The A-List
ONE is turning to its community of artists, friends, members and staff for their top picks on creative works that have enhanced their knowledge and understanding of the richness of African culture and arts.
Today we have recommendations from South African singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlesela, ONE Chairman Tom Freston and me, Peter Griesar, ONE’s creative development manager.
If there is something that has influenced or inspired you in this way, please leave a note in the comments of this post. We’d love to hear from you.
South African singer-songwriter Vusi Mahlesela recommends:
Bela Fleck, who’s now inspired me to want to learn to play the banjo, traveled all around Africa tracing the origins of the banjo. He made a beautiful documentary called “Throw Down Your Heart” that chronicles his travels throughout our continent and introduces all the amazing musicians he met along the way. He also made an accompanying record, “Throw Down Your Heart: Tales From the Acoustic Planet, Vol. 3 – Africa Sessions,” released in the beginning of April. Visit his great new site to find out more about the film, to read reviews, and to find a screening of it near you. Enjoy it!
ONE Chairman Tom Freston recommends:
There is a fantastic new series on HBO, “The No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” which takes place in Botswana. Just started. With so much imagery of Africa about war, famine, and pestilence…this series, which stars a great Jill Scott, is the flip side….set in an upper middle class African town, a booming country, with schools, working professionals, etc. Check it out. Sundays at 8pm and 10pm.
And this one is from me:
A week before my first trip to Africa I picked up Ryszard Kapuscinski’s novel “The Shadow of the Sun” on a recommendation of a friend from Senegal. Written by a Polish journalist, the book conveys the fascinating history of post-colonial Africa set through stories from the author’s 40-year career covering the Continent. I finished the book on the trip and left it with a new friend in Mali who has since passed it along to another friend.
-Peter Griesar
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April 18, 2009 at 12:53 pm
Thanks so much for this thread, Peter. I appreciate the fact that ONE is not only about facilitating the development money necessary to assist Africa’s People into a better future, but is also about raising more awareness with ONE supporters about Africa’s rich history & diversity of culture – in music, literature and in the various other aspects of life.
I think a good place for people to start reading African authors is read anything by Frantz Fanon (“Black Skin, White Masks”, “The Wretched of the Earth”, etc). I won’t go into Mr. Fanon’s history but for those of us who have been involved with the Continent for many years, his books are still the guideposts to understanding much of what stirs deep inside an African soul.
But be ready for a brutally honest appraisal from Frantz Fanon of the way that the historical relationships between Africa’s People and the people from their former colonizers still affect the ways in which we all interact with each other & perceive each other.
I think that those issues still resonate in the debates currently going on in this forum (and others).
Let’s keep this thread going as next weekend I would like to share some of my favorites in African music.
All the Best, debbie
April 18, 2009 at 2:19 pm
Oooh, I like this post. Bela Fleck is great. I never knew about the movie he made. I will have to check that out.