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Thursday, 7 August 2014

30Minitz: Celebrating Women in Music - Noella Wiyaala & Efya



 As I said in an earlier blog post of the same title, the month of July was dedicated to celebrating women in music in a TV show I host, 30Minitz. This is the last edition.

Being a woman in the industry means dealing with a lot of distractions you could otherwise avoid if you were male, particularly in the hyper-religious country that is our very own Ghana. – “When will she get married?’ ‘Do you think she will ever find a husband?’ ‘I’m sure she slept her way to the top.’ ‘This music business is not for respectable women’ ‘Did you hear about her nudes/sex tape?’ ‘I hear she smokes’ ‘My friend’s classmate’s best friend’s brother slept with her back in High School.’
Women constantly have to battle with the sexual image, thus prison, society puts them in and actually making real music and having people appreciate them for the art that they create. So those who overcome these challenges are made of heroic material in my eyes.
 This edition featured two female musicians I admire tremendously: the indigenously African Noella Wiyaala and alternative/ soul/ afro-soul singer Efya. One thing that strikes me about these two is that they both have a strong sense of self, and would proudly wear their own banners and not bow to societal pressures and expectations of ‘what a female musician should be and look like.’ Both artistes have one thing forefront in their minds: To take their music beyond Ghana to the rest of the world. And yes, they are both on Wikipedia!

 Noella Wiyaala serves you that authentic taste of Africa, the kind you don’t get anymore. She makes rich, indigenous African music, singing in her powerful, deep voice the tongue of Sisaala from Wa, in the northern part of Ghana. Her rhythms are universal. Noella dabbles in Afro pop, Afro rock, and my particular favourite, tribal folk music. (She does a pretty remarkable one in this clip). She has released a one-off dancehall track, a frankly sexual number called ‘Rock my Body’. In this clip, she speaks candidly about her experiences as a young female artiste in the Ghanaian music industry; the inevitable sexual preconceptions many women have to deal with and how she overcame them, male manipulation of the feminine image and self expression, and being natural and being true to yourself.








“I want to be one of the best that has ever been discovered in Africa. I want to make a name for myself so big that nobody will forget me when I die.” ~ Efya.
My attraction to Efya was her difference, and her embracing her difference, despite the backlash she sometimes gets because she’s different. Efya has so ingrained herself in Ghana that she is one of the VERY FEW who can switch genres and make mainstream Ghanaians love alternative music or soul (music mainstream Ghana cannot fathom! But they will love it once it’s coming from Efya). In this clip she speaks about the influence her mother had on her image and sense of self, becoming global and leaving a legacy, as well as making real music.









Monday, 4 August 2014

SHE SEAS



She will carry me away

If I stare long

and hard enough

a wise old woman once whispered in my ear

If I danced long

and hard enough for the Sea
She would dance me into her waves

laugh me into her warm endless depths

that big, roaring laughter that shook the earth to its very core
If I laughed long and hard enough for the Sea
The wise old woman did

 and now she’s the Sea and the Sea is Her

 She-Sea-Sea-She…

If I became the Sea…long and hard enough...

She would become me and I would become Her.  

Wednesday, 30 July 2014

PUPPETS AND PUPPETEERS






We were all hungry for something. Houses, Sex, food, love, wealth, cars, dreams; whatever it was, we all had castles in the air we wanted to see built.
 
 Everyone  yearned and I yearned as much as they did. My life was one long starvation for my yearning and though I yearned as much as everyone did, smoked as much as everyone smoked, drank as much as everyone drank, was happy as much as everyone faked, I knew somewhere in the back of my drugged mind that death stared at us benignly. We were juicy fat, depressed pigs garnished for the kill. We did not care. We just laughed more, smoked more, had sex more, wept more. We yearned for life so much we lived centuries in a few days. 

Every now and then, one of us would stray into normalcy and be buried in a heap of life responsibilities, but with responsibilities came reality, and reality stared at you in the face each minute and screamed, “Go fucking die!” So they drifted back to insanity and us, and whispered things like, “I was trying to get that law degree” or “I was trying to get that promotion” or “I wanted to get married and settle down, you know?” Then they smoked and drank some more till they felt nothing. Till they felt death who held us to her bosom like her favourite children. She loved us so much she made us live. If only for a few months more.

