The Cajón and its spread

The “cajón” is by now a well-known and internationally spread percussion instrument. Meaning “(big) box” in Spanish, the wooden box that is sat on while played, has its origins in Peru, among coastal Afro-Peruvians, the presence of boxes related to port activities, and taking on a “drum function”. Early records from around 1850 mentioned them already.

Eventually, its design came to consist of a round hole in the back, for resonance. The types of woods for the surface came to be mostly rosewood for the playing surface, and a light spruce wood for the case: making it portable, and the different types of wood interacting adds to the tonality.

From then on, in Peru, the interesting journey begun.. to quote from a Eric B & Rakim song sample (on Paid In Full): “this is a journey into sound”.

The cajón’s short, staccato plywood sound apparently added sonic aspects beyond mere “drum copying”. In the early stages, among Afro-Peruvians, the cajón patterns followed more the Central African “straight rhythm” patterns, including call-and-response. The differing sounds (rim, higher, centre, bass, and hand use) enabled different tones.

Yet, it’s wooden, somewhat “shuffling” sound lent itself to more options too: more “around the beat” and “swinging”, as common in other traditions in Africa, like Senegambia/Guinee , but also in the Islamic world, South Europe, and the Middle East.

TRAVELLING INSTRUMENTS

More instruments have interesting “travelling stories” that are worth knowing: it teaches us a lot about certain historical epochs and conditions, power relations, inequalities, etcetera. The mouth-organ/harmonica is of – hear this – German origin, reaching the US through German migrants, getting somehow in contact with African Americans, the latter liking its portability and relative cheapness.. and possibilities. Result: the common role of the harmonica in Blues.

The common drum kit (snare, bass, cymbals) in Western pop originated as such in New Orleans, the acoustic guitar (with Persian/Moorish antecedents) in southern Spain, the cymbals in China, the Conga and Bongos in Cuba (with Central African antecedents), the saxophone was invented by a Belgian, as many may know, etcetera etcetera, and all these instruments spead internationally.

What is interesting about these migrations of instruments throughout the world, and from culture to culture, I think, is the reason why they migrate in that particular manner, and to specific genres. Do they fit better? Other cultural connections?

This is in fact a common, recurring theme in this blog of mine. I discussed how the originally Afro-Cuban “guiro” scraper became commonly used in Jamaican Reggae music. Afro-Cuban Congas ended up in even mainstream Jazz, Funk, and Soul in the US, for instance.

As mentioned, the harmonica/mouth-organ travelled historically from Germany to the US From fanfare-like (South) German traditional music, to something very different: the African American Blues.

SPAIN

The first international spread of the Afro-Peruvian “cajón” was different: namely to Spain, Peru’s erstwhile colonizer. This was through Flamenco artist Paco De Lucía, encountering and becoming enchanted by the cajón box, when in Peru in the 1970s. De Lucía said he almost immediately noticed, when played along with the guitar, that it fitted very well with Spanish Flamenco, and better than other percussion.

This was due to the sound. The plywood/rosewood, staccato sound resembled the hand-clapping and “zapateo” (foot-tapping) in the Flamenco tradition, in fact sounding somewhat in-between clapping and zapateo/foot-tapping.

Again the “shuffling” plays a role here, relating to the North-African “swinging”, meandering rhythmic structure influencing Flamenco. This is echoed also in, for instance, the Darbuka playing style in the Middle East and North Africa, and other (string) instruments: “around/toward” the beats, rather than straight on them (the latter more common more to the “polyrhythmic” south in Africa).

Hide drums like congas, bongos, or djembes do less allow that shuffle, and offer more “rounded”, full sounds. Congas and bongos were and are used sometimes in Flamenco, but the cajón became much more successful, even to the point of being “incorporated” regularly. It took partly over the beating of rhythms for each Flamenco type on the guitar, and clapping/foot tapping, or combined with it. Its very sonic characteristics explain this suitability.

