Reggae music lovers (in the Netherlands): Michel Conci

How people got to be reggae music lovers or fans has always fascinated me. Maybe partly because reggae still is off/outside the mainstream, also in the Netherlands. It is not found that easily, let’s just say. It requires (to a degree) an extraordinary life path: that is, different from copying the masses, or simply following what’s commonly on television or the radio.

Reggae has of course since decades gone international and widened its fan base, but I have known individually quite different reggae fans within the Netherlands. Black and white (and Asian, or mixed etc.). Males and females. Old and young. Some with little education, some highly educated. Of different class backgrounds. Some combine liking reggae quite equally with other genres (e.g.: some with African, funk, soul, some with hip-hop, some even with non-black music genres), while others on the other hand adhere almost “strictly” to reggae music, and do not get into much else. Some like roots reggae more than dancehall or vice versa. There are even reggae fans – believe it or not - who do not smoke the “ganja herb”.

Furthermore, some have an interest or sympathy for the related subject of Rastafari, some do not, or even despise it. The latter, despise, I find somewhat odd since Rastafari is not the same as reggae, but is nonetheless connected to it.

These differences (and similarities) between and among reggae fans/lovers intrigue me, also in relation to personal backgrounds. That’s the reason why I would like to interview specific individuals who love reggae.

Before this I have interviewed 12 persons – reggae lovers I know, “breddas” (meaning “brothers”, or "friends" in Jamaican parlance) of mine – here in the Netherlands.

I started the series on this blog with a post of June 2012, when I interviewed Abenet. In April of 2013 I interviewed Bill. After this I interviewed Manjah Fyah, in May 2014. For my blog post of August 2015, I interviewed, somewhat more extensively, (DJ) Rowstone (Rowald). In August 2016, then, I interviewed Vega Selecta. In October 2017, I interviewed DJ Ewa. Then, for my post of September 2018, I interviewed for the first time a woman, namely Empress Messenjah or Empress Donna Lee. In August 2019 I interviewed another woman, namely Sound Cista. For my blog post of September 2020 I interviewed another Reggae-loving woman, French but living in the Netherlands, Selectress Aur'El. For my blog post of September 2021 I interviewed again a "bloke" (fun way to say "man") selecta Hobbol Backawall., and in my blog post of September 2022, I interviewed again a woman, Mystic Tammy. For the blog post of October 2023, I interviewed another woman, Eve Lien Dubwise.

ME, MYSELF, AND I

Most of these were selecta’s (dee-jay's, at events): I encountered them more, and were maybe more willing to go public openly talking about Reggae music. Some told more, some less. They had different backgrounds, so that was interesting.

After interviewing all these people in the “Reggae scene” (Amsterdam and around), with some recurring questions, I wondered if by now maybe I should ask my own questions to myself, instead of acting just as “distant” analyzer.

Some changes I personally went through, even since starting this series, so that adds substance. It also would give an overview also for myself, of the role of Reggae during my life.. “Since the day I know myself, I’ve been a drifter”, Dennis Brown sang on a nice song (The Drifter), but can we really know ourselves fully?

I am not even – mainly – a selecta/dj, yet I still was willing to do the interview with myself, haha. I am more a musical artist, but that will show from my answers underneath. Answers to the same questions I asked the interviewees mentioned before.

Where were you born and did you grow up?

I was born in Nieuw Vennep (behind Schiphol airport, 20km from Amsterdam, Netherlands), I grew up there until in my late twenties, after which I went to live in Amsterdam (West). There still.

Since when (age) do you listen Reggae music?

Around my 11th my brother got via another guy some cassettes (we're talking mid-1980s) with reggae albums. Listening together we got attracted to it. Bob Marley (Kaya) was on these cassettes, but also Peter Tosh’s Mama Africa, and some mixed/various artists tapes.

True, it started with “big names”, oh cliché, but some songs on Tosh’s Mama Africa appealed to me a at first a bit more than Bob’s songs on Kaya. In time I got to like Kaya too (songs like Misty Morning), but by then my brother had some more Reggae albums I liked, we both listened to (others by Bob, Wailing Souls - first album we heard: On The Rocks -, Eek-a-Mouse, Burning Spear, Half Pint, Don Carlos, Itals, etc.). Still in my teens. The love affair continued.. and became less and less commercial, haha.

All in that village Nieuw Vennep – with then about 15.000 inhabitants - , when I could not go out much. Perhaps my brother and I were already 30% of the whole Reggae scene of that village, haha..

What attracted you to it, then?

Partly the rhythm, I think. Plus (parts of) the lyrics, as my English was already quite good by then. Reggae had some spiritual and mystical energy, I then sensed and appreciated, interestingly combined with social comments or descriptions. Some philosophy too (Glass House, Misty Morning). I did not smoke weed then, or even later in my teens (started much later in my mid-20s), so the “ganja herb” was not the reason I liked Reggae, per se.

I have always been curious about other cultures, and the wider world, even as a child.. that helps..

What other music genres did you listen to?

My parents are Italian (father), and Spanish (mother), so Italian and Spanish songs were listened to when I grew up, and also Latin American music, or Flamenco-influenced music from South Spain. My mother liked to dance much more than my father, so listened also to Latin American music, or rhythmic flamenco, haha. My father listened to some (more classical) Italian songs too in the house. In his young days in N-Italy, he played the accordion quite well, and he had harmonica’s (which I of course tried out), so my dad had some interest in folk music as well.

Some of what I heard my parents played I liked – especially when a bit groovy -, and I understood Spanish. My brothers and I, though, sought other – Anglophone - (pop) music, on radio and tv, like funky music, rock, and pop. I remembered I liked some Stevie Wonder and other songs, and that James Brown groove. Until around 1985, when we both "discovered" Reggae.

Has there been a change in your musical preferences since then?

Well, I got through life changing, which naturally expanded my musical interest.

Some old-school hip-hop I liked through Yo! MTV raps (Kool Moe Dee, LL Cool J, BDP, Public Enemy, Slick Rick, PRT, De La Soul). I was around 15 years old, around 1989.

Some compilation albums of African music (sub-Saharan Africa), I borrowed from a travelling Spanish business man (whom my mother knew) – he was also “world wide vinyl music” collector -, with “pop” music from Congo and Burkina Faso, such as Soukous. Nice (Congolese) soukous songs on these albums. Nice polyrhythms. I recall further specifically the songs Dounougnan by Kambou Clement (Burkina Faso): nice mellow, “griot” vibe. For some (mystical?) reason this album made a lasting impression. It directed my musical eyes/ears more toward Africa. I was then about 17 years old.

Later trips to Cuba, since my later 20s (years 2001-2006) – I had friends there – further opened my musical horizon toward Afro-Cuban music, and Yoruba music, so again an African connection. It increased my interest in percussion instruments.

My older brothers got into some other music, introducing me to artists I did not know really, but kind of liked (jazz, jazzrock, Parliament, Bill Withers, Flamenco, Tom Waits, Jacques Brel, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Nirvana, a.o). I liked some Blues, and songs by Paul Simon and Leonard Cohen too.

Yet.. I kept listening to (mainly) Reggae throughout all this, only interchanging and comparing more. Reggae remained my main path, you can say..

If anything, comparing with other Black music and African music itself was useful in understanding/overstanding the African retentions within Afro-Jamaican Reggae, even beyond the "shuffle" that is most known (call-and-response, polyrhythm, etc.). Interestingly, someone pointed at the fact that Reggae indeed shares some shuffle/swing aspects with Rhythm & Blues (which partly influenced it), but also some "straight rhythm" aspects from other parts of Africa (Central, Congo, etc.), adding to the feel of the groove. Good to know.

Do you have any preferences within the broad Reggae genre? Does, e.g., Digital Dancehall appeal to you as much as Roots Reggae?

I started with Roots Reggae, and some Early Dancehall. Roots Reggae attracts me most, still. I prefer conscious/social comment lyrics, and real instruments. Digital Dancehall appeals to me less, save some songs with good, energetic grooves (some songs by Beenie Man, Ward 21, Elephant Man, Chaka Demus, Bounty Killer, e.g.). I like it overall less, and follow it therefore less than Roots Reggae. Some Dub I like, but not all.

Within Roots Reggae, I like the harmony reggae classical groups (Abyssinians, Wailing Souls, Mighty Diamonds), and many great “old-school”, soulful singers (Hugh Mundell, Ijahman, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, Jacob Miller, Junior Delgado), but I am thankful for the later Reggae Revival as well, as I certainly soon got to appreciate the work of “newer” artists like Richie Spice, Sizzla, Luciano, Bushman, Lutan Fyah, Queen Ifrica, Iba Mahr, Protoje, Ginjah, etcetera..

A high quality standard is luckily maintained within Jamaican (New Roots) Reggae up to now – good musicianship -, as well as the Rastafari message.

Since when are you a Reggae selecta/dee-jay?

Haha, I collected – quite informally – over time many vinyl records: just in case, but I also listened to CD. Via my brother and a friend I got more of a Reggae vinyl collection. When the vinyl scene came up, including with dee-jay/selecta events playing vinyl, I started to join them on some events. This started not long ago, around 2014, I think. I played the years after in some Reggae clubs (Café the Zen), other clubs, and squatter places in Amsterdam, but only occasionally (“open decks” events), up to now.

Do you have a preference for Vinyl or Digital/CD? As listener, and as selecta?

As selecta vinyl, but at home mostly digital, I must admit.. Sign of the times .. and no money for a good longplayer needle, haha..

