Africa is a Country

“When We Were Kings” and Celia Cruz and the Fania All Stars, two concert films shot by Leon Gast during Muhammed Ali and George Foreman’s 1974 fight in Zaire, are — for me at least — still the gold standard of concert-related films made of American entertainers performing live in front of African audiences.* The other film that comes close is Denis Sanders’ Soul to Soul, a concert film celebrating Ghanaian independence. Artists like Wilson Pickett, Ike and Tina Turner and The Staples Singers, performed live at a concert shot at Independence Square in Accra. [BTW, "Soul to Soul," which was only screened again in 2004 for the first time after it was restored, will be screened next month -- July 5th and 9th -- as part of the AfroPunk Film Festival at the Brooklyn Academy of Music]. Sadly, we don’t see the likes of these kind of films anymore. One reason may be that the novelty factor involved with concert films wore off (you can see 50 Cent’s chain being snatch in Angola or a comical Ludacris video shot on location in South Africa on Youtube). And anyway, if artists want to shoot a concern film, they’ll book Madison Square Garden (cf. Jay Z’s “Fade to Black,” for example). Instead a more useful trend involve the artists now making or being the subjects of documentaries. While many of the films in the new subgenre has the look and feel of travelogues, there’s often more to it. Take the case of the documentary “Bling. A Planet Rock,” about the role of diamond mining in the civil war in Sierra Leone. Directed by the journalist Raquel Cepeda, the film follows the hip hop artists, Raekwon from the Wu Tang Clan and Paul Wall (the latter known for his elaborate diamond grills), reggaeton artist Tego Calderon (a personal favorite) and the writer and former child soldier Ismael Beah, as they travel from New York City to Sierra Leone. I really liked this film although it was overly long (one and a half hours) and it needed tighter editing. I expected the worse from the film (the trailer does not adequately represents its strenghts), but was in fact pleasantly surprised.
Since a number of commercially successful hip hop artists favor expensive jewelery (or “bling”), the film sought to educate the “hip hop community” about the diamond trade. Kanye West does a cameo since his “Diamonds from Sierra Leone” tune (West was apparently encouraged by Q Tip to do the remix which contained the lines “The diamonds, the chains, the bracelets, the charms / I thought my Jesus Piece was so harmless / ’til I seen a picture of a shorty armless”) sparked much of the introspection that the film suggests. Other notable cameos are Jadakiss.
Many artists (according to the film) hardly pay attention to where and how the diamonds are mined so a group of rappers decide to travel to Sierra Leone to see for themselves (it is not clear whether the United Nations funded the trip). Initially the film appears somewhat aimless and threatens to be a vanity project for the musicians involved. However, the director deftly balances the focus on the four rappers as well as telling the story of the diamond trade, its casualties, what’s behind the civil war and Sierra Leone and the attempts by the country’s people to slowly rebuild their country and their lives. We go with the musicians and Beah to a rehabilitation center for victims of rape. In one of the most tender minutes in the film, Paul Wall, who like Calderon does not say much (in contrast to the bumptious Raekwan) recalls a painful memory: that his mother was raped. At a camp for amputees Raekwon’s bravado finally unravels: Clearly unable to square the cruelty of the war with his idea of black unity (that black people can’t do this to each other) he refuses to get out of the bus. He has to be talked into it. Beah, who acts as local guide to the musicians, gets to see old friends. The group also call in with local artists. Finally, we also see them meet with the white South African owner/manager of a partly governed-owned mine were Raekwon interrogates the owner/manager about his company’s profits and his relations with the community living next to the mine. The scene points to the complex process to rebuilld the country and the many interests and personalities with a stake in both the war and the country’s reconstruction. Just before the credits roll, and as they get ready to board the plane, a more subdued (although he has lost none of his swagger) Raekwan puts it in perspective: “This is like 30 Brooklyns in one.”

* Okay, “When We Were Kings” is only half-way a concert film, but it still counts (of the African artists on that bill, apart from Miriam Makeba’s performance being fetichized by the American sports writers as some sort of witch, you can also see a young Hugh Masekela. Or I think I did)