the hands of Nigeria's military regime in the late 1980s. A durable tribute to the triumph of the human spirit.


Kalakuta Republic

Kalakuta Republic

Author: Chris Abani

Publisher: Saqi

Published: 2015-05-05

Total Pages: 134

ISBN-13: 0863568785

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This powerful collection of poems details the harrowing experiences endured by Abani and other political prisoners at the hands of Nigeria's military regime in the late 1980s. Abani vividly describes the characters that peopled this dark world, from prison inmates such as John James, tortured to death at the age of fourteen, to the general overseers. First published after his release from jail in 1991, Kalakuta Republic remains a paean to those who suffered and to the indomitable human spirit. 'Reading Abani's poems is like being singed by a red hot iron.' Harold Pinter 'Abani's poetry resonates with a devastating beauty which cuts to the heart of human strength, survival and tyranny.' Pride Magazine 'Stunning poems ... Abani conveys the experience in words shaped into art and made unforgettable by their quietness.' New Humanist 'A beautiful work of art ... elevates art and humanity above meanness and inhumanity.' World Literature Today 'A brave and challenging book ... I was moved as much by what the poems have achieved as by what they have rescued from that nightmare world. Reading, I found myself in tears.' Sunday Tribune 'An unheralded chunk of authentic literature' New Statesman 'Abani's ...poems contain moments of grace, humanity and humor.' Susannah Tarbush, Diwaniya 'Chris has emerged with poems that are graceful pieces of art, almost ready to be hung in a gallery for others to come and enter them and rest in them and weep in them and admire them.' Kwame Dawes, professor of English literature, University of Columbia, South Carolina, USA


Book Synopsis Kalakuta Republic by : Chris Abani

Download or read book Kalakuta Republic written by Chris Abani and published by Saqi. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This powerful collection of poems details the harrowing experiences endured by Abani and other political prisoners at the hands of Nigeria's military regime in the late 1980s. Abani vividly describes the characters that peopled this dark world, from prison inmates such as John James, tortured to death at the age of fourteen, to the general overseers. First published after his release from jail in 1991, Kalakuta Republic remains a paean to those who suffered and to the indomitable human spirit. 'Reading Abani's poems is like being singed by a red hot iron.' Harold Pinter 'Abani's poetry resonates with a devastating beauty which cuts to the heart of human strength, survival and tyranny.' Pride Magazine 'Stunning poems ... Abani conveys the experience in words shaped into art and made unforgettable by their quietness.' New Humanist 'A beautiful work of art ... elevates art and humanity above meanness and inhumanity.' World Literature Today 'A brave and challenging book ... I was moved as much by what the poems have achieved as by what they have rescued from that nightmare world. Reading, I found myself in tears.' Sunday Tribune 'An unheralded chunk of authentic literature' New Statesman 'Abani's ...poems contain moments of grace, humanity and humor.' Susannah Tarbush, Diwaniya 'Chris has emerged with poems that are graceful pieces of art, almost ready to be hung in a gallery for others to come and enter them and rest in them and weep in them and admire them.' Kwame Dawes, professor of English literature, University of Columbia, South Carolina, USA


