Africa

Please watch this video. And after you watch it, you can click on part 2 and 3 as well.

I have fallen in love with the singer K'Naan, who is portrayed in the documentary, as he goes around Kenya, showing life in the slums. I love his music...he is at once poignant, sad, and joyous. Definitely the most positive hip hop I've ever heard, but also, so heart-breaking, because he sings about real problems (he was born and spent his childhood in Somalia). Look him up on Youtube if you're interested, or click here to listen to one of the saddest and most beautiful songs, about his childhood sweetheart, Fatima, who got killed by a gunman. If you click on 'more info' at the top right, you can also see the lyrics to the song.

This blog has sort of fallen to the wayside, as I knew it would. I'm not going to give up on it, but posting will be scarce, as it has been. I simply can't be bothered spending an hour on a post anymore. But when I feel like it, I will, so don't give up.

I recently made friends with a Senegalese drummer who lives in Korea teaching music. His English is ... not so great to say the least ... but his French is 100%! So we've made friends and since we don't live in the same city, we talk on the phone several times a week in French. Which is fabulous! (thank you Canadian French Immersion program!) Him and his friends are continually telling people to go to Senegal, and how wonderful it is there. They are so chilled out and happy and positive. I really like talking with them.

And so, between him, listening to K'Naan these days, and reading the most heart-breaking book ever, A Long Way Gone (Memoirs of a Boy Soldier) by Ishamael Beah (who lived in Sierra Leone until his late teens), I have been feeling the weight of Africa pressing on me. And I have no idea what to do about it, but there has to be an answer, and I don't believe in extremes. I don't think pouring millions of dollars into the continent will solve the problem, but I don't think doing nothing will solve it either. I don't know if I will ever know the answer, or what this white, middle-class Canadian is supposed to do.

That's what I'm thinking about these days.