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Blog PostsThe Song Remains the Same
By David Peterson at Sep 03, 2004 |
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National consciousness, which is not nationalism, is the only thing that will give us an international dimension. This problem of national consciousness and of national culture takes on in Africa a special dimension. The birth of national consciousness in Africa has a strictly contemporaneous connection with the African consciousness. The responsibility of the African as regards national culture is also a responsibility with regard to African-Negro culture. This joint responsibility is not the fact of a metaphysical principle but the awareness of a simple rule which wills that every independent nation in an Africa where colonialism is still entrenched is an encircled nation, a nation which is fragile and in permanent danger.Those were the days. Huh? An affirmation of identity such as this is (roughly, give or take a few millimeters) the opposite of the kind of negation of the same practiced among the neocolonial community on behalf of the struggling peoples of this region of Africa. But we didn't need a century or two of exploitation to do the trick. These days, it happens almost overnight.
The Sudan (map) UN Security Council Resolution 1556 (alternative weblink), July 30, 2004 "Crisis in Darfur---Not to Mention the Left (Again)," ZNet Blogs, July 30FYA ("For your archives"): Am depositing here (a) five additional weblinks to what academics like to call postcolonial studies (and similar honorific titles betraying a penchant for prefixes). Incidentally, for the sake of full disclosure, I should add that the term 'postcolonial' throws me for a loop every time I encounter it---but even more today than it did years ago. Maybe it's the prefix, 'post-'? That could be. Though one never can be absolutely certain. As is postmodern, poststructuralism, post-Cold War, and so on. It's not that these terms don't mean anything. It's just that they seldom mean what their practitioners think they mean---and must mean, in order make their particular crafts possible. Still, it seems to me that it is high-time for the laborers in this academic field to throw of the yokes and break the chains of postcolonial studies, and to recognize, at long last, that the one true growth market stretching out ahead of them isn't postcolonial studies at all. Rather, it's neocolonial studies. After all, aren't we living in the middle of a neocolonial world? At least in the recent past and for the foreseeable future? After these important links, I'll deposit (b) two current news reports on the release of Oxfam's Songs for Sudan collection.
Postcolonial Studies Website, Deepika Bahri et al., Emory University, USA (Though I'd go straight to the "Contents" webpage.) Colonial & Postcolonial Literary Dialogues, Allen Carey-Webb et al., Western Michigan University, USA Post-Colonial News and Literary Studies, Josette Jacques et al., University of Bourgogne, France Contemporary Postcolonial & Postimperial Literature in English, George Landow et al., National University of Singapore The Imperial Archive, Leon Litvack et al., Queen's University of Belfast, Ireland(B) Agence France Presse -- English September 3, 2004 Friday 7:31 AM GMT HEADLINE: R.E.M., other music stars donate tracks for Darfur relief album DATELINE: LONDON Sept 3 Music stars from both sides of the Atlantic have laid down tracks for a new compilation album to raise money for victims of conflict in Darfur, western Sudan, the relief agency Oxfam said Friday. David Gray, R.E.M., Badly Drawn Boy, Jet, Ash, Futureheads and Faithless are among the artists who have contributed to "Songs for Sudan", the proceeds of which will go towards Oxfam's efforts in the troubled region. "Men, women and children are still dying everyday in Sudan," said Damon Gough, who records under the name Badly Drawn Boy. "People like us might not have the power to stop the violence but at least we can try and help the people who are affected by it," he said. The album will be available in Britain only as an Internet download on www.bignoisemusic.com for 7.99 pounds (11.80 euros, 14.30 dollars), with five pounds going directly to the Oxfam Sudan appeal. Oxfam said that five pounds would be enough to provide 15 people with clean drinking water. The United Nations estimates that between 30,000 and 50,000 people have died in the midst of a rebellion in Darfur, with more than a million others displaced from their homes and a further 180,000 now refugees in Chad. The Independent (London) September 3, 2004, Friday SECTION: First Edition; NEWS; Pg. 9 HEADLINE: PRIMAL SCREAM AND REM LEND SONGS TO SUDAN APPEAL ALBUM BYLINE: CIAR BYRNE MEDIA CORRESPONDENT HIGHLIGHT: Michael Stipe of REM, which has provided Come Together' Toby Melville/Reuters SOME OF the biggest names in music, including REM, Primal Scream and David Gray, have joined forces with Oxfam to raise money for the crisis in Sudan. Oxfam has followed in the footsteps of ventures such as Band Aid and War Child to produce a charity album. Songs For Sudan features 14 tracks, including exclusive songs from Badly Drawn Boy, Jet and Ash. "Men, women and children are still dying every day in Sudan," said Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy. "People like us might not have the power to stop the violence there, but at least we can try and help people who are affected by it." The artists have all agreed to forgo royalties from the pounds 7.99 album, of which pounds 5 will go directly to Oxfam's Sudan appeal. To save production costs, the album will only be available via a music download from www.bignoisemusic.com. Each album purchased will pay for clean drinking water for 15 people. Oxfam is already helping a quarter of a million people in refugee camps in Darfur, western Sudan, where fighting has led millions of people to flee their homes, and in neighbouring Chad. The charity's focus is on providing clean water and sanitation and hygiene training. Conditions in Chad, where more refugees are still arriving, are steadily deteriorating and there is a real threat of a cholera outbreak. "The album arose from a conversation between Oxfam and different artists about what they could do to have an impact on the situation," said a spokesman for the charity. "The idea was quite simple. It was to try to do something that will enable other people to do something for Sudan," he added. The project was turned around in less than a month, in a rapid reaction to the scale of the disaster. The UN estimates that up to 50,000 people have died since the conflict began in Darfur in February 2003, when rebel forces took up arms in protest against alleged discrimination by the Khartoum government. Oxfam's Sudan appeal has already raised pounds 4m in public donations - one of the charity's most successful appeals ever. In 1995, the War Child charity raised pounds 1.25m for children in war-torn former Yugoslavia when it released the Help album, featuring tracks by acts including Radiohead, the Stone Roses, Blur and Oasis. SONGS FOR SUDAN Decent Days and Nights The Futureheads Starcrossed (Acoustic) Ash The Lifting - Live REM Come Together (BBG Mix) Primal Scream All over this town The Upper Room Bashment Boogie Roots Manuva Club Foot (jagz kooner remix edit) Kasabian Shrimp Mr. Scruff I want 2 Ty Promised Land Paddy Casey Cigarettes and Cola Jet All Comes True Tom Baxter Ballad of Easy Rider Kathryn Williams Static in The City Hope of the States Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow Faithless Baltimore (Randy Newman cover at 2003 V Festival) David Gray Slow Jam Four Tet Celebrate Badly Drawn Boy
