#djhamaradio

[djhamaradio]

The aftertaste of the ocean

Mati Diop’s 'Dahomey' isn’t solely concerned with the subject of repatriating Beninese artifacts, but with returning the debate to the Ben

I am always keeping an eye out for African film makers and Mati Diop is one to keep an eye on. Her previous film Atlantics was a gorgeous and haunting analysis of the impact the Sahel and west african migrant crisis pushing young men and women across the Sahara and across the Mediterranean often to their deaths. Her new movie "Dahomey", Is a documentary unpacking the implications, and issues behind the repatriation of the famous Benin bronzes. I have not seen the movie yet but Africa is a country as usual do a wonderful job of critiquing the movie.

[djhamaradio]

This movie is illuminating and provides an insight into how Afro-brazilians manage to create these black enclaves that managed to preserve aspects of african culture that died out in africa. I admire the way they respect, and love african indigenousness, and how refreshing it is that they also inspire non-africans to also embrace these ideas.

[djhamaradio]

I do not have a brand because I am not a corporation.

Everybody has to self-promote now. Nobody wants to.

So you want to be an artist. Do you have to start a TikTok?

I lost my job recently and had to log back into my LinkedIn account. The whole thing felt forced and weird because I never use the app and I never post anything and suddenly I posted an alert showing I was open for work. The whole process felt weird because everyone in my network seemed to be confused because everyone on there is an ace at networking and using their personal brands to show people what they have going on in their work lives and I felt like a faker. Same way I feel when I am told I am not effectively branding my radio show and my escapades in the record digging world to become a vinyl influencer (not sure if that exists). The whole thing has me depressed because I get the feeling my inactivity is not helping with my job prospects. And no matter what advice I read on Forbes or whatever blog about personal marketing I’m never going to be good at it. I lack the brand consistency or whatever it’s called because ultimately I am not that committed to this world of personal branding. The article above from the wonderful folks at Vox reminds me that this is one of the legacies of late market capitalism everyone is merely a sellout but we don’t have interests or passions anymore everything we do or say has to be leveraged for likes and followers. The thing I find most intriguing about this world is the pervasisveness of hucksterism, and just pure fakery. I find people employing awful vague corporte phrases like maximizing productivity to describe their day to day lives.I find people posting shit about how one can leverage their brand to build a following that will lead them to make a living off social media. it is all disgusting but more than anything speaks to just how much consumerism, and capitlism in general has infected every sacred facet of human life. We have all become brands, and as brands your ultimate goal is to sell, sell and sell. Sell agressively, sell even if it means lying and sell with your consumer in mind. I look at myself I truly joined social media to connect with friends, at some point I left Facebook because my conservative family had joined and thewas now on they had an issue with my Halloween costume (Me dressed as a member of De La Soul and my girlfriend at the time in. slutty Nun costume), so I deleted the account and stuck with IG. On IG aI liked sharing music banter, odd ball humour and rap references with my small cast of friends who get it, and I use it to let people know when my radio show is on. My show is decently popular and I dont make a living doing it, I do DJ gigs on the side and I make decent guap doing it but would absolutely never do that for a living. The DJ gig funds the record collecting, and the radio show is a creative outlet that is all it is. I dont give a shit about branding, even though in a sense I am acting like a brand but I am not selling you anything. I put myself out there simply to say hey check out what I am doing and let me know if you fuck with it other than that no biggie. I aint out here saying if you listen to my radioshow your dick will grow bigger, all the chicks will like you and I am offering somekind of solution to one of lifes ills. My purpose is simply to say hey dont know what you doing but tune into my non-commercial uninterrupted absolutley amteurish radio show where you get to hear me play funk, soul, jazz and african music, for its on sake and not to sell but plugs or lawn mowers. The branding shit is particularly insidious because it makes us forget that there was a time when people congregated because they shared deep interests outside of the capitalist objective, think about stamp collectors, book clubs, bowling leagues and in my case a group of guys who drive around the midwest frequenting record stores spending huge amounts of hours scouring dollar record bins for prized records (This is also a dying art but I digress). I think at the heart of it social media has democratized aspects of the creative world. I just want to live in a world where I am not a brand.

[djhamaradio]

Stooges all day

[djhamaradio]

[djhamaradio]

Favorite documentary films of all time

To say I love documentaries is an understatement. check these movies below:

1. The blues according to lightning Hopkins - les blank

2. Lake of fire - Tony Kay

3. You see me laughing - Mandy Stein

4. Buena Vista Social Club - Wim Wenders

5. Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robinhood hills

6. Only the dead see the end of war - Michael Ware & Bill Guttentag

7. Control Room - Jehane Noujaim

8. When we where kings - Leon Gast

9. Grey Gardens - Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde and Muffie Meyer

10. Shoah - Claude Lanzmann

11. Sans Soleil - Chris Marker

12. Grizzly man - Werner Herzog

13. Man on wire - James Marsh

14. Kooyanisqatis - Godfrey Reggio

16. The Fog of War - Errol Morris

17. The look of Silence- Joshua Oppenheimer

18. I am your negro - Raoul Peck

19. Exterminate all brutes - Raul Peck

20. Concerning Violence - Goran Olsson

21. The Black Power Mixtape - Goran Olsson

22. The Century of Self - Adam Curtis

23. Hypernormalization - Adam Curtis

24. Cave of forgotten dreams - Werner Herzog

[djhamaradio]

I heard whispers about this a while back and was looking forward to it. As an African history buff with a particularly deep thirst for knowledge about the post colonial period this one was a must see. The story centers around the grand daughter of the Late great honorable Hailie Sellasie and her experiences prior to and after the toppling of the emperors kingdom. The movie works because it manages to weave a tapestry of intimate interviews with family members, historians, Ethiopian citizens and other supporters and backers of the royal family you are swept into a world of profound privilege and gut wrenching suffering. Prior to this documentary I was very grounded in the fact that the Emperor was an indifferent monarch swimming in opulence while his people where suffering from a famine. This documentary forces me to question that narrative, because we are experiencing everything from the perspective of family members who themselves got victimized by the regime that took over from the Emperor. Ultimately this is an intimate portrait of societal trauma, and how the foundational myths of certain nation states can leave a lot of things unsaid and leave people with deep deep wounds. As a work of visual entertainment I think this is up there because the found footage is arresting, and the interviews are emotionally deep.

[djhamaradio]

My life was intimately shaped by South African club music, sort of the same way a generation before me were shaped by congolese music. As a Zambian growing up in the 90's, South Africa was a cultural powerhouse due to the over abundant presence of South African media channels in Zambia (Channel - O). We grew up listening to tons of American music, and Kwaito represented a counterbalance, an african sound by an african economic and social powerhouse. Kwaito represented an urban modern perspective. Its captured township life, and sonically felt familiar to us as Southern Africans. The above Redbull music documentary, goes into detail discussing the history of South Africa's very diverse electronic music scene.