We were that bunch that dreamed in ways that could never be achieved, dependent on our families for support but living like millionaires. We fucked men, women, and everything else in between. You couldn’t understand us. No one could understand us, products of a materialistic age that defined you by what you were able to acquire. Slaves we were to acquisition so much that when we were set free, we did not know what to do. 

Hope. Hope was the delusion of the minds of those who could not believe the ridiculousness of their lives so they hoped. They hoped with their sterling degrees and various honours they would find jobs. They hoped that their bosses would increase their paychecks. They hoped that they would save enough to buy a house. They hoped that they would have a nice, happy family and go golfing on weekends. And they hoped those things would make them happy. Happiness was a product to be bought in the black market and they could get it if they worked hard enough. They hoped and hoped and hoped in a system that had grabbed Hope by the neck, fucked her silly and thrown her to wolves where she died a slow painful death. But they still hoped.

We were beatniks of sorts, a resurgence of Hippies, Ghanaian style living wild and free, not just because we were young but also because we were prisoners.

Some of us sought some form of redemption, any form of redemption from this damned life. So we stumbled on religion. We believed fervently in a God that would cleanse us of our sins. We had to believe that we were sinners condemned to live a life of damnation unless Jesus Christ swooped down to save our asses. And all Jesus Christ wanted us to do was call him our Lord and personal savior? We could do that! We could definitely do that. I mean, who could believe the truth that our lives were damned for no reason at all and still be sane? Who could believe the truth that there was no hidden cause for our wretched lives and still have their heads screwed on? So we believed fanatically, if you may, that we had to be sinners, for eating some forbidden fruit in some utopian garden. Whatever it was we ate, we had to have done something to anger God. And for some time this gave us relief.

But Reality was Reality, and pastors became liars, reverends became politicians, and the Bible became cause for war. 

So we smoked some more, drank some more, had sex some more. A couple of us left suicidal notes and they became poetry to the distressed ears of those who chose to keep on living. 

Yet in our damnation, we were free.

We were the young adults of 2014.

Friday, 25 July 2014

Telling the African Woman's Story - Leila Djansi




"I want to continue telling stories that would change lives. In African culture, we don't talk. I keep saying the reason why Africans speak in proverbs is because we are not direct. So I just want to keep telling stories that allow people to talk." ~ Leila Djansi

Leila Djansi is one of the few film directors I admire. Why? Her stories. There is always a resonant note embedded in her films and the stories she chooses to tell. Being a writer as well, gives her especial power to share the African Woman's narrative in film in an industry that has largely ignored or is disinterested with those parts of the truth of human lives.  She is particularly interested in the African cultural nuances, thus weaves her stories around them and places them on the perfect platform for discussion, rumination and many times, debate. My two favourites have been Sinking Sands and Ties That bind. Both films tell the African Woman's story and the unique cultural influences that either alienate or embrace them. Issues she has raised for discussion in the past are marital rape (a problem many Ghanaian currently refuse to acknowledge can exist), domestic violence and childbirth.

She is currently working on a new web-series, Poisoned Bait, which explores marriage, and women in marriage, as nuanced by Ghana and Africa, and its ongoing transformation under the liberal pressures of the 21st Century.

In this interview, Leila Djansi talks about her work ethics, her writing process, being the only African in her class in the Savannah College of Art and Design, her creative choices and her secret dream to direct a James Bond movie!

Please click the link below for the interview:

Telling the African Woman's Story - Leila Djansi





Wednesday, 16 July 2014

CELEBRATING GHANAIAN WOMEN IN MUSIC - Eazzy & MzVee


 Being a woman in any field requires you to be something more than you are, requires you to have to strive harder, ask harder, demand harder, act harder for the same things your male counterparts may have served to them on a platinum platter.

In spite of the battles women have had to fight and win in the past to create this fairly 'Utopian world' for the women of 2014, our Utopia can be a Utopian hell instead. 

I dedicated this month of July on a music TV show I host, 30Minitz, to the celebration of  Ghanaian women in music. The aim for this is to raise a month-long discourse about the Ghanaian music industry and it's relations with women. We commemorate Ghanaian female musicians  who have had to break through  numerous barriers raised against them simply for being female; Religious barriers (It's 'dishonorable' for a woman to get into the cheap, 'sexualized' business of music), Image barriers (women being forced into boxes that define female musicians as sexual objects),  Relevance barriers (women have to fight harder for their art to be taken seriously and to remain relevant). Women generally have to have that extra oomph to be successful in the industry.