That vinyl music sound is "fuller" than the digital sound, nonetheless, which is logical in some sense. My more technical (electrician) brother Carlos explained it to me once well: the digital counts and translated - also music - into 0-1-0-1 codes, as many may know (hence the word digit-al). On the other hand, what’s “analog” is more fluent, flowing..while what’s between the 0 and 1 digits gets lost..

Any special experiences or encounters over the years (e.g. with producers or artists)?

I before did not go often back stage at concerts. When I went to Jamaica, though, in 2006 and 2008, I soon got connected with Buju Banton’s Gargamel studio in Kingston, Partly by coincidence, believe it or not (long and strange story, never mind here..). There I met some musicians recording there (like Ghost): Buju was abroad then (Japan and Florida).

From there, they took me in 2008 on a visit to (then named) Judgement Yard, of Sizzla Kalonji, elsewhere in Kingston (August Town): a sudden visit, but Sizzla Kalonji himself was there. I remember that the guys that brought me were busy (buying fruit o.s.), so I was there alone a time and saw Sizzla walk: I got a bit shy, but dared to present myself to him. Someone beside him told him with whom I had come (“Buju people”), so that was cool. A cool memory from Jamaica.. As there were more..

Later, in more informal concert settings (between 2010 and 2020), such as organized by Café the Zen (a Reggae club in Amsterdam), I got to meet other Reggae artists a bit, often very friendly, but mostly short encounters: Vivian Jones, King Kong, Bunny Rugs, Warrior King, Fantan Mojah, Iba Mahr, Keida..

Meeting Warrior King walking with his cute baby on his arms, when I arrived on a rented bike with friend John (R.I.P.) to a beach venue on the Dutch island Texel (NW Netherlands),- where he performed in 2017 - is also a special memory, because of the whole context/location. That was a Zen Social Reggae-event (Island Vibes, 2017) on Texel: I never went to that island before. Vibes!

Are you active in other ways within the Reggae scene as well? E.g. radio, organizing events, design, or otherwise?

I do not organize events myself, though I have some ideas for it, haha. Some event organizers asked for my help for reggae and other events, and I assisted.

Further not much: I do not present a regular radio or online program with Reggae, though it would be nice.

On this blog I write about Reggae sometimes, and I also contributed some reviews to other web sites (e.g. reggae-vibes.com).

Do you play any musical instruments?

When younger I had some keyboard lessons and a keyboard. My older brothers chose to learn to play guitars (Spanish and bass) – including lessons -, but guitars attracted me less – something with finger tips on strings, dunno. Drumming and key riffs I liked more.

I in time especially took up percussion and drumming. Since childhood an interest, but trips to Cuba (the home of conga’s and bongo’s) after 2002, increased my will to play percussion instruments. It seemed to me then also freer and less “robotic” than the standard drum set/kit, which I also considered (and tried)..

I started to play conga, bongos, as well as djembe drums, and other African drum types, as well as smaller percussion (bells, shakers, scrapers), taking serious lessons in 2014 and around (with Vernon Chatlein, a.o.), to get a higher professional level. After that I played on the jam circuit in Amsterdam (Bourbon Street, Waterhole club, Maloe Melo, a.o.), where I could join and contribute, but also kept learning. I liked and like that free, jazzy ”jam vibe”.

I played (mostly percussion) on all kinds of jam sessions (not just Reggae) in and around Amsterdam, but Reggae still remained my main love, through all this. I just started to listen to Reggae more from a percussion perspective: including the important details in songs, like of the kete/binghi drums, cabasa shakers, scrapers/guiros, flexatone, bells, rattles, etc...

Later, I also tried to learn more about playing standard drum kit (called "trap drumming"), as timekeeper more ordered, but crucial in music. A bit also (nonpercussive instruments like) as said keys, harmonica, and guitar..

I play and rehearse with some Dutch Reggae bands too, on occasion (e.g. Flavour Coalition). I also recorded percussion in studios for other artists' songs, at times. Unfortunately, there is also a lot of nepotism - i.e. favouring friends or kin - in (Dutch) music scenes too (as elsewhere), so it has to go via-via.

Are you a composing or performing musical artist?

Yes, I always liked to “invent” songs, since childhood actually. I'm the "creative type", I guess. I soon started recording them, so had some vague ambitions. Worked out some full songs, and recorded them later with computer software (DAW), meanwhile learning more and more.

Songs I made to my satisfaction, I released later in the internet age through my Soundcloud and Youtube channels (https://www.youtube.com/MichelConci).. I like that free sharing possibility of my music, but did not think commercially. Many songs I made public on my YT channel. Only later, I started to release my songs through official channels (and buyable and streamable digitally). Lately through Tunecore, as indie artist, and Bandcamp (https://michelconci.bandcamp.com/)..

Rastafari Live On, recorded with Robert Curiel, was my “official release” debut back in 2010, and that was Roots Reggae.

Later releases of mine show more the influence of Reggae's "harmony groups" on me.

I mostly made and make Reggae songs, but am not restricted to it: I try to keep a wide musical horizon, also making “Latin” songs, Flamenco songs, African-influenced instrumentals, funky and (international) folk songs, besides Reggae-(like) songs and influences. The world is my province. Good spirit for percussionists, btw: they need to be multicultural. Besides: I-man "originate", and don't "imitate"..

I like making songs with my own instruments, in any case.

I sang some songs of mine on sound during events, but “perform” more as musician/percussion player during jam sessions in a few clubs.

Does the Rastafari message in much of Reggae appeal to you? How does this relate to your own background, or beliefs?

Yes. I consider myself to be a Rasta.

My parents were only "loose" and socialist-influenced Catholics, but still got me baptized. At other times my mom criticized the Vatican, so I was not really "raised Catholic", more like a heritage and cultural/social connection.

In time, first I became only a vague, loose “sympathizer” of the positive message of Reggae lyrics I heard. Around 2009, after having read some main works (e.g. by Marcus Garvey), and after travels to Jamaica, - and some trials and tribulations (loss and grief) – I became more spiritual. I not only started to wear dreadlocks, but saw these dreadlocks as a statement of faith, not as a fashion. I tried to be in the Livity since then, and am indeed vegetarian for instance. Naturality I find important. I now consider myself a Rasta.

Rastafari ideas further fitted well with my world view, upliftment of the poor goals (I before grew up with Left-wing ideas), and my longer interest in African culture.

Also the view of the “divine” as within (not outside) humans: the "I and I" notion, is also which I share and feel - Jah inna (hu)man, but is perhaps too revolutionary for many in this world of unequal relations (economics, religion, politics). This system after all is based on placing "authority" outside of yourself. It is good when a man can think for himself, as Burning Spear sings on the song It's Good (album Man In The Hills)..

Sometimes thus difficult, this spiritual journey in today’s Western society (Babylon), but I have to “carry Jah heavy load”, as Ijahman Levi sang. In my own way, as every individual, and I appreciate that space for individuality within Rastafari.

Haile Selassie’s wisdom I respect as well, including life philosophies, like of Marcus Garvey, and the Pan-African and African Diaspora connection have my interest.

Rastafari originated as a Black Power and resistance movement, within the African Diaspora, and "white" people joining the movement should at least know and respect that, I think. Some arrogance occurs, or white - to use a psychological term: "overcompensation", e.g. regarding tenets or Bible "teaching"/correcting, but mostly there seem to be mutual respect and openness within the Rastafari movement.

The songs I make as musical artist and release are lyrically and musically often influenced by Rastafari, directly or indirectly.

What kind of music (reggae) do you prefer to listen to now – at this moment -, what specific artists? Any new “discoveries” you would like to mention?

I listen to all kinds of Roots Reggae, old and new roots. Culture, Mighty Diamonds, Burning Spear, Wailing Souls, Black Uhuru, the Congos, Israel Vibration, Gregory Isaacs, Alpha Blondy.. Sometimes Alton Ellis and Ethiopians, including older Rocksteady.. That did not really change.

There was a period that I listened to older Roots at home, and newer Roots (Sizzla, Tarrus Riley, Anthony B., Morgan Heritage, Romain Virgo, Beres Hammond, etc.) mainly “inna di club” (and good to dance to).. Over time, though, that changed: I now listen to artists like Sizzla, Luciano, Richie Spice, Bushman, Junior Kelly, also at home, interchanging older and newer Reggae.

The Jamaican Reggae music scene is broad and varied, and alive, so there are always artists I did not know so well, or did not get around to yet.. Recently I got to like artists like Black Am I, Ginjah, Aza Lineage, and Reemah. An artist like Norris Man is around longer, but I got to appreciate his style more recently: saw him recently live for the first time. Good songs.

Stranjah Miller, whom I recently met in the Jamaica Lounge bar in Amsterdam, is also an interesting new roots-oriented artist.

Outside of Jamaican Reggae I like Tiken Jah Fakoly, Dezarie, Batch, Jah Defender (from Trinidad, nice songs), Chilean group Gondwana, Misty In Roots, and some Netherlands-based Reggae.

Other things you would like to mention?

Amsterdam is not a very Reggae-friendly city, let’s be honest, despite its image. Even less than before. Café the Zen club was a period an exception, besides some occasional concerts in venues like Melkweg or Paradiso. After Café the Zen closed in 2020, there were a time no regular Reggae parties in any club, despite enough Reggae fans in Amsterdam.. Even after music events/nightlife picked up after the lockdown/plandemic period, though some Reggae concerts were given in venues in Amsterdam and Amstelveen again since 2021 (incl. by Zen Social, the organizing branch of erstwhile Café the Zen).