Fela

Fela

Author: Michael Veal

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 354

ISBN-13: 9781439907689

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Musician, political critic, and hedonist, international superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti created a sensation throughout his career. In his own country of Nigeria he was simultaneously adulated and loathed, often by the same people at the same time. His outspoken political views and advocacy of marijuana smoking and sexual promiscuity offended many, even as his musical brilliance enthralled them. In his creation of afrobeat, he melded African traditions with African American and Afro-Caribbean influences to revolutionize world music. Although harassed, beaten, and jailed by Nigerian authorities, he continued his outspoken and derisive criticism of political corruption at home and economic exploitation from abroad. A volatile mixture of personal characteristics -- charisma, musical talent, maverick lifestyle, populist ideology, and persistence in the face of persecution -- made him a legend throughout Africa and the world. Celebrated during the 1970s as a musical innovator and spokesman for the continent's oppressed masses, he enjoyed worldwide celebrity during the 1980s and was recognized in the 1990s as a major pioneer and elder statesman of African music. By the time of his death in 1997 from AIDS-related complications, Fela had become something of a Nigerian institution. In Africa, the idea of transnational alliance, once thought to be outmoded, has gained new currency. In African America, during a period of increasing social conservatism and ethnic polarization, Africa has re-emerged as a symbol of cultural affirmation. At such an historical moment, Fela's music offers a perspective on race, class, and nation on both sides of the Atlantic. As Professor Veal demonstrates, over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing -- if only temporarily -- a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa. In the midst of political turmoil in Africa, as well as renewal of pro-African cultural nationalism throughout the diaspora, Fela's political music functions as a post-colonial art form that uses cross-cultural exchange to voice a unique and powerful African essentialism.


Book Synopsis Fela by : Michael Veal

Download or read book Fela written by Michael Veal and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2000 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Musician, political critic, and hedonist, international superstar Fela Anikulapo-Kuti created a sensation throughout his career. In his own country of Nigeria he was simultaneously adulated and loathed, often by the same people at the same time. His outspoken political views and advocacy of marijuana smoking and sexual promiscuity offended many, even as his musical brilliance enthralled them. In his creation of afrobeat, he melded African traditions with African American and Afro-Caribbean influences to revolutionize world music. Although harassed, beaten, and jailed by Nigerian authorities, he continued his outspoken and derisive criticism of political corruption at home and economic exploitation from abroad. A volatile mixture of personal characteristics -- charisma, musical talent, maverick lifestyle, populist ideology, and persistence in the face of persecution -- made him a legend throughout Africa and the world. Celebrated during the 1970s as a musical innovator and spokesman for the continent's oppressed masses, he enjoyed worldwide celebrity during the 1980s and was recognized in the 1990s as a major pioneer and elder statesman of African music. By the time of his death in 1997 from AIDS-related complications, Fela had become something of a Nigerian institution. In Africa, the idea of transnational alliance, once thought to be outmoded, has gained new currency. In African America, during a period of increasing social conservatism and ethnic polarization, Africa has re-emerged as a symbol of cultural affirmation. At such an historical moment, Fela's music offers a perspective on race, class, and nation on both sides of the Atlantic. As Professor Veal demonstrates, over three decades Fela synthesized a unique musical language while also clearing -- if only temporarily -- a space for popular political dissent and a type of counter-cultural expression rarely seen in West Africa. In the midst of political turmoil in Africa, as well as renewal of pro-African cultural nationalism throughout the diaspora, Fela's political music functions as a post-colonial art form that uses cross-cultural exchange to voice a unique and powerful African essentialism.


Arrest the Music!

Arrest the Music!

Author: Tejumola Olaniyan

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2004-10-29

Total Pages: 262

ISBN-13: 9780253110343

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"Olaniyan has given us a profound and beautifully integrated book which culminates in a persuasive interpretation of the relationship between Fela's apparently incompatible presentational selves.... The book's accessible and evocative prose is in itself a kind of homage to Fela's continual ability to seduce and astonish.... This is such an attractive book you feel like... ransacking your collection for Fela tapes." -- Karin Barber "... an indispensable companion to Fela's music and a rich source of information for studies in modern African popular music." -- Akin Euba Arrest the Music! is a lively musical study of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, one of Africa's most recognizable, popular, and controversial musicians. The flamboyant originator of the "Afrobeat" sound and self-proclaimed voice of the voiceless, Fela used music, sharp-tongued lyrics, and derisive humor to challenge the shortcomings of Nigerian and postcolonial African states. Looking at the social context, instrumentation, lyrics, visual art, people, and organizations through which Fela produced his music, Tejumola Olaniyan offers a wider, more suggestive perspective on Fela and his impact on listeners in all parts of the world. Placing Fela front and center, Olaniyan underscores important social issues such as authenticity, racial and cultural identity, the relationship of popular culture to radical politics, and the meaning of postcolonialism, nationalism, and globalism in contemporary Africa. Readers interested in music, culture, society, and politics, whether or not they know Fela and his music, will find this work invaluable for understanding the career of an African superstar and the politics of popular culture in contemporary Africa. African Expressive Cultures -- Patrick McNaughton, general editor


