The purpose of this paper is to examine the importance of popular culture in one particular artist Koffi Olomide in Africa. The reason of choosing this artist is because of his talents in music career and how it has dominated the continent and how it has expanded across other continents.
Artist: Koffi Olomide
Soukous is the most Popular Music in Africa. It is a musical genre that originated in Congo (Zaire) during the 1930s and the 1940s, and has gained popularity across the continent of Africa. Soukous from the French word for “shake”, is a genre term for modern Zairean/Congolese dance music (Soukous, 2015). However, it has now been played throughout Africa, known as Lingala Music in East Africa Congo music in Anglophone West Africa. Koffi
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He has earned a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and a Master’s in Mathematics from the University of Paris (Soukous, 2015). Due to several political turmoil back home in Kinshasa, Koffi has made numerous trips in between Kinshasa and Paris recruiting his teams and in which sometimes French government has accused him in bringing people with him without visas and some of his fan teams never want to return home to Kinshasa. Out of all these confusions and political oppressions, Koffi has been one of the richest artist and talented musician in Africa in music career among all his colleagues or the people he has started music with or whom may have departed from him and rejoining other musicians. Koffi has released many several songs during his career in music across Africa, North America, and Asia (Soukous, …show more content…
According to Pell (2014), “but in colonial West Africa, anonymity and pseudonymity had dimensions not found in Europe”. They meant resistance to the colonial obsession with eliminating the elasticity and mobility of West African naming practices. They also made possible continuities with African oral genres (PECK, 2014). Thus Newell explores, “for example, how writers attributed praise-names to themselves and took on the role of the trickster that figures in so many West African folktales (PECK, 2014). According to Peck (2014), throughout, Newell, “emphasizes anonymous and pseudonymous writers' confidence in the absolute publicness and efficacy of their words, despite their own blurred identities”. If in British West Africa "public opinion was regarded as a new type of discourse synonymous with newspaper writing" (43), then what Newell has illuminated is a utopic, nonhierarchical (though bourgeois) space for the formation of political and national consciousness at least as fecund as the European space two hundred years earlier that inspired Habermas's work on the public sphere (PECK,
Mazrui, Ali A. "The Re-Invention of Africa: Edward Said, V. Y. Mudimbe, and Beyond." Research in African Literatures 36, no. 3 (Autumn 2005): 68-82.
Through out Lawrence Hill's novel names are often linked to identity and have importance for his characters. For example, Aminata's character attaches huge importance to her name. For Aminata it is an inextricable part of her identity. It links her to her homeland and her family. When Chekura says her full African name she is overwhelmed that someone knows her name and describes how this makes her want to live. Having her true name be known is a way of having her identity affirmed and helps her feel connected to her family, home and to Chekura. In fact, Aminata's character defiantly makes reference to her full name, including the name of the town she was born in. Holding onto her name helps her remain connected to the land and people she has left behind and to her own life story and origins. Further underscoring the importance of names in one...
"Music of West Africa." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Nov. 2013. Web. 18 Nov. 2013. .
During the course of this semester, the several musical styles that have been discussed and analyzed have displayed various similarities and differences. These differences in certain musical elements have accounted for the distinctiveness and uniqueness of each style of music. The culture behind these countries’ music adds even more to their individualism. Cultural aspects such as religion play a huge role in the music of each country as well. Styles of music in Africa might be more upbeat than certain styles in India, for example. Some cultures use music in religion, while others may not. Aspects such as dance are important factors in all three types of music. Despite the differences and similarities, however, without music, these cultures would perhaps not be as fascinating and unique as they are now.
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.
To show how stories can affect colonialism, we will be looking at British authors during the time of colonialism. During this period of British colonialism, writers like Joyce Cary, author of “Mister Johnson” wrote novels about Africa and more specifically, a Nigerian named Johnson. Johnson in this novel is represented as “[an] infuriating principal character”. In Mr. Cary’s novel he demeans the people of Africa with hatred and mockery, even describing them as “unhuman, like twisted bags of lard, or burst bladders”. Even though Cary’s novel displayed large amounts of racism and bigotry, it received even larger amounts of praise, even from Time Magazine in October 20, 1952. The ability to write a hateful novel and still receive praise for it is what Chinua Achebe likes to describe as “absolute power over narrative [and...