Some café’s and initiatives were started in recent times, playing or supporting Reggae more regularly, Jamaica Lounge in Amsterdam West, Molli Chaoot in Amsterdam-De Pijp, and Earthworks - also studio - in Amsterdam (far) North, can be mentioned in this regard, but some more places might come up, I heard. In nearby Haarlem (where - btw - my parents met and married), the Patronaat venue also organizes more and more Reggae concerts, which is nice. So it’s now all a bit improving, which is better for the Reggae Community.

Stay blessed.

Tony Allen: autobiography of the founding drummer of Afrobeat

Biographies – and autobiographies – of “cool” musicians are definitely in my field of interest. What are “cool” musicians depends of course on one’s personal tastes and preferences.

WORLD OF THE COOL

Within this realm of my highly personal “world of the cool”, also the music of Nigerian artist Fela Kuti belongs. I am mainly a Reggae fan – follow that most – but have a broad interest in Black and African music. Kuti with his creation of Afrobeat – not to be confused with recent AfrobeatS –, since the 1970s, out of influences from jazz, funk, highlife, and local Nigerian Yoruba and other traditional African music, therefore fits my taste.

Plus, I am a percussionist, sometimes trap drummer (or playing other instruments: keys, harmonica, strings), so a drum- and rhythm-oriented musician. Partly via Afro-Cuba, partly directly, I studied Nigerian (and Benin) Yoruba traditional hand drums- and other percussion (e.g. bell/agogo and shekere) patterns, increasing naturally my interest for Fela Kuti’s music. I liked the funky grooves and call-and-response aspects, but the lengthy, jazzy escapades and solos, on many of his lengthy songs, I got less into. The lyrics and vocals in turn did appeal to me. So, a bit mixed, but overall I was and am positive about the interesting music of Fela ‘Anikulapo’ Kuti.

During this sideline/semi-marginal appreciation of Fela Kuti’s work, I also soon found out who was that groovy drummer on many of Fela’s songs was Tony Allen, like Fela, a Nigerian, and who was from Lagos.

All this made it “cool” for me to read an autobiography of this drummer Tony Allen. It is called: 'Tony Allen : an autobiography of the master drummer of Afrobeat' (Tony Allen w. Michael E. Veal), and was released in 2013. What follows is a review, from my above mentioned perspective: “somewhat” a Fela Kuti fan, and knowledgeable, but far from all-knowing, about Kuti or Allen..

AUTO

A difference with other musical biographies I read, is the “auto” aspect: this work is an autobiography by Tony Allen, in conversation with music researcher and journalist Michael E. Veal, who wrote several interesting works, on Fela Kuti, yet also on Dub and Jamaican music, with depth.

This work is however based on what Tony Allen told himself, only worked out as a coherent whole by Veal, whose writing style I like.

I did enjoy the read from the start, for its musical themes, but also for wider social, educational aspects, learning about the Lagos, Nigeria context: the big city, daily living, nightlife (important for musicians like Allen), Nigerian history and politics, postcolonial developments, class differences, and the music scene.

DIFFICULT RELATIONSHIP

The story of how Allen entered Kuti’s life, to become one of his main musicians in the 1960s, proved by itself also of high literary quality, as is the developing relationship with Fela over time. Several dramatic layers, and manifested behavioural psychology.

That “developing” – and problematic – relationship with Fela Kuti, is one of the main threads in this work, even though Allen also discusses his own, other musical efforts before and besides with Fela Kuti.

The difficult relationship with Fela, stems from Fela’s dominant role in his band, as main (long: only) composer of all parts: even if Tony Allen had a special status, Allen explains in the book: his drum parts were not pre-written, and got free reign (and trust) of Fela, to make them hismself.

The friendship and trust that this implies, as between old friends, should not be exaggerated, Allen shows in this autobiography. Fela tended to be self-involved, and, as Allen tellingly states: “did not follow ideas that did not come from himself”. Fela could also be selfish and envious, and untrustworthy, such as with the money he owed his musicians, also to Allen, resulting in increasing irritations.

The love of the music seemed to keep Tony working with Fela, and all of his ego, despite personal issues and difficulties. They also shared an early passion for Jazz. So friends with things in common, but Tony Allen did not like or understand all of Fela Kuti’s behaviours, or life choices, - and even at times felt personally wronged by him -, but musically they seemed in line with each other.

This is always an intriguing contradiction, I find, as music comes from one’s soul and personality – one would think -, so could be hard to separate from the same person’s behaviour. I guess it requires an abstract level of thinking, and the isolation of art, from often easily corruptible and confused human beings, and their weaknesses.

MARIJUANA USE

Certain substances, as often in music scenes, played a role in behavior changes. Fela at first eschewed marijuana/weed smoking, fearing overall its effects on music making, yet later turned around and smoked it more throughout his life and career, even becoming a proponent of its legalization. This heightened Fela Kuti’s conflict with Nigerian authorities, which outlawed weed smoking harshly, with draconian punishments.

Allen points in this book at different effects on different people of weed smoking, noting an extreme one on Fela, in that Kuti changed totally when he started smoking it (relatively late in life, and later than his band members), and that the “old Fela” since then even seemed gone. Tony Allen himself smoked weed regularly, he tells in this autobiography, though had to hide it sometimes. In earlier years, Kuti forebade and fined weed use by his musicians during gigs, but – again – made an exception for his friend Allen, whose weed routine Fela dared not touch. Fela told Allen that the weed to his surprise did not affect Allen’s drumming, and Allen argued in response that it even improved his drumming, in some sense.

I think the latter is open for debate. I personally think (and experienced) that “sense of rhythm” outweighs at all times physical or mental conditions (good or bad: joy, illness, sleep deprivation, drugs, etc.).. It’s too basic a natural thing.

YORUBA

An interesting thread in this autobiography, I find the Yoruba cultural heritage Fela and Tony shared. Allen’s mother was originally Ghanaian (Ewe ethnicity), but grew up in a Yoruba environment too. Both Fela and Tony came from middle classes, so received more European/Christian influences than others. Fela even more than Tony, but later – under influence of Black Power and African pride movements, picked up when the band was in Los Angeles, US, in the late 1960s, - Fela returned to that African heritage, to take distance from (neocolonial) European and British dominant influences. Culturally, spiritually, in life choices, political stances, lyrics, etcetera. Name changes, and open polygamy (he openly married several wives, living with them in a communal setting at the Kalakuta area, singing with him), followed, as became quite known.

Tony Allen did not go along so much – in all aspects - with this contextual “Africanization” process, as Fela perceived it, but still made music with him, and remained his (critical) friend. The original Yoruba religion or faith, (with Babalawo priets) was predictably one of the things Fela “returned to” for African revival. Allen knew those traditional beliefs in fact better than Fela, from his upbringing, but seemed more skeptical and critical about them than Fela, but that could relate to a stronger Christian influence on him.

What is therefore interesting, is that when Tony describes his trip to Bahia, Brazil, later in his life, he still appreciated that the religious culture of Yoruba descendants there (of Afro-Brazilians) – Candomblé, related also to Santería -, still seemed quite similar to that in Yorubaland itself. He especially praised the “polished”, but artistic version of the Yoruba spirituality, expressed in Candomblé, as less wild and “bloody” affairs than in Nigeria.

Whatever his stance on local traditional culture, with a Yoruba (and Ewe) background and cultural influence, the traditional “hand drum” and percussion patterns helped shape his rhythmic and trap drumming style, fitting a genre like Afrobeat, “Africanizing”, so to speak, Jazz and Funk (a.o.). Local African “pop” genres like Highlife and Juju (in turn of course influenced by African traditional music), also shaped his drumming from early on.

This Highlife was made with his band Koola Lobitos in the 1960s, around the period when he first met Fela Kuti. With Fela Kuti he was in Koola Lobitos making Highlife. I heard some of these late 1960s songs, and found them appealing and groovy in a “mellow” way, often lasting about 3 minutes, and not “long-ass” songs Fela would make later.

DRUMMING TECHNIQUE

Allen explicitly says in this autobiography that he kept traditional African aspects in his drumming, besides his adoration for US and other Jazz and Funk drummers, some of whom he met or worked with over time. The “Jazz” was mostly added in time, after the Koola Lobitos period, as a process of living and learning, and new inputs.

The relationship with Fela and other musicians – the environments, so to speak, - including of live shows in different places -, take more space in this book that his actual drumming as technique, but it receives some attention. Allen shows an interest in possibilities of the “hi-hat” - as part of drum kits - as influence from Jazz, adding texture to his drumming. As a separate rhythm on hi-hat is part of African polyrhythm structure and of African origin, it returned back within the diaspora, so to speak.

HI-HAT

That instrument, the “cymbals, is said to be originally from China, and via the Turks and Armenians travelled westward, and in time was incorporated by European folk groups, and finally entering pop music in the US, including Black music, mostly via New Orleans, by the early 1900s, when “modern drum kits” as we know them first appeared (around 1906). The playing styles of cymbals differ of course between Chinese/Asian, European fanfare music, and Black/African genres, showing an interesting grounding role of culture, and of mind over matter.

Tony Allen made the hi-hat more used and known in Nigerian drumming, especially as Fela Kuti became more famous, even worldwide, and Tony Allen helped shape the Afrobeat genre as such, by the 1970s. The famous Jazz drummer Max Roach was a main influence on his adding hi-hat, including lessons in the US (in Los Angeles), in the Late 1960s, by the famed jazz drummer Elvin Jones.

