Alternate African Reality. Electronic, Electroacoustic and Experimental Music from Africa and the Diaspora
Alternate African Reality, cover for the digital release by Cedrik Fermont, 2020. Alternate African Reality. Electronic, electroacoustic and experimental music from Africa and the diaspora. Introduction and critique. "Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’. Note that ‘People’ means Africans who are not black, while ‘The People’ means black Africans. Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress." – Binyavanga Wainaina (1971-2019). © Binyavanga Wainaina, 2005. Originally published in Granta 92, 2005. Photo taken in the streets of Maputo, Mozambique by Cedrik Fermont, 2018. "Africa – the dark continent of the tyrants, the beautiful girls, the bizarre rituals, the tropical fruits, the pygmies, the guns, the mercenaries, the tribal wars, the unusual diseases, the abject poverty, the sumptuous riches, the widespread executions, the praetorian colonialists, the exotic wildlife - and the music." (extract from the booklet of Extreme Music from Africa (Susan Lawly, 1997). Whether intended as prank, provocation or patronisation or, who knows, all of these at once, producer William Bennett's fake African compilation Extreme Music from Africa perfectly fits the African clichés that Binyavanga Wainaina described in his essay How To Write About Africa : the concept, the cover, the lame references, the stereotypical drawing made by Trevor Brown..
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