Music
From The Motherland
African Disabled Musicians
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I told my mother when I was in my early teenage years that I wanted to go to
Africa to see my brothers and sisters with disabilities, knowing that at
that time Apartheid was the law of the land in South Africa. I was
interested in how people with disabilities lived during those times. Well
I’m almost 40 and I still haven’t traveled to the Motherland but the need to
be in the Motherland is even bigger today with a new focus of mine: Black
disabled musicians and their contributions in the music industry.
I’ve been writing, studying, lecturing and listening to Black disabled musicians from the US for some time now, from Blues to Hip-Hop, and it is a fascinating and wide open field that needs more scholars, books, study and public discourse. Knowing that my roots go back to Africa, I’m in the process, with others, of opening this “new” box I call, Black disabled music, beyond the boarders of America and in the process of realizing that Black disabled music is not new but is has survived, grown, written of in books and is being embraced by local music industry today.
I came to this topic of Black disabled music in Africa when I wrote the article, Discrimination & Isolation Turned into Artistic Survival & Expression, in 2002 for Poor Magazine. The article traces four disabled musicians\bands, like the Blind Boys of Alabama to Amadou & Marian of Mali and how they achieved with their disability. I’ve been listening to Amadou & Marian for almost five years, but it didn’t hit me to think about and research other disabled musicians in Africa at that time. Krip-Hop Mixtape (2007) consisting of disabled Hip-Hop artists from around the world made me pick up the topic of disabled musicians in Africa especially after listening to a song from C.R.I.$.I.$ aka Chisenga Katongo of Zambia who is not disabled but his song, Good Foot, is dedicated to people with disabilities in Zambia.
After more recent research I found that disabled musicians in Africa are making big strives in the music industry, however it is still almost impossible to find CDs of African disabled musicians in record stores in the US and even online. I have found three recent news items on disabled African musicians\bands that I thought were very interesting and wanted to help broader the awareness of these musicians to my readers. I hope I will have the chance to meet them and receive their CDs.
The first group is named Staff Benda Bilili from the Congo. BBC News described the band as eight men with polio who work on the streets. It goes on to say the street musicians appeared in their wheelchairs, dancing the rumba and urging people to "go and vote." The group wrote a song, Let’s Go and Vote, for the election in the Congo and it became a big hit. The reason why the BBC wrote about this group is because the group is now taking the United Nation Peacekeeping mission to court for taking their song. You can go to the BBC website and type in Disabled Congo singers to sue UN. The clips that I download of their music are unbelievable. The online video of this band travels with them in the streets of Kinshasa. It also contains interviews with the members in their own language. It is too bad that I had to find about this group through this issue. So far I can’t find their CD by them or an email address to them. The video is so strong and important that I put it on my myspace page at www.myspace.com/cripmoore. Hopefully there will be more information about the music of Staff Benda Bilili and their case against the UN.
The second group, Liyana, is an afro-fusion band from Zimbabwe who are all disabled consisting of: Prudence Mabhena (lead vocal), Marvelous Mbulo (vocal), Tapiwa Nyengera (keyboard and backing vocals), Energy Maburutse (first marimba, backing vocals), Honest Mupatse (tenor marimba), Vusani Vuma (bass marimba), Goodwell Nzou (percussions, backing vocals). I found Liyana Band after reading an article on Harare International Festival of the Arts, HIFA’s website. HIFA is an annual international arts festival that encompasses five main disciplines: music, theatre, fine arts, dance and spoken word. HIFA began in 1999 and since then has taken the Zimbabwean and Southern African arts scene by storm. The Festival showcases the best of Zimbabwean performances and fine arts while at the same time staging and exhibiting the most exciting and creative international and regional performances.
The members of Liyana Band all went to school at The King George the 6th School in Bulawyo, Zimbabwe. This school is for youth and young adults with disabilities. From pictures of the group their lead singer, Prudence Mabhena is a wheelchair user and reporters have wrote that Prudence Mabhena can be compare to Miriam Makebas. I downloaded a song from their school website, www.kinggeorge6.googlepages.com and my god I have to get their CD! According to the school’s website, last year the band toured Europe and now they are back at school looking forward to put out their first album in England. I recently saw a picture of the band and it was powerful to see people with my skin color with disabilities on stage. I just emailed the school and Harare International Festival of the Arts for more info, their CD and request for an interview. Cross your fingers!
The last artist is a one man performer, Mark Bugembe, a.k.a Buchaman from Mukono of Uganda. Reporter, Gilbert Mwijuke of www.newvision.co.ug interviewed Buchaman on January 28th 2006. As I read I learned a lot and downloaded a song entitled, Lwaki Temumatira. Come to find out the song touches on women who dislike disabled men. From the article Buchaman is the only artist in his country singing about the plot of people with disabilities. I also found out Buchaman is in a recent release movie, Divizionz. Divizonz is about life in central Kampala and how the people are thrown in this area whose lack of amenities is only rivaled by high levels of mugging, stabbing and a high usage of illegal drugs survive. Divizonz also focuses on local artists making it in the music industry. Buchaman describes his music as dance hall, both reggae and raga music with Jamaican origin.
According to Mwijuke interview, Buchaman has a song, Balema banange tugende tukole, to encourage the disabled to believe in themselves and work hard. I also downloaded a video of Buchaman. It looks like he has one foot from his battle with polio. He hops around on stage while singing his dance hall, reggae and raga songs.
Black disabled music is international just like Krip-Hop and needs to be in the public eye, in record stores and on the radio. The musicians above are apart of what I call Black disabled art\music history, present and future. I hope before the next decade I’ll achieve my goal of traveling to the motherland, Africa, and meeting, hearing, interviewing and jamming with some African disabled musicians. I’m looking forward to it! Anybody who has connections to the artists above or know of other African disabled musicians please let me know….
Leroy F.
Moore, Jr.
www.leroymoore.com
sfdamo@yahoo.com