The hi-hat is a somewhat underestimated aspect in Black music, I think, or in music in general. Also, in most of Reggae music since the later 1970s up to the Reggae from “now” – especially from Jamaica – the hi-hat use in drum kits is crucial in the groove and riddims. In Bob Marley’s Reggae this was not so obvious yet, but hi-hat variations increased since then in Reggae. From current artists like Tarrus Riley, Luciano, and Beres Hammond, to Sizzla and Anthony B. Also the “crash cymbal” is now taken to artistic heights in dance-oriented Jamaican Reggae.

(I spoke recently with a Reggae drummer in the Netherlands - when jamming with my percussion with him on stage -, and who usually drums with Jampara and his BatalLion band. He confirmed how for Reggae in fact several “crash cymbals” tend to be required for drumsets, while the “ride cymbal” is in Reggae used less, but the hi-hat all the more.)

The hi-hat (and often crash cymbal) sometimes gets “lost in translation” when non-Jamaicans (like in Europe) drum Reggae (even if further quite apt), almost like a remaining “inimitable” Jamaican trade mark of Reggae, haha.

Tony Allen used the “ride cymbal” in turn relatively more (than usual in Reggae), while his jazzy, mellow groove, called less for the climactic “crash” cymbal, than in Reggae.

INIMITABLE

Not without self-aggrandizing, Tony Allen, also states that his developed Afrobeat drumming style – under as said various influences (African, jazz, funk) - could not be copied, for instance when drummers had to replace him.. and after he left Fela’s band (in 1979). Allen found it significant that after he left Fela’s band, Fela needed more percussionists alongside the trap drummer, only to achieve that “Tony Allen” rhythmic feel: so four musicians replacing what Allen could do alone.

He worked for 16 years with Fela: longer than with anyone else, Tony Allen states in this book. With ups and downs, and regular doubts about continuing. When Fela’s conflicts with Nigerian authorities increased, or when Fela’s behavior became difficult – payment avoidance - or an ego trip, even others around Tony advised him to leave Fela Kuti’s band, and further his own career. He hung on in there, mostly for the love of the music by Fela, and because they “went far back” as friends.

There is something both beautiful and tragic in this troubled relationship.

AFTER FELA

Even after leaving Fela Kuti’s band, in 1979, Allen remained friends with Fela, and met him regularly. He even visited shows of Fela with other band members, noting how Fela still came with new, good music, but that the drum part became a bit weaker than the sound he shaped with Fela for years. These later drummers with Fela used even patterns borrowed from Allen, on earlier songs, but never reached the same height, at least according to Allen, and some critics. Even Fela at times asked Tony to come back as band member, or play with him once more.. “Not that again”, was the main feeling of Allen at that point.

MIGRATION

The period “after Fela” of Tony Allen, is also a “migration” story, as Allen eventually settles in Europe, a while London, and more definitely in Paris, where he finally remained residing until his death at the age of 79, in 2020. Until 1984 he still lived in Nigeria, where political problems recurred.

He later married a French woman in Paris, and further continued making music, collaborating with various other musicians, active in other genres, but who admired Allen as founder of Afrobeat, when with Fela Kuti. He worked with African big names like King Sunny Adé, Manu Dibango, Hugh Masakela, but also with European and US artists, like French artists, Blur’s Damon Albern, the Clash’s Paul Simonon, Parliament/Funkadelic members, and several others.

He also recorded on albums of artists like Zap Mama (Belgian artist, born in DR Congo) and Charlotte Gainsbourg, to give more examples.

EXPERIMENTATION

Allen proved to be open for experimentation in this later musical stage, saying explicitly he wanted to renew and be challenged, and some albums were influenced by more modern, electronic music, Dub, Funk or Rap. That electronic music/techno was at first not a success, in Allen’s own views, as French “technical guys” used his patterns to trigger synth/electronic sounds from them, thereby violating and subduing his live trap drumming.

Later, with others, he found a better balance, with his own Afrobeat style kept more intact, with added electronics or Dub elements, such as for the NEPA and Black Voices (1999) projects/albums. On some songs of these albums you notice a vague Reggae touch, more often – though – the Dub aspects are in the echoing “technique” and production (mixing in and out/fading), rather than in a Reggae groove, with which Dub once originated. An interesting mix, nonetheless, of Allen’s subtle yet vibrant Afrobeat grooves, with modern electronics and genres.

Maybe, like European Dub as separated from Reggae, - or “jazz-rock” (like by Weather Report) - some songs on this album bring to mind - not everyone’s “cup of tea”, but at least Allen’s exquisite “rootsy” and groovy drumming ensured that such mixed albums maintained musical quality, and a solid, “rootsy” rhythmical base.. I personally am sometimes in the mood for such “Afro-jazz-rock” experimental instrumentals (like I sometimes am for a band like Weather Report), though maybe not always or every single day.

Such musical projects, and involved people, get much attention in this work, but also his personal life. The difficulties of migration and legal residence in France, and – as more often in musicians’ biographical works – substance abuse, beyond the marijuana/weed Allen was smoking for a long time already. Allen later had a problematic “heroin period” in France, with some hardships of getting rid of his heroin addiction’s draining effects on his body and mind. He achieved this, luckily, and began to feel “full of life” (libido, energy, etc.) again, after becoming clean.

He remained active as musician and performer up to his death at 79, in 2020, working with international artists.

ON BALANCE

Personally, I learned some new things from this autobiography, rendering it in this sense useful for me. I imagined a Yoruba influence on Tony Allen’s drumming, but there was apparently also a Highlife influence (and from Ghanaian, Igbo and other music), and how Jazz aspects were added more and more to his style, with the hi-hat as focus.

In the early part of the autobiography, an insightful part is when political troubles within Nigeria, interethnic tensions between Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo, and the separation movement through Biafra of the Igbo, after oil discovery in SE Nigeria (around 1967). After independence from Britain (1960), these tensions slowly arose. Allen argues that politicians – still under economic control of Britain, by the way - stimulated this tribalism and interethnic tensions, hardly there before.

In the band of Allen there were Igbo and Yoruba. Around the mid-1960s an anti-Igbo rhetoric developed in the North of Nigeria among the Hausa, related to power grabs/coups of northerners and Igbo alike, and other power issues, taking among leading Hausa even racist-like, anti-Igbo, dehumanizing forms (comparing Igbo to animals like snakes), as racism usually does. When performing during this time in the North, with some Igbo band members, the Yoruba band members, like Allen and others, served as a “protective shield” for them, Allen relates.

These kind of 1960s stories of Lagos and Nigeria, by a touring musician, I found educational and vividly told, even if they were apart from the music itself, of course. On the strictly musical side of things, I got better insight into how Tony Allen helped shape this style known as Afrobeat in the 1970s, recording many albums with Fela Kuti’s Africa 70 band.

ORGANIC

It was – as with many genres – an organic and gradual cultural and personal process, living and learning among various musicians, musical changes and new influences, mixing or “synthesizing” these into new forms.

It is comparable to how Reggae developed from Ska and Rocksteady in the late 1960s, Bossa Nova mainly from Samba and Jazz, Cuban Son and Rumba from Congo and Yoruba (and Spanish) patterns, later Cuban Timba (1990s) from Salsa/Son and Funk, Rock & Roll once from R&B mixed with “white” Country music, Soul once from Gospel and R&B.

The Ghanaian Highlife in which Allen more or less started playing in the 1960s, itself also mixed Akan/Ghanaian and African traditional elements with elements from Palm Wine music in British colonial Africa, Calypso, Cuban “guajeo” (a repeated semi-rhythmic guitar pattern), and European music.

Interestingly, with the addition of a strong (US) Jazz influence to the highlife and other genres – a shared passion of Tony Allen and Fela Kuti – Afrobeat developed in the 1970s in Nigeria, but besides a logical outcome or, “sign of the times”, also individual attitudes and creativity played a role, besides being a Jazz fan.

Though Tony seemed less a “wild and crazy” creative artist-type than Fela, and more technical/practical and level-headed as a person, Allen still gave way to his individual creativity – as said allowed by Fela – in his drum additions, shaping Fela Kuti’s albums’ Afrobeat sound.

What set this apart, and made Tony Allen thus so unique – and influential! - as trap drummer, even across genres? Well, Allen says about this (quoted from this autobiography):

“Forget about this fight you want to put on the drums. Don’t fight the drums, just deliver coolly. I don’t like using force to play the drums, , because I know when I have to hit them hard. I know when I want something to be stronger. So I’m playing in between – it’s like a kind of caressing..”,

Later on:

“When I was learning to play highlife from Ojo, I decided that I wanted to be a smooth drummer, not a noisemaker…” “ I saw that the drums had different tones. And you must make those tones relate – it’s just like singing”.

SMOOTH OR PUMPING

Indeed, it is this “smooth” sound, mixed with a jazzy “conversational” style (dialoguing with other instruments, from the local polyrhythmic tradition), which makes Allen’s drumming style “subtle” when compared from what we know from other African Diaspora/Black music, sounding more, well, “pumping” – for lack of a better word -, groove-wise.

As a “rhythm” musician (percussion, drums), I found it still interesting, and of course also tried Tony Allen’s drumming patterns out myself, to get in that type of Fela-like Afrobeat groove. I enjoyed that subtlely and finesse sometimes.

Yet, I myself - while having had jazz influences – have been overall more used to “pumping” (for lack of a better word) grooves from Reggae, straight-up James Brown-like Funk, Afro-Cuban Rumba, and “pre-jazzified” Yoruba and Igbo traditional music (conversational/polyrhythmic, but more “thunderous” than “smooth), that influenced my percussion playing. Allen’s drum was, by the way, also often “softer” in the sonic mix than in these other genres.