Ya Salaam, Kalamu. “It Didn't Jes Grew: The Social and Aesthetic Significance of African American Music.” African American Review 29.2 (1995): 351-375.
“How Musical is Man?” was published in 1974. This book was written by John Blacking, a musician turned social anthropologist. His goal in writing this ethnography, and several other papers during this same time period, was to compare the experience of music-making that takes place within different cultures and societies throughout the world. In this book, he discusses and describes the musicology of the Venda people in South Africa. Though he does go to Africa to research and learn about the Venda people and their music, he specifically states that his book is “not a scholarly study of human musicality” (ix), but rather it is a summary (written from his point of view), which is both expressive and entertaining, of several different issues and ideas that he has seemingly been contemplating for some time.
There is no art, music, and literature like here in sub-Saharan Africa. What is important to Westerners, such as the artist, label, and static-like wall hanging, means nothing to us. African art is living, spiritual, and meant to go back to the Earth once the soul of the item has run out. As the Bamana of Mali say, the art are “things that can be looked at without limit”. Our artwork has changed, emerged, and survived eras of turmoil and inversely, hope. I have found passing through the global gateway into Africa has made me appreciate this culture more, and appealed to me on a level that made me choose being a part of it.
Music played a very important role in the lives of people is diaspora communities. It served as a reminder for the immigrants of their homeland, which allowed them to proudly express their national and cultural identities. Diaspora refers to an international network of communities linked together by the identification of a common ancestral homeland and culture. People in these communities are no longer living in their homelands, with no guarantee of a return either. (Bakan, 19). Music played a large role in African diaspora communities. This was first started by the slave trades many years ago when slave traders traveled to the coast of West Africa to capture Africans and brought them back to the United States to be slaves on plantations. Slaves were more prone to loose a sense of their own culture because every new aspect of their lives was forced upon them, therefore they were undoubtedly forced to abandon their n...
West African music was the music of the African people before the Europeans captured and sold them into slavery in the Americas. It was unique in the manner in which it was played as well as the reasons why it was played. West African music was documented around the 1600's when explorers wrote journals about what they had found while traveling.
Musicians across the world hope to be heard and find an audience. Rarely do they escape the confines of the music business to become cultural icons. Even more rarely do they become pioneers of a musical genre, outspoken human rights activists, and political provocateurs. Nigerian musician Fela Kuti became the embodiment of all of these things, and his life has left a lasting legacy across social consciousness and pop culture. Whether loathed or loved, Fela Kuti’s life and work represent a passionate and complicated man who was willing to carve his own path.
I have decided to do my Music Media Mogul report on Ayodeji “ Wizkid” Balogun because I find him to be one of the top international musicians of our time coming from Nigeria as well as from Africa. He is one of the top media influencers in Nigeria. I am a major fan of Wizkid and I believe this research project will give me a better insight of the come-up of Wizkid and how he is such a popular worldwide international act with breaking into the US Hip-hop and R&B industry collaborating with musicians such as Drake, Chris Brown etc. As of recent he has also broken into the fashion Industry walking and modelling for Dolce and Gabbana and Nike, while also being a spoke person and ambassador for major African companies which will be talked about in this project. In this project I will giving you a detailed background of Wizkid’s history,
Schipper, Mineke. "Mother Africa on a Pedestal: The Male Heritage in African Literature and Criticism." Women in African Literature Today. Ed. Eldred Durosimi Jones. Trenton, N.J.: Africa World Press, 1987. 35-53.
Juju music emerged in the 1920's and is the most well-known form of Yoruba popular contemporary music in Nigeria. Juju has its roots in traditional Yoruba drum based music. Juju is dance music played by large ensembles centered on guitars and drumming. Singing is a major part of Juju music and is inspired by Yoruba poetry, proverbs, praise songs, and the musical character of the language. The culture and music remained the same for decades after colonization and its explorers left Nigeria. The negative legacies...