Book Synopsis Arrest the Music! by : Tejumola Olaniyan

Download or read book Arrest the Music! written by Tejumola Olaniyan and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2004-10-29 with total page 262 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Olaniyan has given us a profound and beautifully integrated book which culminates in a persuasive interpretation of the relationship between Fela's apparently incompatible presentational selves.... The book's accessible and evocative prose is in itself a kind of homage to Fela's continual ability to seduce and astonish.... This is such an attractive book you feel like... ransacking your collection for Fela tapes." -- Karin Barber "... an indispensable companion to Fela's music and a rich source of information for studies in modern African popular music." -- Akin Euba Arrest the Music! is a lively musical study of Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, one of Africa's most recognizable, popular, and controversial musicians. The flamboyant originator of the "Afrobeat" sound and self-proclaimed voice of the voiceless, Fela used music, sharp-tongued lyrics, and derisive humor to challenge the shortcomings of Nigerian and postcolonial African states. Looking at the social context, instrumentation, lyrics, visual art, people, and organizations through which Fela produced his music, Tejumola Olaniyan offers a wider, more suggestive perspective on Fela and his impact on listeners in all parts of the world. Placing Fela front and center, Olaniyan underscores important social issues such as authenticity, racial and cultural identity, the relationship of popular culture to radical politics, and the meaning of postcolonialism, nationalism, and globalism in contemporary Africa. Readers interested in music, culture, society, and politics, whether or not they know Fela and his music, will find this work invaluable for understanding the career of an African superstar and the politics of popular culture in contemporary Africa. African Expressive Cultures -- Patrick McNaughton, general editor


West African Pop Roots

West African Pop Roots

Author: John Collins

Publisher: Temple University Press

Published: 2010-05-27

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1439904979

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The nearest thing we have in the twentieth century to a global folk music.


Book Synopsis West African Pop Roots by : John Collins

Download or read book West African Pop Roots written by John Collins and published by Temple University Press. This book was released on 2010-05-27 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The nearest thing we have in the twentieth century to a global folk music.


Grassroots Leadership and the Arts For Social Change

Grassroots Leadership and the Arts For Social Change

Author: Susan J. Erenrich

Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing

Published: 2017-03-29

Total Pages: 392

ISBN-13: 1787146324

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This book explores the intersection of grassroots leadership and the arts for social change, examining the many movements and subsequent victories the arts community has won for society. The book illustrates the diverse but influential work of these figures, reflecting on their actions, commitments and their positive impact on the modern world.


Book Synopsis Grassroots Leadership and the Arts For Social Change by : Susan J. Erenrich

Download or read book Grassroots Leadership and the Arts For Social Change written by Susan J. Erenrich and published by Emerald Group Publishing. This book was released on 2017-03-29 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the intersection of grassroots leadership and the arts for social change, examining the many movements and subsequent victories the arts community has won for society. The book illustrates the diverse but influential work of these figures, reflecting on their actions, commitments and their positive impact on the modern world.