The drumming in Reggae, for instance, has a direct relationship with the Bass guitar (usually the chording instrument), as a “marriage” which involves conversation, but as much “coming together” and unisono. In a practical sense: bass line accents and drum accents fall on the same count, to keep that pumping groove going, similar to how “the one” (of 4/4) functions in James Brown funk (accentuated by main instruments), though in Reggae, that accent is often also on the Third (or Second, in double time), and often a bit on the One.

There are different drummers within Reggae too, with different drumming styles. Interestingly, Bob Marley’s and the Wailers drummer, Carlton Barret, had a style more similar to Tony Allen (more jazz-like shuffle), - smoother, less “pumping” - while other equally great drummers in Reggae had more “straight” rhythms, alongside these shuffle/swing aspects (Style Scott, Sly Dunbar, Santa Davis, Horsemouth), more as in the Congo tradition.

The wide variety in Black/African Diaspora music, let’s just say. The difference between the Swing (originally Guinee/Mali region) and Straight Rhythm tradition (Central Africa, Congo, “forest Africa”), influencing to differing genres the various Afro-American genres. I discussed this before on this blog.

Yorubaland is more in that “straight rhythm” (“forest Africa”) tradition, originally (like Congo/Central Africa), but the strong Jazz influence (shuffle, swing) on Tony Allen, and his personal roots and interpretations, rendered his drumming indeed of an unique style, which he maintained up to his death in 2020, and influenced others, also outside of Afrobeat. Jazzy and smooth, yet groovy.

Recommendable reading.

Celtic retentions in Italy and Spain

In common parlance, the countries Italy and Spain, are not known as “Celtic nations”: that is more associated with certain marginal areas, be it independent “countries” of the British isles (Ireland, Scotland, and Wales), with often added French Brittany (Bretagne), part of France. This is mostly a linguistic definition, as there Celtic languages survived to varying degrees, but with often a cultural connotation, due to certain nationalistic/cultural – or now “identity” – movements. Leaving linguistics apart, often parts of Northwestern Iberia (Galicia, Asturias, and surroundings) are – due to their folk culture characteristics - often part of a broader “cultural” definition of “Celtic nations”, even though speaking (now) Romance languages.

VAGUE

Here it becomes more problematic, or rather vague. Spain, Portugal, and Italy, but even most of France, are more known as (similarly vague) “Latin” countries culturally, whatever that may mean, but mostly linguistically determined. Parts of Northern Italy (Lombardy, Piemonte) – including in nationalist “Northernist”, separatist circles (Lega Nord political party), self-define often as with (largely) Celtic roots, to distinguish themselves from other parts of Italy.

Similarly, Galicia and Asturias in Northwestern Spain, claim their Celtic roots to set them as regions apart from other parts of Spain. Some critics of this, also within Galicia and Spain itself, argue that this is largely a later “fabrication”, and that Galicia’s “celticity” is a myth, something like an all-too-inventive “identity” search, based on little. Even that is not so uncommon: culture and ethnicity do seldom combine fully one-on-one, as e.g. the spread of Islam shows, and other “dominating” cultures throughout history, adopted by subjects, at least partly. DNA studies confirm this in many cases.

“Based on little” - this Galician “celticity” as supposed myth - is, I think, too much to say. There is evidence of Celtic presence in large parts of Spain, including in Galicia. Whether this remained “pure” or soon mixed is another issue.

DNA

Historical studies, and (since the 1950s) historical DNA studies gave some interesting insights into this “Celtic” history. It also shed light on what is “substantially proven” about Celtic roots, and what “myth”.

Strictly looking at DNA, genetic remainders in current indigenous populations, make present-day France much more a “Celtic nation” than neighboring, more Mediterranean Italy or Spain. Folk traditions and cultures that survived even outside of “Celtic stronghold” Brittany in France, notably in Central France and the Auvergne and Alpine region, confirm this culturally, if not linguistically (safe in substrate influences in language formation).

I find these genetic/DNA studies interesting from a historical perspective, as it shows how “traditional culture” develops in tandem, yet partly isolated from “genetics” as such, showing human agency, despite it.

The problem is only that – according to geneticists - “Celtic DNA” is not always distinguishable from other European populations, including the Latins and Romans (who became influential), but also Basques, or older groups present in Western Europe, upon Celtic arrival. By comparison, a Germanic DNA – more to the North - was easier to distinguish, studies showed, to show ethnic origins in certain parts of Europe, as was a “Slavic” DNA. Celts seemed more mixed from the start.

It might very well be that forefathers of the Celts (oldest sources date it to the Ukrain/Russia area), soon mixed with older peoples moving west, while the culture was still developing. Historians claim that in the Western Alps (Switzerland, NW Italy) – in a later stage – some cultural - and linguistic! -Celtic traits came to the fore, but not all that would later be known (like bagpipes, round brickpatch fortress houses, etc.). It was still changing, as cultures are never static.

DILUTED

The countries where my parents are from (father Northern Italy, mother Southern Spain) have proven, historical “Celtic” presence, but much more regionally limited and diluted than in France. Pure races or genetic peoples don’t exist (despite Nazi and other “race purity” rhetoric: also the Germanic tribes absorbed present people in Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, etc.), but one can say that Gauls (Celtic-speaking peoples in France) are among the “main foreparents” of most indigenous French, percentage-wise.

This cannot be said of neither Italy or Spain. The irony is maybe that one of the oldest “documented” Celtic languages and peoples found by historians - deep in pre-history - were as already mentioned traced to the Italian-Swiss border region, in NW Italy. For that reason, the “Alpine type” as genetic marker of a Celtic physical European type, is named as such (though as said, often hard to distinguish from others). It seemed that the very basic elements of Celtic culture were shaped partly in those (now Italian/Swiss) Alpine regions, before spreading to other parts of Europe. It differed from both the Germanic/Teutonic cultures more to the North, Slavic or Dinaric peoples to the East, or more “Mediterranean” peoples to the South, with sometimes not even Indo-European languages (Basque, Etruscan, Iberian, a.o.).

The Roman empire had a strong influence, culturally and linguistically, due to their domination up to around 400 AD, making also regions where once Celts lived Romance speaking. Further migrations and historical connections diluted this relatively “distinct” Celtic culture.

FOLK CULTURE

Yet: in folk culture aspects remain, albeit mixed. Traditional music and musical instruments seems the best, and most honest, evidence of this, as some aspects were there before a partly “artificial” Celtic identity was called upon for political/nationalist reasons (just copying examples from e.g. Ireland or Brittany). There are – in other words – actually a few Celtic folk culture/music/tradition “remnants”, truly indigenous, in parts of NW Italy or NW Spain (and Northern Portugal), before a “Celtic international identity” became a rhetorical/political issue.

Both parts of Lombardy (like Bergamo) and Galicia, for instance, have their own “bagpipes”, differing from the Scottish or Irish ones, just like several regions within France have own bagpipes. France is by the way the country with the most and most varied “bagpipes” in Europe, many people may not know. The ones in Brittany and Auvergne are just best known. While bagpipes are in origin not a Celtic instrument per se, they relatively early in history were adopted as such, and certainly “celtified”.

The same applies to some “old” dance and song forms, recurring musical structures (e.g. chord “jumps”), and some other instruments associated with Celts, such as harps, frame drums, fiddles (in some areas), and the “hurdy gurdy” string instrument (a bit fiddle-like as well – due to drones – bagpipe like), found in e.g. Galicia, and Northern Italy (as in Auvergne, France).

Here the “vagueness” comes in. Bagpipes are common in, yet not exclusive to, Celtic cultures, as also found among Slavic and other peoples (e.g. Arabs), neither are the fiddle, harp, or even the hurdy-gurdy, also found in Hungarian culture, and among Slavic peoples. The frame drums are traditionally common in Northern Africa (most common among Berbers), and later also in Spain and Italy, and probably meant an early international influence on the travelling Celts. The Celtic peoples after all once extended from what is now Turkey, in Anatolia, westward through Romania, The Northern Balkan, the Alpes region, France, to Ireland. Probably the most heat-resilient Celts went to Anatolia or Iberia.

ABSORBED

On the border regions – or where other ethnic groups were more numerous – they encountered and mixed with e.g. Germanic peoples in N. France, Belgium, and South Germany, Etruscan and Venetian peoples in Emilia-Romagna and Trentino/Veneto (NE Italy), and Basques and Iberians in southern France and the Iberian Peninsula.

Where Celts became more dominant (numerically or culturally) present populations with older DNA were absorbed by the Celts, including those that built the “dolmens” stone structures (similar to Stonehenge), later adopted by the Celts.

Such stone structures pre-date the Celts, but also Germanic peoples, as similar “dolmens” as in e.g. Galicia or Wales, are found in England (Stonehenge), as well as the province of Drenthe in the Netherlands, pre-dating Germanic/Saxon arrival, as the Netherlands became primarily Germanic/Teutonic (absorbing also present people).

That is why historical DNA studies, developed since the 1950s, are interesting. They contradict the Nazi “purity” idea of Germanic peoples, discarding both the purity and – of course! – the supposed “superiority” to all other people and racial types in the world, as nonsense. On the other hand, these same studies did confirm the existence of a typical “Germanic” DNA. Of course not in any way that it meant that they were a “superior” Herrenvolk. A Celtic DNA proved harder to define, though with indications.