Paco De Lucía’s percussionist, the Brazilian Rubem Dantas, incorporated the cajón by the mid-1970s, and from then it spread within wider Spanish Flamenco, with thus origins in a former colony of Spain, among people of African descent. Some ironies perhaps here, but also a nice, open influence between different cultures.

By now the cajón has been fully incorporated, almost normalized, within Flamenco music.

In Spain, the instrument was adapted: strings were attached to the back for more resonance and a louder, “buzz” sound, being in part a Moorish influence, and other details also were changed. A distinct “flamenco cajón” type – with strings tied behind the surface - thus developed.

This route from Peru to Spain, and other parts of Europe, is only one of the journeys of the cajón, though.

CUBA

Cajones – wooden boxes - , once used for transport of goods, repurposed to be drummed (and sat) on are not unique to Peru. Similar cajones arose in Cuban port cities like Havana and Matanzas, when the Rumba music genre developed among Afro-Cubans, in the later 19th c.. “Rumba” itself was born from different influences from Africa and Afro-Cuban culture, including from drumming from the Congo region, from Yoruba patterns, and from the music from the Abakua secret societies, with origins among Efik people in the Cameroun/Nigerian frontier Calabar region in Africa. These influences translated to a percussion-dominated, call-and-response-based secular style known as Rumba in and around Havana and Matanzas in Western Cuba and beyond.

Well now, historically, early urban Rumba in cities like Havana and Matanzas was played on wooden boxes, cajones, reportedly once used to import “bacalao” (cod, codfish) into Cuba. These had different sizes and functions, in threefold – an African retention. The biggest boxes had a bass function – like the later Tumba or Salidor conga, a middle one (Conga), and the higher pitched a “quinto” function, like later well-known Conga drums (called Tumbadoras in Cuba) similarly would come in 3 sizes and functions.

In more rural areas of Cuba, “regular” hide drums like the Makuta (of Congo/Bantu origin) – a precursor to the later tumbadora or conga – tended to be used earlier in Rumba. The Rumba de cajón survived longer in port cities like Havana, but later also replaced mostly by what we know as Conga drums (called “Tumbadoras” in Cuba).

There are still some Rumba groups in Havana using the cajón as part of their sets, often with conga drums, and other percussion instruments (bells, shekere).

The Cuban cajón is of wood, but is in shape more toward a conga, and is usually played between the knees, rather than sat on, as the Peruvian one.

The history of these Cuban cajones seem to have no direct relation to the Afro-Peruvian cajones, logistically that is, though culturally they can be seen as “cousins”. Though once both Spanish colonies, the route from Peru’s Pacific coast to the northern Caribbean port of Havana was far from direct or easy: the Panama canal still had to be built.

CONGO

Apart from the Spanish colonial connection, the cajones in Peru and Cuba do share an African cultural connection too, though, such as in Congo/Bantu African patterns, and some other African retentions as well.

Origins of enslaved Africans in the West could differ somewhat from colony to colony, but the “Congo” origins are quite evenly spread, connecting this African diaspora largely musically. Therefore, Cuban-based Salsa, and Cuban Son, Rumba, and Brazilian Samba have musically in part evident Central African “Congo” origins, but to somewhat smaller degrees also Afro-Peruvian, Dominican, Haitian, Colombian, Curaçaoan, and Jamaican music genres. This Congo influence was noticeable also in the earliest playing styles of the cajón by Africans in Peru, in the 19th c.: straight rhythms, call-and-response, etcetera, etcetera.

So saying: ”the cajón as instrument originated in Peru” is in itself true, but too simple. A separate origin was there for other cajones in Cuba, and elsewhere in Latin America.

In Afro-Cuban Rumba, as mostly among Afro-Peruvians, the style of playing was more on straight rhythms and involving call-and-response – like a set of hand drums or conga’s. This was altered later toward a more “swinging”, meandering playing style, adapted to guitar-dominated Flamenco in Spain.

