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Afropop Radio |
Afropop Worldwide with Georges Collinet
From PRI Public Radio International ®
Sierra Leone: Celebration, War and Healing
When Sierra Leone gained independence in 1961, Freetown swayed to the beguiling, breezy lilt of palm wine guitar and danced to the funky pop of Geraldo Pino and the Heartbeats. Once a center of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, Sierra Leone became an improbable amalgamation of indigenous peoples and repatriated Africans freed from slavery. Thirty years of political and economic disintegration led to a horrific civil war that claimed tens of thousands of victims and created a generation of maimed bodies and ruined lives between 1991 and 2002. Since the war, the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission has urged the use of music to bring about healing. This program will profile the inspiring story of the Refugee All Stars, a band formed in war-era refugee camps in Guinea. This band played a key role in giving citizens the courage to return home, and now, along with other young musicians in Freetown, attempt to pick up where others left off before the war. Members of the band will speak in this program. And young rappers from Dry Yai will give us an entrée into the country's emerging hip hop generation. |
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Musical Conjurers
This program takes an imaginative look at the way musicians conjure fantastic realities--the past, the future, transformed cultural worlds--in their music. Habib Koite uses musicians from outside his own tradition to conjure ancient Mali. Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt collaborates with musicians from the UK, Syria and elsewhere to journey into the Andalusian past in the awesome surround of the Alhambra in Granada, Spain. In Congo, Konono No1 generate the ambiance of a village funeral in Kinshasa's urban neighborhoods, and on a new live album, in a Belgium concert hall. Then, back in the 70s in Guinea, a group of guitar virtuosos foretell the rise of instrumental, acoustic African music in a rare, and recently reissued set of recordings. All this and much more as Afropop Worldwide recasts the musician as magician. |
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Sudan: A Musical History
Sudan presents a uniquely complex Afro-Arab history and culture, and this program tells the country's story through music. A vibrant tradition of pan-Sudanese music was flowering in 1989 when an oppressive, Islamist government came to power. Many major artists then left the country, creating a far flung musical diaspora. Others--such as Mohammed Wardi, and Abdel Gadir Salilm--remained behind, weathering years of conflict and division. On this program historian Ahmad A. Sikainga helps listeners understand the complex social context of Darfur and other conflicts, while introducing them to Sudan's hybrid, cosmopolitan popular culture. Along the way we hear from Mohammed Wardi, Abdel Gadir Salim, Omer Ihsas (Darfur), Al Balabil (Nubia), Emmanuel Kembe and rapper Emmanuel Jal (Southern Sudan), Rasha (new voice of the diaspora), and many others. |
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