In Central and South Spain and Portugal, Celts arrived, but found more numerous and culturally advanced groups (Phoenician/Carthaginian/Egyptian/Iberian-influenced). The Iberians and Tartessians/Phoenicians – speaking proto-Semitic languages in part - in Iberia had a writing system and more advanced societies with links to the Mediterranean and Egypt. Thus arose the Celtiberian culture in Central Spain, while in South Portugal and South Spain (even in parts of Western Andalusia and Extremadura Celtic groups arrived since around 600 BC) larger groups had to be absorbed by the Celts, or rather: the other way around, though Celtic languages kept being spoken.

Genetically and culturally, as the culture became more Mediterranean/Semitic, later Roman and Moorish, in South Spain and Portugal. Few Celtic cultural remnants remained in Southern Spain, safe certain customs and place names, while in more isolated, less-dominated areas, like NW Spain (Galicia and Asturias) and bordering N Portugal, these Celtic influences on traditional culture seemed stronger, and still living on. In rural architecture, as already mentioned music and dance, festivities, other customs and beliefs, albeit influenced by Roman and later Central Spanish and international culture. It gave regions like Galicia and Asturias their own characteristics within Spain.

BAGPIPE REGION

As in Africa you have a specific, restricted “Djembe region”, where that type of drum is traditionally played, mostly Mande-speaking, Sahel areas from Senegal to Northern Ghana, in Europe (and Spain) you also have a Gaita (Spanish for “bagpipe”) region, limited mostly to the Northwest of Spain, and bordering areas. The non-Celtic speaking Basques know a type of “bagpipe” too, as does more Iberian Aragón, but Galicia and Asturias (and parts of Northern León and Castile) are most known for and specialized in it. Bagpipe (Gaita) use is Spain thus mostly connected to regions with Celtic pasts.

Other “stereotypical” Spanish instruments, like the Spanish guitar (Andalusian in origin), and the castanets (percussive, wooden clappers) are more associated with Central and Southern Spain, with the Castanets – probably originally from Egypt - dating back to the Phoenicians or before. Tambourines (and later with national unification also Castanets) tend to have spread more peninsula-wide from early on. Bagpipes/gaitas remained regional.

LINGUISTICS

Linguistically, Celtic languages disappeared in Spain and Portugal, safe loanwords. The what they call substrate influence (shaping new languages from older spoken ones) of Celtic tongues are found in the developing Galician languages (later developing southward into Portuguese), and Asturian dialects/languages, but less in Castilian Spanish, which had more Basque as substrate influence. The early Kingdom of Castile bordered Basque areas, soon outweighing Celtic connections.

Substrate influence of Celtic languages have also been confirmed through studies in some other Romance dialects, such as in Lombardy, Piemonte, or Emilia (NW Italy) – known even as Gallo-Romance languages -, Central France, but also in specific German accents/dialects in SW Germany (Schwaben), the Alsace, and Switzerland, and types of English in NW England and Scotland.

Languages/dialects in Northern Italy like the Lombard and Piedmonte languages have, like French, the “u” sound as in English picTURE, or French Bien SUR, or close to this as in English FUR or French LEUR. Formal Spanish or Italian don’t have those sounds: only the open latin vowels, but French and Gallo-Italian dialects like Lombard do: it must be due to stronger Celtic substrates there. Neither does Galician or Asturian, but they have similarities with Gallo-Italian dialects/languages, that Spanish lacks: vowel extension or change, for instance, and the common, “slissing” “sy” sound.

I find interesting that certain phonetic or grammatical “pan-Celtic” characteristics somehow recur between French, Lombardian, Schwabisch Deutsch, and , say, Scottish English. More “long-voweled”, “meandering” or semi-mumbling “sing-songy” is sometimes said, while the “nasal” element in French, or (hinted at) in e.g. Irish or Galician/Portuguese probably are also Celtic in origin.

Formal Italian developed in Tuscany, so was probably Etruscan (non-Indo-European/Anatolian)- influenced, while Latin of Rome developed from local, more Mediterranean Italic groups in Central Italy. Evidence showed that Celtic groups actually reached parts of Italy South of even Rome, but as a less influential minority, not unlike Southern Spain.

REGIONAL

One can conclude that the Celtic influences in Italy and Spain remained regional – rather than national -, reflecting in local folk culture primarily. DNA studies give an indication, but no guarantee. Celts absorbed local (Neolithic) groups to differing degrees and mixed somewhat more than e.g. Germanic/Teutonic peoples, and DNA-wise, the Basques differ only in some details from surrounding peoples (linguistically much more), Celts or otherwise, while the genetic difference between SW Spain (where Celtic-speaking people lived) and Eastern Spain (where Iberians lived) is remarkably small, shaped throughout history, with admixture of Germanic peoples, Phoenicians, Carthaginians, Romans, Moors (Arabs, Berbers), Jews, and internal migration. Genetically, it is as usual all very mixed, with some regional accents. That accent is there in Galicia and Asturias, but even there Moorish DNA entered (via later migrations, is assumed) and after the Romans, in the 5th c AD, also Germanic DNA by Suevi and Goths in Galicia (part of so-called “Barbaric” Nordic hordes invading the fallen Roman Empire).

That “Germanic” DNA, that exists as distinguishable, according to scientists, is less common in Spain than elsewhere in Europe, even lower than in Italy (less than 4%, is estimated). The genetic maps earlier in this post showed that. Some parts of Galicia (Suevi), Northern Portugal, and Catalonia (Franks, Goths) have relatively higher Germanic DNA percentages, and even – according to strange studies – more “blond” hair and blue eyes. This percentage never surpasses about 8 % though, while the Celtic DNA (though harder to distinguish as said) attributed much more to Spaniards (around 30%, they think), representing thus a connection to France and other parts of Europe, though not an overwhelming one.

Not overwhelming (and with a lot of genetic admixtures over time, as elsewhere), and in this sense the DNA more or less correlates with Celtic folk culture in Spain and Italy. Not really a central part of either Italian or Spanish “national culture”, but confined to regional folk culture, to which attest in specific regions e.g. the bagpipe music, specific folk songs and music styles, material culture, like housing and clothing, and folk spiritual ideas (Celts had a magical bond with trees, woodlands, and nature, the oak being a sacred tree, for instance, wood spirit stories, etcetera. And Galicia and Asturias are in a “green”, wooded part of Iberia).

Galician/Asturian, but also Lombard and Piedmonte folk music in Northern Italy preserves some of this, also used as “revival” by modern composers or musical artists and singer/songwriters, such as Angelo Branduardi, who draws on folk traditions, also from Lombardy, and several artists from Galicia and Asturias, even “pop” artists like Asturian-born Victor Manuel, drawing at times on Asturian folk bagpipes or song styles, or revival “fusion” groups in Galicia, like Milladoiro, or more modern local pop/rock (and even hip-hop) groups using Gaitas and folk music. An example is the Galician hip-hop/pop group Os Resentidos.

TRIBUTE

Regional as it remained, this Celtic heritage in NW Spain still received somewhat of a tribute on the famous album by Miles Davis, Sketches Of Spain (1960), on which the Jazz artist/trumpeter explored several Spanish “known” folk genres. Besides a predictable emphasis on Castile and Andalusia on this album, due to the rich and influential legacy of genres like Jota, Fandango, and Flamenco, one song of that album – or rather: instrumental composition -, called The Pan Piper, is based on more marginal and local folk music from around Vigo in Galicia, a style known as Alborada.

The counter-patterns and –melodies to Miles’ trumpet on the track The Pan Piper, show these Celtic musical (meandering/chord-jump) forms, still characteristic in much Galician folk music, and certainly comparable to other Celtic music (e.g. of Ireland, rural Lombardy or France, etc.).

Equally interesting are similarities between two “pop” songs by Italian Angelo Branduardi – his “big hit” Cogli La Prima Mela, and the song Quiero Abrazarte Tanto by Spanish singer Victor Manuel, both drawing loosely, if recognizably, on Celtic traditions from their regions (Lombardy and Asturias, respectively), combined with other influences (folk, rest of Spain/Italy, pop, rock, Latin American, etc.). They are both catchy, lively, and danceable songs, by the way.

At the very least, in parts of Northern Italy and Northern Spain – especially rural parts - a genuine Celtic-influenced folk culture was indeed kept alive, beyond mere “inventions of tradition” for politicized, nationalist/regionalist identity ideologies (such as by Lega Nord or Galician nationalist groups), making it in part a real, non-artificial cultural retention (albeit sometimes modernized/mixed) in these parts.

Some musical artists use this heritage well, giving the world their art, as happened more often, such as with the African retentions to differing degrees in “Black” music from the Americas or modern African pop genres, South Spanish “Flamenco-pop”, or Indian/Bhangra- or Arab-influenced modern pop.

Use what you got and know from your culture to shape your art, seems to be a lesson here.

FAKE?

Finally, I come back to the critical claim – even within Galicia - that Galicia’s supposed cultural “celticity” – with after all unlike Brittany, Ireland, or Wales NO surviving spoken Celtic language – is a mere “myth”. In other words: actually “fake”, as the critique goes. I think that this accusation of “myth” or “fake invention” may sound spectacular and assertive, but is at least exaggerated and simplistic. Simplistic, because people with that critique forget that “cultural formation” – of many peoples in this world - involves mixture and adoption over time, and indeed the Celts from early on – way in European pre-history, showed this flexibility, when interacting both with changing natural environments and other peoples. Over time something like an own “Celtic culture” formed, which stood apart from “ethnic purity”.

That latter romantic, racial “purity” idea was common in parts of Europe in the Early 20th c., and also the German Weimar Republic, mixing with Romanticism as cultural movement. It became less “innocent” when it – according to historians – influenced Nazi and other (e.g. Italian) Fascist ideologues connecting “race” and culture, and this in turn with “superiority”, e.g. power politics.

