washerman's dog: North Africa

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Music of the Mineral Rich: North Africa

Because the Dark Continent had copper and gold

and the discoverers had themselves a plan.

They would discover all the places with promise.

You didn't need no titles or deeds.

You could just appoint people to make everything legal,

to sanction the trickery and greed.

And back in the jungle when the natives got restless

they would call that 'guerrilla attack'

and they would never describe that the folks finally got wise

and decided they would fight back.

And still we are victims of word games,

semantics is always a bitch:

places once referred to as under-developed

are now called 'mineral rich.'

And the game goes on eternally

unity kept just beyond reach

Egypt and Libya used to be in Africa,

they've been moved to the Middle East.

So sang Gil Scott Heron in Black History. And in the last two lines brings up that eternal conundrum…is Egyptian, Libyan, Moroccan and Algerian music ‘middle eastern’ or African?

As much as I love the song and Gil Scott-Heron (and I really love both), ultimately, the question doesn’t matter. The music is simply great. Unlike the music of any other part of the Continent, the sounds of North Africa are dramatic and theatrical. And perhaps with the exception of South Africa, more overtly political than the other regions.

There are lots of jewels in these discs: Algeria Mon Beau Pays; Yigui Youm; Aadrouni Ya Sadate and; Hagda.

Listen closely and savor.