Weekend African Music in DC #2: Internationally Known West Africa at Tropicalia

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Amkoullel, Chosan, Dumi RIght, Magee McIlvaine, Mali rap, Nomadic Wax, Tropicalia, VOA, Waterflow

Before heading over to Lux Lounge and Timaya late on Friday night, I attended an earlier show at Tropicalia.  That venue has hosted several Internationally Known hip-hop nights over the past year, and Friday’s was the first that I was able to attend.  Sahelblog and a couple of African music watchers from the VOA were also on hand, although the crowd was heartbreakingly small (come on DC!).

Sweet Sounds of the Sahel at Tropicalia: Mali + Mauritania = 1

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Bambara, Festival in the Desert, Leila Gobi, Mali music, Mamadou Kelly, Mauritania music, Menaka, Noura Mint Seymali, Timbuktu, Tropicalia, Tuareg music

Last night I attended Tropicalia’s ‘Festival in the Desert’ with the Mauritanian Diva, Noura Mint Seymali, Mamadou Kelly, an ethnic Bambara from the Timbuktu Region of Mali, and Leila Gobi, from Menaka, in the Gao Region of Mali, an area which saw a lot of fighting between Tuareg separatists and Islamist militants.

Upcoming African Sounds at Tropicalia on U Street

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Alliance Francaise, Amkoullel, Chosan, Leila Gobi, Mamadou Kelly, Nomadic Wax, Noura Mint Seymali, Rap in Mali, Tropicalia

Tropicalia has two upcoming shows with a wide variety of African artists that I plan to try to attend.  On September 29, the Alliance Francaise convenes artists from Mali (Mamadou Kelly and Leila Gobi) and Mauritania (Noura Mint Seymali).  I normally wouldn’t consider myself a big fan of the music of the Sahel, but watching ‘The Last Song Before the War‘ has me motivated to go to this.

Hip-Hop is more my thing, so I’m quite excited about the series that Nomadic Wax will be putting on on October 4.  I’ve been wanting to increase my knowledge of rap in Mali (which I understand has a much more thriving scene than neighboring Niger) so am quite excited about Amkoullel as well as the Sierra Leonean diaspora rapper, Chosan.  You can find full length albums by both on Spotify.

Kudos to Nomadic Wax for this series.  I posted about one installment before, but was unable to attend.

Africa in DC this Weekend: Cultural Events – Senegalese Hip-Hop and Movies

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AFI, African Movies, African Music, Nomadic Wax, Senegal hip-hop, Thiat, Tropicalia, Y'en a Marre

There are a couple of exciting cultural events going on this weekend.

Several Senegalese Rappers from the Y’en A Marre (Enough is Enough) movement that helped thwart Abdoulaye Wade’s effort for a controversial (and constitutionally questionable) third term (almost exactly a year ago) will be performing at Tropicalia on U street this Friday.

You can read about the political harassment that one of the performers faced during the Wade administration here.

Read more about the event here:

nomadicwax.org/internationally-known-hip-hop-show-case/

You can read more about the host, Nomadic Wax, and a previous interaction with the DC policy community (in this case the Wilson Center) here (with full video).

Tickets are only $7.  I’m unable to attend, but I hope to hear from those of you who do.

Also going down, from this Thursday through Tuesday, is the 9th annual New African Films Festival at the AFI Theatre in Silver Spring.  I have been to several  films at the previous two editions of this event.  So far, the Franco-Ivorian, ‘Beyond the Ocean’, stands out as a clear favorite.

More info here:

http://www.afi.com/silver/films/2013/v10i1/naff2013.aspx

Speaking of the Ivory Coast, I will take advantage of the snowquester to publish (probably tomorrow) the analytical piece on the absence of Ivorian affairs from the DC policy community that I had promised over the weekend.

The U Street Corridor & Late Night Pizza: The Sahel Connection

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Jumbo Slice Pizza Africa, Tropicalia, U Street Africa

My first Jumbo Slice

Yesterday, I went to a show at Tropicalia (On U &14^th).  It’s an ok spot, in a somewhat small basement location with a global music focus.  Most of their performances are Latin inspired (including the one last night) but they do have some Africana nights.  I’ve been to one, which relied heavily on the DJ Cleo trance/house beats that were quite popular when I first visited South Africa in 2005.

The ‘Africa encounter’ of the night came in the form of the pizza spot where I grabbed a quick bite to eat before checking out the show.  Jumbo Slice, with locations in two of DC’s top nightlife areas, U Street and Adams Morgan, is something of an institution for late night party goers.  Shortly after moving to DC, I had heard from my former Peace Corps Niger colleagues that the U street Jumbo Slice had Hausa speaking staff from Niger.  I regularly meet Nigerians in DC, but very few speak any substantive Hausa (the only native Hausa speakers I’ve ever stumbled across in the DMV were a SAIS student on campus and another student at Dulles airport, both from Nigeria).

My first visit to Jumbo Slice came after I had been in DC for a year and a half.  On that occasion, no Hausa speakers were present, but our order was taken by a Burkinabe who couldn’t possibly have been older than 18.  Although aside from living in Burkina Faso and DC in his young life, he had also spent some time in Ghana.

            Yesterday however, I finally connected with at least one of the Nigeriens behind Jumbo Slice.  He came to the US just before 9/11 and although he was a Zarmaphone, Niamey was a sufficiently cosmopolitan location as a youth that he spoke very good Hausa.  Intriguingly, even the pizza was better following our conversation.