In the video below, I present to you Ghanaian dancehall artiste MzVee and Afrobeats artiste Eazzy (also of Big Brother Fame). We discuss what it means to be female in the industry, the importance of fighting for an image that's true to you, the biological clock and whether it has to influence your timeline for success and much more!

MzVee, a rising star who is already garnering a solid following, was discovered on Vodafone Icons and started out with her group D3, hoping to be the Ghanaian Destiny's Child. The group however, had to split before they made any history and MzVee launched herself in Dancehall, a genre she loves.There being next to no females in Ghanaian Dancehall presently, Kaakie trailblazed a way for female dancehall musicians of our time like MzVee to have her voice heard too . In this video, she talks about how male-dominating but embracing the  Ghanaian Dancehall world has been, and how the females are hoping to overturn that dominance. She also speaks about being a 'Natural Girl', a movement she is passionate about that encourages women to be true to themselves. 










"When I entered the industry, I noticed that females didn't have a stand in music," says Eazzy.
 Eazzy has earned maestro status in  Ghanaian Afrobeats music. Her rap, her energy-filled style, are fairly avant-garde for Ghanaian female musicians in her time. She is unapologetic about her sexiness and has made a name for Ghana and Ghanaian Afrobeat music across Africa. Two years ago, Eazzy represented Ghana in the Big Brother House, and realizing the mad love Africa had for her music was something to be proud of.   In this video, Eazzy shares candidly her battle with the derogatory and 'over-sexualized' Ghanaian perception of women in music (Google 'Eazzy news Ghana' and the first headlines that pop up are about her relationship with her ex Keitta, and whether or not they had sex on live TV, not her musical prowess), being a female in the rap business, and she calls for the addition of a Female Artiste of the Year category to the Ghana Music Awards categories. 




30Minitz: Celebrating Women in Music continues this week on Viasat 1 at 4pm. This week's show would highlight  Noella Wiyaala, a rare Northern Star.

Thursday, 10 July 2014

Remembering Maya Angelou - Ama Ata Aidoo Speaks

Ama Ata Aidoo speaks about Maya Angelou, literature, the revolutionary spirit of Ghana during the days of independence and the part African American greats like Maya and Malcolm X played in the New Ghana, and so much more. For the interview, please click the link below:
 
Ama Ata Aidoo remembers Maya Angelou

Thursday, 5 June 2014

#UNCENSORED: YOU ARE THE MUSIC YOU CHOOSE: Why Toni Braxton, Heather Headley, etc. are bad for you




By CaCaDoo DeviantArt



There is something incredibly powerful about music. To say music is spiritual is stating the obvious. I have come to believe, truly believe, that music is a magic humanity was taught by the great God, to enable us tap into her power whenever we felt the need to get close to her. But with music, as is with everything powerful, it can be used for good or for bad. 

Your music-scape, so to speak, defines the experiences you attract to yourself, both good and bad. The magic of music works this way: The selection of tone, rhythm, lyrics, beat of the piece create an atmosphere your brain (both conscious and subconscious areas) taps into. The atmosphere at first lasts for just in that moment. But constancy, repetition of that kind of music creates this very tangible atmosphere, a presence in your life. It becomes what your mind begins to draw from to formulate and form thoughts in your mind that are similar to the mood and thoughts of the music piece. When thoughts become dominant they manifest in your actions. Your choices and your choices of experience begin to be defined by the constant state of your mind, which is currently being dictated to by the music-sphere you created around yourself. You draw to yourself what is constantly in your mind. 

So imagine a young susceptible girl of 13 years old whose musicsphere was heartbreak love songs. I listened to all versions of Karyn White, Heather Headley, Toni Braxton, - and these were quite  depressing women most of the time. A lot of the time, the music-sphere they began to create in my subconscious drummed in the message that my love relationships would always be fraught with heartbreak, betrayal and disappointment. Long before I began my very first love relationship, I’d subconsciously created a script for myself, drawn from the invisible scripts of my music-sphere, and whoever I was yet to have love relationships already had the role they were going to play without even having the freedom to choose. In retrospect, I realised I attracted to me all the heartbreak scripts in the universe without ever knowing that I attracted them to myself.