Fela

Fela

Author: John Collins

Publisher: Wesleyan University Press

Published: 2012-05-01

Total Pages: 345

ISBN-13: 0819575402

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“A vibrant and multifaceted portrait of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti . . . and his role as a giant of modern African music.” —Michael E. Veal, author of Dub Fela: Kalakuta Notes is an evocative account of Fela Kuti—the Afrobeat superstar who took African music into the arena of direct action. With his antiestablishment songs, he dedicated himself to Pan-Africanism and the down-trodden Nigerian masses, or “sufferheads.” In the 1970s, the British/Ghanaian musician and author John Collins met and worked with Fela in Ghana and Nigeria. Kalakuta Notes includes a diary that Collins kept in 1977 when he acted in Fela’s autobiographical film, Black President. The book offers revealing interviews with Fela by the author, as well as with band members, friends, and colleagues. For this second edition, Collins has expanded the original introduction by providing needed context for popular music in Africa in the 1960s and the influences on the artist’s music and politics. In a new concluding chapter, Collins reflects on the legacy of Fela: the spread of Afrobeat, Fela’s musical children, Fela’s Shrine and Kalakuta House, and the annual Felabration. As the dust settles over Fela’s fiery, creative, and controversial career, his Afrobeat groove and political message live on in Kalakuta Notes. A new foreword by Banning Eyre, an up-to-date discography by Ronnie Graham, a timeline, historical photographs, and snapshots by the author are also featured. “As multilayered and significant a document as the singer’s musical contributions. It is a crucial testament about one of the world’s most outspoken and radical artists, and gives deep insight into his life, music and struggles against oppression and mediocrity.” —Journal of World Popular Music


Book Synopsis Fela by : John Collins

Download or read book Fela written by John Collins and published by Wesleyan University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A vibrant and multifaceted portrait of Afrobeat legend Fela Anikulapo-Kuti . . . and his role as a giant of modern African music.” —Michael E. Veal, author of Dub Fela: Kalakuta Notes is an evocative account of Fela Kuti—the Afrobeat superstar who took African music into the arena of direct action. With his antiestablishment songs, he dedicated himself to Pan-Africanism and the down-trodden Nigerian masses, or “sufferheads.” In the 1970s, the British/Ghanaian musician and author John Collins met and worked with Fela in Ghana and Nigeria. Kalakuta Notes includes a diary that Collins kept in 1977 when he acted in Fela’s autobiographical film, Black President. The book offers revealing interviews with Fela by the author, as well as with band members, friends, and colleagues. For this second edition, Collins has expanded the original introduction by providing needed context for popular music in Africa in the 1960s and the influences on the artist’s music and politics. In a new concluding chapter, Collins reflects on the legacy of Fela: the spread of Afrobeat, Fela’s musical children, Fela’s Shrine and Kalakuta House, and the annual Felabration. As the dust settles over Fela’s fiery, creative, and controversial career, his Afrobeat groove and political message live on in Kalakuta Notes. A new foreword by Banning Eyre, an up-to-date discography by Ronnie Graham, a timeline, historical photographs, and snapshots by the author are also featured. “As multilayered and significant a document as the singer’s musical contributions. It is a crucial testament about one of the world’s most outspoken and radical artists, and gives deep insight into his life, music and struggles against oppression and mediocrity.” —Journal of World Popular Music


Queens of Afrobeat

Queens of Afrobeat

Author: Dotun Ayobade

Publisher: Indiana University Press

Published: 2024

Total Pages: 388

ISBN-13: 0253068657

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In Queens of Afrobeat, the women of Afrobeat music--a unique blend of jazz, soul, highlife, and West African rhythms--are finally given the recognition they deserve. This extensive study takes a multifaceted view of the storied lives of the women behind Fela Kuti's activist music. Dotun Ayobade's wide-ranging research pulls from interviews with surviving queens, ethnographic narratives, the exploration of newspaper archives, and close readings of album covers, photographs, and promotional materials to help us see and understand the women who surrounded Fela Kuti on stage and in everyday life. Not only were these artists crucial performers and backup singers for Kuti's most important compositions, they also played key roles in his activism and campaigns of social protest against the Nigerian government in the 1970s. Drawing on previously untapped material, Queens of Afrobeat weaves together an intricate narrative of women's participation in popular music. The stories of these remarkable women transform and uniquely personalize our understanding of the politics and performance of one of the major modern musical traditions in Africa.


