A Homemade Revolution

imagine the grammy’s with an african remix… that was what the pearl of africa music (PAM) awards felt like.  toru dodo (my fabulous pianist and the official band photographer…lol!) took this shot of me backstage just after we finished performing.  we got into kampala a few days after our performance for his excellency president paul kagame and other invited heads of state in kigali.  the excited energy of red carpet press and ugandan bling was a complete 360 from the tight security and reserved atmosphere of the state dinner in rwanda.  we had a great time and were honored to perform at both events, but i can definitely say that while i expected the reserved formalities of our rwanda performances, i wasn’t sure what to expect at the PAM awards.  what pleased me most about the event was the tangible evidence of a viable and sustainable east african music industry.  this year marked the fifth edition of the PAM awards, which celebrates popular and traditional music from uganda, rwanda, kenya, burundi, and tanzania.  i remember coming to kampala for christmas holidays as a college student and hearing the same radio spins i’d hear in the states or europe.  the only popular african music at the time was from congolese soukous superstar staples like kofi olomide or papa wemba or perhaps a south african power ballad from brenda fassie or yvonne chaka chaka.  sure, there was the occasional breakout local hit from afrigo or the jimmy katumba and cecile kayirebwa classics, but none of the aforementioned artists were heard in regular rotation.  typically they’d get airtime during the african music hour.  that always bothered be.   shouldn’t we be hearing and supporting more of our african selves on all the radio shows, instead of being relegated to the “african music hour”??   i would meet or hear about african musicians and artists who could not support themselves through their work because people simply did not valuetheir work locally, regionally, and/or nationally.  let’s not even not talk about how much more difficult it becomes for these artists to plug into a global cultural stage.  actually, let’s imagine a culturally reversed situation for a moment.  maybe you lived in chicago or shanghai, and the onlymusic you heard regularly on both radio and tv was swahili hip-hop or french techno – simply because they were the folks wading in culturally imperialist glory that century.  most of the music was about a socio-cultural experience so completely removed from your own, but yet that’s who your society celebrated as the most important cultural voices of the era – all the while dismissing the longstanding and emerging artists next-door.  while many of you might consider yourselves musically open to sounds from every corner of the earth (the best way to experience music in my opinion), i think the latter hypothetical situation might inspire a revolution in the local arts community and in yourself.  let’s not get my position on this twisted though.  i’m not saying cut out the possibility of listening to “Other” folks’ cultural narratives for the sake of championing or privileging one’s own.  i am saying that the only way that an individual or a community can definitively know where they’re going is by first knowing themselves.  in my opinion, the road to knowing our truest and best selves insists on revolution, originality, and an open mind.  to me, the PAM awards 5th edition was a fine example of the onset a beautiful and revolutionary journey that lies before a continent full of brilliant artists and minds longing to be heard both at home and worldwide.  i was simply there to perform a bit and present some awards, but i am absolutely inspired and so thankful that i was able to bear witness to another chapter of the revolution.  i am so thankful that i was able to be home, musically and otherwise.  thanks for reading…. somi