In the fifth part of M.Bassy‘s »More Aphrike« series, our guests are the author and speaker Taiye Selasi and the musical adventurer and producer Bill Sellanga aka Blinky Bill. Selasi defined the term »Afropolitan« for a new generation of cosmopolitans with African roots, who feel at home in the metropoles of Africa as well as in those of Europe or the United States. Nairobi-based Blinky Bill mixes the sounds of Kenya with music from other African countries and reaches people far beyond the continent. Their talk focuses on cultural belonging and the forming of identity in a world which is becoming more fluid while simultaneously raising new borders.
Excerpt from the talk:
I feel like the same freedom that is accorded to musicians as Björk for example - to be as expressive as she possibly can - should be accorded to African musicians as well.
Blinky Bill:
There is a South African pop singer, called Sello Chicco Twala. He was a big producer who I grew up listening to. A lot of old school Kenyan musicians have sampled him and because of that a whole generation – that probably did not know the older musicians – get to know about him. I feel that the same freedom that is accorded to musicians as Björk for example - to be as expressive as one possibly can - should be accorded to African musicians as well.
Tayje Selasi:
I couldn't agree more with you. It is our tedious work as African artists that we have to keep saying this. I published an article not so long ago which was called »We Need More Names« which was a cheerful nod to an exquisite novel by a Zimbabwean novelist called »We Need New Names«. And I was saying, we need more names, because I was wondering, why do we do this? I decided that the reason we are faced with this tedious conversation is because there are so few of us, there are shamefully few of us, who are given space on an international stage. I see it again and again across genres. We asked those few African artists to do everything. And it is anathema to the process of creating art. In that essay, I was just saying: You must let these novelists write their novels. You must let these musicians sing their songs. You must let these painters paint their paintings. And then you can get into some side conversation about their ethnic, linguistic, cultural identity. But that has to be secondary.
You must let these novelists write their novels. You must let these musicians sing their songs. You must let these painters paint their paintings. And then you can get into some side conversation about their ethnic, linguistic, cultural identity. But that has to be secondary.
Moderation:
Being a bit pigeonholed to a geographic place and the fact that there is an expected narrative, is that something you found in the music industry and that you managed to challenge and to reject?
Blinky Bill:
It was 2008, we released our album, and we made a hundred copies and sold it to a hundred people, and then we had to print another round of copies to sell to an extra hundred people. Then the next year, when that video came and the whole country was going crazy about it, at the back of my head I was thinking, “Man, we honestly did not want to talk to everyone”. It' is nice that you want to come in and obviously that amplifies the message, but now there is this expectation! I want to express what I am feeling now, and then maybe if I look at it in two years from now, I might not necessarily really relate to it because it is a part of the journey. You have been a teenager once. You might not relate to teenagers now, but you pass through that stage, and you can understand it. Whatever it is that I am going to put out, it was my reality at that point. If I don't meet your expectations, then you might need to meet them somewhere else.
Moderation:
How do you not fall into the trick of, “Oh, that worked so well. The audience liked it so much. Maybe I should just redo it again!". Especially because there is money involved. From an artistic point of view, how do you balance that?
Tayje Selasi:
I don't know any artist that has any interest in repeating himself, because as you say, it is painfully boring. After you have released something or after you have published something, you really do realize that some time has passed since you actually finished it and you quite literally have moved on to other things. And if you haven't, if you do start repeating yourself, I think you might as well stop. Because I can't see what the fun in that would be.
Moderation:
For me it is interesting to understand what is going on musically in your place, but also what inspires you?
Blinky Bill:
Nairobi is such an open space where so many different sounds play, and because of that we have been exposed to so many different sounds. So what is happening is that all these sounds are in the pot, so whatever it is that we are cooking, it has a flavor from almost everywhere, but also some spices from home
Tayje Selasi:
I would argue that is always how you get the best art. It is how you get the best food, you get the best music. Music can really move like water through rock. If it can get on the plane or the boat or travel on the back of a mosquito, it will get to a new culture and it will find a home there. And it has to be allowed to do that.
Moderation:
We were talking about national identity and nationality and that you shouldn't think of art in terms of nation. Could you elaborate on that?
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Tayje Selasi:
The nation state, which has changed shape many times since it came into existence in 1648, is a political unit, it's an idea. It is a space surrounded by the border. It has changed. We are in a country right now that has changed in our lifetime. Some have disappeared, some have been created ect. The nation is not the best way to understand the people or the cultures that arise within those shifting borders. When we talk about nation, we always tend to collapse into singularity. Is it Kenyan? Is it German? Is it American? But what is American? When I ask if you are going to talk about ways of being American, and you talk about localities in America, local communities, then I am willing to participate in that conversation. But if we are at this level of abstraction, which as far as I can see, only pushes us into generalizations, singularities, reduction, then I think we are moving terribly far away from the impetus.
Moderation:
Well, thank you so much for all these amazing questions and this wonderful discussion!
instagram.com/taiye.entirely
instagram.com/blinkybillmusic
We would like to thank the Deutsche Stiftung für Engagement und Ehrenamt, whose 100xDigital funding program made it possible to expand our digital archive with this journal entry.