Book Synopsis Queens of Afrobeat by : Dotun Ayobade

Download or read book Queens of Afrobeat written by Dotun Ayobade and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2024 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In Queens of Afrobeat, the women of Afrobeat music--a unique blend of jazz, soul, highlife, and West African rhythms--are finally given the recognition they deserve. This extensive study takes a multifaceted view of the storied lives of the women behind Fela Kuti's activist music. Dotun Ayobade's wide-ranging research pulls from interviews with surviving queens, ethnographic narratives, the exploration of newspaper archives, and close readings of album covers, photographs, and promotional materials to help us see and understand the women who surrounded Fela Kuti on stage and in everyday life. Not only were these artists crucial performers and backup singers for Kuti's most important compositions, they also played key roles in his activism and campaigns of social protest against the Nigerian government in the 1970s. Drawing on previously untapped material, Queens of Afrobeat weaves together an intricate narrative of women's participation in popular music. The stories of these remarkable women transform and uniquely personalize our understanding of the politics and performance of one of the major modern musical traditions in Africa.


The Ikoyi Prison Narratives: The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela Kuti

The Ikoyi Prison Narratives: The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela Kuti

Author: Majemite Jaboro

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2012-07-10

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 1105945146

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Afrobeat. Politics. Spirits. August 2 1997. Africa's foremost musician, the mysterious and magical Fela Anikulapo Kuti dies from AIDS complications. He had invented a new musical genre called Afrobeat which was a fusion of African rhythms, jazz and funk. In his music heavily laced with politics and spirituality, he probed possibilities and reflected on our existence. The author took down notes when Fela and four other members of the Afrika 70 Organisation were charged with murder in 1993.


Book Synopsis The Ikoyi Prison Narratives: The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela Kuti by : Majemite Jaboro

Download or read book The Ikoyi Prison Narratives: The Spiritualism and Political Philosophy of Fela Kuti written by Majemite Jaboro and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2012-07-10 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Afrobeat. Politics. Spirits. August 2 1997. Africa's foremost musician, the mysterious and magical Fela Anikulapo Kuti dies from AIDS complications. He had invented a new musical genre called Afrobeat which was a fusion of African rhythms, jazz and funk. In his music heavily laced with politics and spirituality, he probed possibilities and reflected on our existence. The author took down notes when Fela and four other members of the Afrika 70 Organisation were charged with murder in 1993.


Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa

Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa

Author: Annemette Kirkegaard

Publisher: Nordic Africa Institute

Published: 2002

Total Pages: 188

ISBN-13: 9789171064967

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The musics of Africa play a particularly important role in expressing and forming identities. This book brings together African and Nordic scholars from both musicology and other disciplines in an attempt to analyse various aspects of the complex playing with volatile identities in music in Africa today. Taken together the papers put new light on the assumed or real dichotomies between countryside and city, collective and individual, tradition and modernity, authentic and alien. The papers are based on contributions for a conference organized by the research project “Cultural Images in and of Africa†of the Nordic Africa Institute together with the Sibelius Museum/Department of Musicology and the Centre for Continuing Education at Ã...bo Akademi University in Ã...bo (Turku), Finland in October 2000. The book includes a keynote speech by Christopher Waterman (UCLA), and an introduction by Annemette Kirkegaard, Copenhagen University. Southern, West and East Africa are represented in the studies, which cover a great variety of musics.


Book Synopsis Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa by : Annemette Kirkegaard

Download or read book Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa written by Annemette Kirkegaard and published by Nordic Africa Institute. This book was released on 2002 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The musics of Africa play a particularly important role in expressing and forming identities. This book brings together African and Nordic scholars from both musicology and other disciplines in an attempt to analyse various aspects of the complex playing with volatile identities in music in Africa today. Taken together the papers put new light on the assumed or real dichotomies between countryside and city, collective and individual, tradition and modernity, authentic and alien. The papers are based on contributions for a conference organized by the research project “Cultural Images in and of Africa†of the Nordic Africa Institute together with the Sibelius Museum/Department of Musicology and the Centre for Continuing Education at Ã...bo Akademi University in Ã...bo (Turku), Finland in October 2000. The book includes a keynote speech by Christopher Waterman (UCLA), and an introduction by Annemette Kirkegaard, Copenhagen University. Southern, West and East Africa are represented in the studies, which cover a great variety of musics.