washerman's dog: Guinea Bissau

Thursday, May 24, 2012

From the Land of Queen Nzinga: Luso-African Music

Queen Nzinga of Angola

Continuing the journey around Africa’s musical regions, tonight comes the music of the Portuguese speaking countries of Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe. Fantastic stuff that reminds me of my short but very impressionable time in Angola nearly 20 years ago.

In those days there was not much for Angolans to make music about. The civil war seemed unending. Most of the population was being fed by the UN. Orphans and the crippled of war survived somehow on the sidewalks of Luanda. Inflation was rampant (about 2 million New Kwanzas for a beer!) and the shops looked like they’d been empty for decades.

But as is always the case in such places there is a small slice of society for whom life was very good. And for such people there were some amazing clubs and discos where the Latin-Afro tinged guitars trilled and sweat rolled down the handsome faces each weekend.

It was a sad time and I entered a deep professional and personal funk in Angola. The country was stunningly gorgeous but there was something rotten in the air.

But once upon a time there was a lively and sizzling music scene in Angola and the other countries where Portugal held on to its brief moment of accidental global domination.

Listen to this and read up on some of the artists in the scans I’ve included in the folders.