So this was the script: I was the good, very loving girl who fell in love with an incredibly remarkable man. But he would not love me the same. His feelings would always be up for question. He would cheat and cheat and come running back to me each time. And I would always accept him back because I loved him with all the truth and completeness of unconditional love. But it would break me. I would be depressed. And would remain in this state of depression for the rest of my life under the umbrella of a synthetic hope that he would realize one day that ‘I was the woman he truly loved’. 

You see what I did there? All from the music sphere I had created for myself? I was the creator, writer and director, and I cheated myself out of any of the good roles. I made myself the doormat. I won’t lie, there was this guilty pleasure in being the wronged but honourable one. And guess what? That’s how much of my love life played out. Word for word. I blamed the guys, I was in a constant state of depression for much of my teenage years and it continued because, hey, that was what I told the universe I wanted without realizing it! I went through relationship after relationship with 98% of the guys treating me like the doormat. Many times, in retrospect, they probably didn’t even mean to! I gave them their roles before they even had the chance to decide for themselves. And I went through the motions of the 'honourable wronged one' faithfully. 

I did this till I sunk so deep in my depression, I stopped caring about the script anymore. And of course, the human spirit always finds a way to defend itself, recuperate so to speak. I did it in a more damaging way. I reversed the roles. And I put myself in the only power position I knew, the power position I had created according to my script: the one who did the ‘doormatting’, who had little regard, loved less, took what was wanted then vanished, and made the other feel used. So this was the role I took on for myself, playing yet another script, a script borne out of reaction, not reason. Not that anything before was reasonable. And of course, all I did being the ‘User’ was hurt others and myself.
 
[Note: all of this was probably all happening in my mind. I was probably introduced to Mr. Right over and over again but I didn’t have the capacity to see him and recognize him for what he truly was. 
And about the musicians that created this depressing music-sphere in the first place, I find that they were usually women who sang these songs and created this depressing atmosphere in their songs. Artistes like Toni Braxton, Heather Headley and songs like ‘One last cry’, ‘Unbreak my heart’, ‘How could an Angel break my heart’, ‘Ain’t it funny’, ‘Superwoman’ were a few of what dominated my music-sphere.  I only hope that the way it affected mine, they being the creators didn’t get a double dose. (Musicians draw from their own ‘atmospheres’ to create right?). A very interesting truth is that any heartbreak song I heard by a male artiste in those times had a completely reverse but fitting script: They accepted they did the cheating, they did the heartbreaking and 'doormatting', and were at the point where they realized they were wrong and truly loved the woman they had used but she had gotten fed up and left. So the crooning was a more like a moan for losing something really good they could have had. For example, Tank’s ‘Maybe I Deserve’ and She’s Gone’ by Brutha, ‘Put that Woman first’ by Jaheim.

Who teaches us to think and say these things and create these gory scripts for ourselves, already defined male and female roles even in unhappiness?]

Anyway, you might be wondering what happened to my musicsphere around the time of me playing the reverse script? Playing the unfeeling, uncaring rebel who’d ‘been through it all’, I didn’t listen to any of the music that had gotten me on this trip anyway. See, I had become a very different person from the guileless, starry-eyed teenager looking for True Love with a lot of heartbreak. I was a bruised, fallen angel of sorts, the resentful devil’s angel who had too many painful experiences to remain in that innocence. And in a reverse way, that helped in the sense that, the music that used to appeal to me didn’t anymore. 

Then slowly, ever so slowly, the musicsphere I had created for myself for years, began to fade. It began to slowly lose the power it had over my subconscious and subsequently my choices and experiences.

Then as if the blinkers had been knocked off my eyes, I began to see the ridiculousness of my life, and choices, for what it really was. The good change did not happen suddenly because I had created such a backlog of consequences but it's happening .

A script of self-empowerment instead of self-deprecation began to be formed in my subconscious. By what music would you ask? The music of life and nature. A sweet silence that hums a tune of power in your mind and you hear it only if you are willing to listen.  

Thought this was a more appropriate picture!



 This is the beginning of an #Uncensored  series I'm running, so please keep watching this space!