The critical pertinence of Pan-African sound, now.

I want to begin by asking you a question: when was the last time you listened to a song from this continent and understood the lyrics, as fluently as you do, when rapping along to Cardi B or Kendrick? If your answer is the affirmative, I truly admire you. Speaking for myself, and anyone else who is like me, 7 times out of 10 I have more appreciation for the rhythm than the content of music that flows out of our continent- which in itself, is incredibly problematic.

I’m here to explain why.

"In colonial conquest, language did to the mind what the sword did to the bodies of the colonised.”* The words of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o an odd 30 years later, could not be more profound and relevant to the current African context. Whilst his words centred solely on the politics of African Literature, this inexplicably links to the melodies and tunes which we actively choose to listen to. The more time spent indulging in music that does not reflect our heritage, or project the future of our continent, is detrimental to the explicit revolution that Pan-africanism insists on, we run the risk of destroying the very tool that promises greater prospects for our beloved Africa- our minds.

Now, this is not to say that listening to music that exists from outside this continent is a fault, of course not. However, the mere fact that we have normalised specialising our taste towards music that does not engage with our present day reality begs us to question, how on our day to day do we expect to be reminded of the roots which we have sprouted from, and the weeds that need destroying? It is beyond paramount that the music we engage in constantly begs a call to action for the betterment of the continent which we hold dear.

I am fully aware that not every music opportunity has to be catered towards revolutionary ideology, but even reverting back to my initial question; why have we become so complacent that we don’t seek to understand lyrics ranging from Yoruba to Zulu to Swahili to Lingala? As much as music should be a necessary escape, this escape should still be guided by a basic understanding of what you are listening to, in order to cement a greater appreciation for the craftsmanship of those who are using their mother tongues to relay these pleasant sounds.

The late Thomas Sankara once stated, “It took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today… We must dare to invent the future.” My prepositions may seem rather absurd and also very taxing, yet it is in the same spirit of the brave men and women who fought for autonomy of our nations, that gives us this conspicuous opportunity to alter the way in which we go about something as simple as how we engage with African sound. If each and every one of us made an active effort towards not only listening, but truly understanding, the words of the predecessors of our music to the current phenomenons, (particularly those who have chosen native African dialect) we shall be all the more better for it. Thus, whilst continuing to develop unique solutions to generate a collective admiration for our music, we can eventually amalgamate our continent into a respectfully diverse African identity. As Sankara said, “we must dare to invent the future.”

The task at hand is a call to action of not only you who is reading this, but also to myself as in more cases than one, I have failed my continent in not daring to seek out more ways in which I can gain a greater understanding into what I am truly enjoying whether it’s Burna Boy or Sauti Sol.

I know I need to do better, the question is, do you?

Article written by Wanjiku Mucai

Notes

*- A quote from ‘Decolonising the Mind: the Politics of Language in African Literature’ (1986)

- Photos are taken from @wer_jokenya on Instagram and Pinterest.