About a year ago, a young Rwandan with an unusual English accent walked to me and told me, “I really like what you do and I would like to document your journey through film.” I looked at him and without the shadow of a doubt I said, “Sure!” From that day, Isumbabyose has been part of my life in a creepy kind of way filming me in awkward situations and sometimes positions. Every time he used my phone, he would remind me “Don’t delete that!” I don’t know if it’s written on my face that I do delete stuff a lot because he was right. I do. Continue reading “The Expericment Film “
My history has no face
Its voice emits on strange waves
An intricate message
Written in a coded language
The enigma machine is idle
Broken or tempered with by rivals?
Silenced? Scaring idols?
What’s a man afraid of idylls?
Take me to a club where Rujindiri creates samples for beats by Dre
Take me to a church where Kagame is the padre
Take me to a mosque where Anta Diop is sheikh
Take me to a time before Misri kings “became” greek
[…to be continued]
#1key
Apprenti_Sage is the album’s opening track. Drawing on the Rwandan tradition of Kwivuga, which literally means bragging, 1key introduces and asserts himself as a poet and as an artist, who terrorizes his enemies! Within the tradition of Rwandan praise poetry there are numerous specialist sub-genres, including the poetry of dynasty, the poetry of farmers, and amahamba (“the praising of cows”). According to 1key: “Kwivuga was everybody’s poetry”. Created and performed by men and boys, kwivuga is about lineage and ego: “it’s about knowing who you are and ensuring that others know too” (1Key). In this case, 1Key identifies himself as the son of his personal hero, his late Grandfather Ngangare Rugambwa. Continue reading “Entre 2 Album Review: Apprenti_Sage”
1. Where were “we” “you” “they” before this land bore the name that makes our pride?
2. Which ancestors did the first Rwandese family evoke before sleep at night?
3. How old are the words Tutsi, Hutu & Twa in the universe?
4. Who can point the first time the poet mentioned them in a verse? Continue reading “Catch 22 Questions”
I’m black and I’m proud
I’m black and I’m proud
I’m black and I’m proud
I’m black and I’m proud
I’m black and I’m proud
But repeating the same line five times
Sounds like I’m trying to convince my mind
About my blackness as if off it, I would be mindless
Just the same way people who repeat themselves
Offer a little insight and waste a lot of time
So tell me, am I as black as “black” is defined? Continue reading “The Lost African”