Though a Germanic DNA seems to exist according to geneticists, it is historically (geographic travelling, conquering patterns) and maybe culturally interesting, but not much more than that. It shows funnily that the English share more DNA (mostly Germanic) with the Germans than many English would wish to have (since Hitler and WW II), haha. Similarly, while Dutch and Flemish people in my experience are more realistic and quite reasonable about their Germanic heritage (less absurd denial), after WW II and the Nazi German invasion of the Low Countries, a “Germanic identity” as a nation is seen as a bit contaminated in the present-day Netherlands, and, in an international world, also too limited.

That Celtic cultures seem to have a stronger folk culture and music than the more meager heritage of Germanic peoples (Irish are known as more musical than English), but parts of Germany, Scandinavia, and the Netherlands, do have own (also musical) customs. Perhaps earlier industrialization/modernization of Germanic peoples limited their folk culture, compared to more rural and marginal Ireland, Wales, Galicia, Auvergne, or Italian Alps.

Or – also possible – the earlier mixing, travelling and adopting early on (since 2000 BC) by Celts, when travelling through Central Europe, later to more populated Western and Southern parts, enabled flexibility, in turn inspiring a richer and more varied culture. A matter of human agency in cultural formation and distinction. There is nothing wrong with that. It is in fact the very flexible creativity that tends to give birth to the intriguing variety of folk culture world wide..

Europe underdeveloped Africa

In an earlier post from 2016, I already discussed a work by Guyanese scholar Walter Rodney, notably his The Groundings With My Brothers (1969). In this book he combined a Black Power and a Marxist perspective, and drew connections with the also rebellious Rastafari movement in Jamaica. He worked in Jamaica at the UWI (University of the West Indies), but came in conflict with Jamaican authorities.

I chose in that post to highlight what he wrote about the African continent and its culture, because I could connect that to other works about music and culture I read, in line with my activities as percussion player. My focus was cultural. True, more joyous a theme, than usually politics or economics: culture we “want”, economy we “must”, I always say.. Though I notice “political animals” among humans exist, who actually enjoy political games and their study and analysis: I am not one of those. Still I think it’s good to study such “cold” themes (colonialism, politics, economics), to understand the current world I live in too.

The best-known work of Walter Rodney has indeed a more political-economical theme, which he wrote a few years later than Groundings With My Brothers, when living in Africa, working as scholar in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania (the scholar and Black Power activist Rodney had an eventful life, eventually returning to Guyana, where he was murdered by state forces in 1980): this book was ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, first published in 1972, and I recently could read it. You guessed it: this post is more or less my review and opinion about it.

First and foremost, I conclude that How Europe Underdeveloped Africa was a “good read” (I like Rodney’s clear, attractive, at the same time somewhat humorous writing style), and to take it a step further, also a “necessary read”, a “must read”. The latter for myself, but broader for all people claiming to be Black Power - or Rastafari- adherents. Broader still, for all – what in French are called “tiersmondistes” (“Third World-ists”): mostly Left-wing, multicultural-minded Europeans with a postcolonial guilt complex, but mostly well-intending. I even argue that this book is recommendable for all people (irrespective of ideological leanings) to learn about colonial history and Africa – and therefore the world - , even though in my bitter experience closed minds (even if proved mistaken) are not easily opened, and hard hearts not easily softened..

In my personal past (also professionally), I have already studied colonial and slavery history, so not all was new to me, but professionally I was focused on the Americas, less on colonial developments in Africa. Walter Rodney’s book is precisely about that. The title, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, is rather summarizing or self-explanatory, and indeed “to the point”.

MARXIST

It is good to point out that Walter Rodney had/has a certain Marxist perspective, and definitely anti-capitalist. His focus is – at the same time – on modernization and progress. He sees state socialism as preferred direction, differing in that from anarchists, as well as from more “return to nature” and self-sufficiency answers of other anti-capitalists. Most Rastafari (though there are internal differences) tend to be the latter type of anti-capitalists, arguing that “isms” and “schisms” (capitalism, socialism, whatever) are Western, or: "Babylonian", schemes, systems to dehumanize people, in a totalitarian manner.

History has – in hindsight – proven the Rastafari movement more right than Rodney’s (albeit relatively open-minded) Marxist ideas. Capitalism is exploitation – very simply put – by capital- and means-owners, resulting in lacking freedom and dependency of the majority of the working populations. The Communist regimes that arose, however, such as the former USSR, the Eastern Bloc, now still China, Vietnam, North Korea, and Cuba, are not known as “free societies” for their populations, and not just in biased Western (“capitalist”) propaganda. Personally, I have most experience in Cuba under Fidel Castro. I have visited it several times, befriended Cubans, and speak Spanish.

Besides personal experiences some might have, also what we hear through media about Chinese repressive totalitarian policies restricting and controlling people, the treatment of minorities in China, repression in Tibet, etcetera, may put doubt in heads of even the staunchest (neo)Marxist or Communist apologist, about whether what’s called “real existing communism” actually is a success “for the people”. Older Eastern Europeans I spoke to (i.e. old enough to remember Communism before 1990) were neither positive about the restrictive Communist societies, even those with more or less socialist anti-capitalist ideas themselves. Only Croatian and Serbian people I spoke with, had some positive memories of Communism, but Yugoslavia had a mild, open variant of it (even allowing free international travel) under Tito (who for that reason came into conflict with the much stricter Stalin: they say Stalin even tried to get Tito killed).

HISTORICAL MATERIALISM

Be that as it may, Rodney’s critique of capitalism-driven colonialism in Africa by European powers, the main theme of How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, seems very sensible to me, the history well-explained, using the proven, in itself valuable method of “historical materialism”. This last method is – ideally – a way of letting history speak for itself, and therefore can exclude many biases and hidden interests, cloaked falsely in scientific jargon. I appreciate that about it. Later (e.g. in dictatorial Communist regimes) historical materialism as method also got polluted with propaganda and biases, including simplistic, self-interested distortions.

Rodney is too intelligent and open-minded for the latter propaganda nonsense, rendering more neutral historical accounts, very engagingly told, of how colonialism by European powers took place in Africa, and its effects.

These negative, halting effects (overall: underdevelopment) of Africa stem, he insists, from capitalism’s inherent exploitative base, but not just that. Racism and earlier colonialism also played important roles in shaping policies in Africa, he also shows.

This book, thus, deals with this whole process, from early colonialism, and to the infamous Berlin Conference (1884/85), during which European countries subdivided Africa (further) among themselves. Africa was then largely colonized, until independence struggles gained some success since the 1950s and after.

CAPITALIST MODES

A period of less than a century, this African colonization since the Late 19-th c., but with intense economic changes, and what can be called “capitalist strengthening” in Europe itself through imperial expansion. It followed on periods of mercantilism and (earlier) British colonialism and slavery eventually financing the First industrial Revolution in Britain (Late 18th-Early 19th c.), in turn normalizing “capitalist modes of production” as Karl Marx called it, characterized by private ownership of means of production and wage labour.

He goes on to show - with many telling examples -, how all economic policies or “investments” by the European colonizers of Africa since the later 19th c., were self-interested and exploitative, even harsher than exploitation of capitalist societies in Europe itself: lower wages (relatively) for African labourers in set-up industries, only allowing a passive role as consumers of (European-made) products.. In short: an even more intense cynicism and inequality than wage labourers already faced in Europe, with not even the “modernizing” gains and opportunities that capitalism did in theory produce (despite its exploitative premise) for European economies and even workers (economic individualism).

Foreign investments meant mostly foreign dependency for Africans - Rodney summarizes these policies as "growth without development", based on exploitation for European interests, with no real long-term benefits for Africans. Regarding agriculture, it made "monoculture" dominant in African colonies, e.g.: Gold Coast centered on cocoa, Dahomey (now Benin) on palm, Uganda on cotton, etcetera. This was forced on these colonies for European demands. To quote directly from the book: "Diversified agriculture was within the African tradition. Monoculture was a colonialist invention". Also this had a lasting negative influence.

Alongside this racist “thread” of exploitation, there were of course differences within Africa, dependent on regions, as well as colonizers. Britain, France, and Germany modernized and industrialized (and became “democracies”) earlier, adapting colonial goals to human advancement, including modern patronizing philosophies of (supposed, fake) inclusion, and the “white man’s burden”, aimed (supposedly) at helping Africa and Africans to develop and modernize. Rodney convincingly shows that this was largely hypocrisy.

The tone and indirectness differed from what he calls, quite justly, then more “backward” capitalist nations exploiting Africa, notably Portugal under dictator Salazar (with a Fascist-like ideology), and (though with only small colonies in Africa) Spain under Franco, Italy under Mussolini, but also – of course – the Apartheid regime in South Africa. These did not “sugar coat”, and directly stated the preferred racial inequality and racist presumptions, reminding of equally candid Nazi-examples, especially the White regime in South Africa. Similar harsh exploitation and direct statements on African inferiority were found in Portuguese colonies, albeit mixed with patronizing Catholic missionary goals for Africans, as variants of the “white man’s burden”, hiding harsh exploitation and self-interest behind seeming benevolence and aid.

FEUDALISM

Interesting is also how Africa was developing – or would have developed – before/without European invasions and intrusions. Rodney treats this too in the earlier part of this book, pointing at “organically” developing feudalism in parts of Africa, as societies became more large-scale, hierarchical, and complex (less primitive). Several African states and nations did not need Europe for that, this modernization seemed to develop organically, although the Islamic/Arab world (also foreign, after all) influenced it in some areas. This was a learning experience for me, especially the word “feudalism” and “feudal”. I knew what capitalism and colonialism was, but “feudalism” I had to study a bit more – to define it well for myself - , as a stage in human development.

