I'm travelling to Luanda, Angola, on August 27th, as most of you readers know. As I read, surf and chat in order to prepare for this reporting journey, I repeatedly come across this recent musical phenomenon some of you may not have heard of yet: Kuduro. This ragga/zouk/techno sound mixed with angolan kizomba is soaring in Luanda and successfully being exported abroad, partly because of a portuguese band named Buraka Som Sistema (the portuguese-speaking readers among you will enjoy the wordplay). These children of angolan parents and their friends from the Lisbon suburbs created something called progressive kuduro. London fell in love with it. Buraka grabbed the money unexpectedly earned with the album sales ("From Buraka to the World", 2006) and went to Luanda to shoot a video, taking M.I.A. along. Watch:
Here's a pure angolan example, Dog Murras. The Luanda slums (or musseques) were the cradle and are now the theme of many a kuduro song. Phonetically, in Portuguese, kuduro means "stiff ass". Dancing it demands a powerful hip and a certain inclination for sexual display.
In a few days, I shall see for myself the endless musseques that surround Luanda, this schizophrenic capital where luxurious SUVs splash mud on inexistant sidewalks and families with no electricity or running water listen to the distant buzz of fashionable nightclubs. Oil lubrifies the lives of very few Angolans in this country of 15 million. Reserves are supposed to end in 20 years. Will that be a curse or a blessing?
2 comments:
Ontem vi o tal "Kuduro, Fogo no Museke", um dos documentários de que te falei. Surpreendentemente, a verdadeira origem do kuduro é um filme do van Damme (o documentário faz outras revelações e dá tempo de antena a vários críticos do kuduro, que vêem na coisa um sintoma poderoso da crise de valores das gerações pós-independência).
Eu estou tão pasmada com o teu domínio do inglês que nem digo mais nada. Minha nossa, tu és sempre genial em tudo o que fazes mesmo.
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