It turns out that (as stated on Wikipedia) feudalism is: “Broadly defined, .. a way of structuring society around relationships derived from the holding of land in exchange for service or labour”. Of course, this dependency on nobility and “lords” owning land can be seen as serfdom of the masses. Karl Marx said that capitalism in theory enabled these masses the freedom to choose their employer, but in reality did not improve much for these masses, just bringing different, more confusing dimensions to dependency and exploitation. Centralized state/monarchy power and administration usually meant the decline of (inherently regional/local) feudalism.

According to Wikipedia, feudalism flourished in (mainly) Europe between the 9th and 15th c., not coincidentally before Columbus and the start of European colonialism, requiring centralized monarchies. Parts of Europe maintained some feudal aspects (Russia, Eastern Europe), but even pockets in Western Europe (including the South of Spain, from where Columbus sailed, ironically enough), even persisting partly as Spain was colonizing the Americas.

What we now know as “capitalism” thus followed – and came forth out of! – colonialism, especially as more developed societies as of Britain and the Netherlands began colonizing too, investing colonial gains with more foresight in their economies, starting the Industrial Revolution. Some see a link between the Protestant ethic and the rise of capitalism (like in Islam still, Catholicism then forbade “interest” on loans, Protestantism allowed it). Spanish and Portuguese colonizers- or “conquerors” as they were called - wasted a lot of those gains on “stupid” luxuries (palaces in Lisbon, Barcelona, or Seville, or even rural areas), or on limitedly successful agricultural experiments.

Capitalism was fully developed, though, when European powers started to colonize Africa mostly in a later stage in history (19th c.). This colonialism in Africa was therefore clearly capitalist (mercenary/exploitative) in nature, and Rodney – as self-declared Marxist – criticized this, but with an open mind. Of course, he was also critical of inequality or injustice in earlier or other systems (feudalism, but also primitive, closed communities with no individual freedoms), showing his open mind and true interest in humane justice. I respect that.

INDIVIDUALISM

Some economic scholars find the term “capitalism” a misnomer, preferring instead to call it “economic individualism”. Walter Rodney would not agree, and gives some good arguments for it in this book, through various examples. While he in itself appreciates that “individualism” as moral stance or ideology can have a “liberating” value in too collectivistic, strict societies, Rodney indicates how it was soon corrupted by narrow, “bourgeois” owners and elite powers - read: capitalists -, simply only claiming it for themselves (individualism became egoism) and their rights to exploit, but preferring the masses and wage labourers dependent on them.

This inequality was the case in Europe and the Western World, but even stronger and worse in Africa, during this colonial period, and the postcolonial history after it. Rodney’s book does an excellent job in showing this, as economic freedoms or progress for local Africans were deliberately excluded and discouraged from any colonial investments of European powers in Africa. "Growth without development".

Racial prejudice - or persisting assumptions of African inferiority - played a role in this, while further the proven colonial strategy of divide-and-conquer proved useful, in various ways. This could be within families and communities (European colonialism diminished the importance of female labour, relative to male “breadwinners”), and between different ethnic groups within colonies, sharpening tensions to avoid unity against the European invaders.

LEGACY

This relatively short “colonizing period” (though longer in some Portuguese colonies) of about one century (roughly between 1875 and 1975), seemed to have cemented Africa’s postcolonial dependency on foreign investments afterward. Further Western/capitalist/political machinations, and combined historical developments (end of Communism in the Soviet Union by 1990), made this foreign investment with dependency on the West part of global “neoliberalism”, the newest variant of Euro-Western capitalism, building on all previous variants, including “corporatist” (state supporting big private companies) ideas from Fascism (first used by Italian dictator Mussolini, who himself tried to “colonize” Ethiopia - then Abyssinia - in the 1930s).

More involvement of formally Communist China in Africa in economically investing in Africa in recent times, seems to point at change and other trade connections, sometimes but not always more “equal”. So does the increased cooperation between “non-Western” BRICS countries, including South Africa.

All of course – for better or worse – a “far cry” from what Walter Rodney seemed to expect as best economic policy, namely state socialism, planned economies, etcetera.

COMMUNISM

I spent a quite intense period of my life travelling to Cuba between 2001 and 2006, having friends and intimate relationships there. Due to my Spanish mother, I was fluent in Spanish, so could get to know the society in Cuba - then under Fidel Castro - well, also because of the type of relationships I had.. way beyond polite “small talk”, let’s say.

As even some (former or adapted) Communists admitted: the absence of private ownership while having to develop an entire economy and society – on that scale -, requires almost by definition an authoritarian state, operating in a totalitarian manner: the bottom up-ideal (or rhetoric) thus gets abandoned for top-down repression of people’s individual freedoms. Read: “dependency” on, well, just other type of exploiters, oppressors, and bosses, with some “party member” or “politician” now interfering with you instead of – but in the same way as - “Mr. Boss Man”.

My experiences in Cuba (also undergoing an economic crisis, called Special Period, with lost USSR support) in 2001-2006 confirmed this. The bottom was a bit less low (state services for food and shelter, education, and medical care) than in other developing countries, but much broader and firmer. The censorship, lack of free speech or movement, and the highly regulated society, mixed – as usual in dictatorships – with corruption in high and low places. This latter limited the trust between people, while the restrictions on and force used on people had more to do with a type of incarceration and Fascism under another name.

A woman in Santiago de Cuba (Eastern Cuba) who I knew well, worked as teacher but had to assist in other state-led jobs (like harvesting/rural work) when asked, or rather: “ordered”. Refusal would have consequences. She told me, sadly, that she felt as if she was a slave. She was of African descent (Afro-Cuban), making her statement, perhaps even more sad and symbolic.

My own mother – at another time – also told me she “felt she was a slave” when living - and having to work - under dictator Franco in Spain in the early 1960s, and that dictatorship was largely Fascist/Right-wing, mixed with some older reactionary (Catholic) elements. The “backward capitalist” countries of Europe, Walter Rodney referred to in his book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Portugal under Salazar had a similar Fascist ideology as Franco in Spain, and Portugal had large colonies in Africa up to 1975).

An excellent book, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, in my opinion, and Walter Rodney overall an inspiring scholar and activist, but if there is a critique on him possible, it is that he overestimated the democratizing tendencies of state socialism “for the people”. Marxism seems to lack the cynical, egoistic greed and exploitation that capitalism (now neoliberalism) implies, but with a similar power inequality and dependency, on a similar scale, the masses simply are not that much better off or freer.

Marcus Garvey called Communism: “the white man’s solution to problems created by the white man”, implying interestingly also something like “two sides of the same coin”.

This is somewhat in line with the Rastafari movement, developed since the 1930s in Jamaica, influenced by Marcus Garvey, and aimed toward Haile Selassie and Africa. For Rastas, all “isms” are oppressive systems from Babylon (the Western world), calling instead for a natural living, with self-sufficiency in full equality, on a small scale. Other tenets within Rastafari thinking (such as the “I and I” concept, that the divine lives within beings), also strengthen a healthy sense of individual freedom and creativity, as well as a communal focus, make it – you might say – anarchist/anarchic, in some sense. The cultural focus on Africa, and its origin in the Black Power movement, further make the Rastafari movement less “suitable” to fit in the globally current, foreign/”White” economic systems, let alone those bluntly based on exploitation and/or control through totalitarianism, and this happens to apply to both capitalist and communist states and economies.

CONCLUSION

Despite this mild critique and caveat, Walter Rodney showed in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa from 1972 to me to be overall a sensible, perceptive analyst of colonialism in Africa and its effects, writing in a pleasant style (well readable, but also allowing humour and irony). The book is very educational regarding Africa’s development, with negative effects up to the present (as earlier colonialism, of course), somewhat broader: regarding North-South inequalities in the present world.

How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is also educational in a deeper, more philosophical sense, namely as a “bird view” – or in this digital age: “zooming out” – of world history. Earlier scholars, including Eric Williams (in his work Capitalism and Slavery), showed how slavery and colonial gains eventually helped finance the very first Industrialization in the world, in Britain (Birmingham being the first “industrial city” as such) by the Late 18th c. This industrialization – in turn – led to the development of “capitalist modes of production” or capitalism, still dominant in this world, developing via postcolonialism, to present-day (since the 1980s) “neoliberalism”, shaping global policies by Western powers and even some non-Western powers (e.g. in Asia).

We all – as present-day global citizens - live now under such an economic system, in some way. Whether we want to, or not, haha.

This has the same “capitalist exploitation” base, as more harshly exhibited (although often hidden/subtle, especially in British colonialism), due to historical racism, during the period of colonization of Africa (1875-1972), as Rodney describes in this book.

Tragically, the enslaved Africans brought to the West/the Americas (since the 16th c.) - with partly genocidal effects - during slavery and earlier European colonialism, were used and “sacrificed” for not just temporary profit of some individuals or families, but for wider Western economic progress toward wider profit for (racially, geographically) privileged, thus ensuring global inequality between the haves and have-nots.

When slavery was abolished by Britain (1836, later elsewhere), the industrialization and capitalist society was already well-established in Britain. Unfortunately, as How Europe Underdeveloped Africa shows, Africa as continent was a bit later used to “test” or even strengthen this now “capitalist” exploitation for this new, industrialized economy, based on global inequality and Western dominance.

A recommendable book for, well.., one and all.