FLAMENCO

Nonetheless, compared to most other European music genres, South Spanish Flamenco is still relatively “rhythmic”, also in light of the structural place of basic rhythms for each Flamenco style, hand-clapping, tapping on the guitar, and the castanets used in Spanish traditional music (and some forms of Flamenco too).

Furthermore, the guitar playing style in Flamenco is relatively percussive. In time, Afro-Cuban influences came back to Spain via travelers, bringing the Guaracha and other Cuban rhythms, influencing a new type of Flamenco, called somewhat mistakenly (Flamenco) Rumba (another genre), but in reference to Cuban rhythmic influences. Some music historians – such as Robert Farris Thompson – point at earlier rhythmic influences; Moorish/North African ones, but also of Black Africans in Seville, being there since Moorish times, around the 10th c. AD (initially as slaves), influencing Flamenco’s rhythmic “syncopation”, after all quite unusual in European music.

Into all these Flamenco traditions, the cajón fitted very well.

REASONS

Therefore, one can say that the cajón has also an interesting, international history behind it. Some relate the origins, by the way, to the forbidding of hand drums – for fear of rebellion – by colonial authorities, and that the boxes at ports became replacements. There were such prohibitions in Spanish colonies from time to time, and even after it, such as in 1915 in Cuba, when public African drum use was for a period forbidden. Cuba was then semi-independent under US control (Spain lost the Spanish-American war in 1898, and with it Cuba as colony to the US), but Eurocentric repression continued regularly, both by Hispanic and Anglo-Saxon authorities. Some racist policies similar to US Southern states even reached Cuba then, including racial segregation, though with differing intensity, and proving less applicable in the more mixed context of Hispanic Cuba.

Colonial prohibitions of African hand drums thus play a role in the cajón boxes developing – also in Peru -, historians point out, but also convenience, arising after all in port cities where cargo and many boxes arrived. Besides: the drumming on boxes - as alternative to hand drums - would neither please the authorities very much, while the exploiting bosses wanted the workers to work, I imagine, ha ha.

Actual hand drums of animal skin, required certain skills to manufacture, explaining why hand drums (eventually resulting in what we know as Conga’s) entered Cuban Rumba first in rural areas, whereas urban port areas as Havana wooden boxes were used longer in Rumba, before replaced by animal-hide drums.

COMPARABLE INSTRUMENTS

Always interesting is to ask how unique the cajón as instrument is, and are there similar – if not identical – instruments.

Square drums one can sit on have been known historically, sometimes as large frame drums, even in Ancient Egypt, and in Africa. Mostly, though, drums tended to be round, and even the square ones developing had animal skin as surface, rather than wood. The Gumbeh drum in Ghana and Sierra Leone – and among Maroons in Jamaica, and elsewhere in the Caribbean – is sat on, like the cajón – and with some playing similarities (using also the heel of the foot, to mute), but sounds different.

Drumming and percussion in sub-Saharan Africa – even of wooden instruments, like the Krin or Ekwe log drum – tend to be sharper and rounder, fitting polyrhythmic functions. The wooden Spanish castanets also sound sharper and different. In playing style, Guinee-area Africa and North Africa, and in the Middle East have some instruments with sonically similar “shuffling” and “swinging” characteristics, in relation to dominant string instruments in Islamic-influenced cultures. The bendir frame drum (with an attached string on the back, like with the Flamenco cajón), common in North Africa, such as among the original Berber/Imazigh population – shares a ‘buzz” feel in the sound with that cajón, as in some sense the way the Darbuka is played in the Islamic world.

CONCLUSION

All in all, also the originally Afro-Peruvian Cajón has an intriguing history, revealing different rhythmic traditions within Latin America, Africa, and the Mediterranean basin, and cultural influences.

Its suitability for these different types of rhythms made the cajón over time internationally popular, and widely used in various genres, even in Western pop or rock here and there, in India, in Brazilian music, in Blues and Jazz, but most – as explained – in Spanish Flamenco, wherein it interestingly gained a solid place.

Yet, having heard the original string-less Afro-Peruvian cajón’s dry beats, I must admit that I – being a percussionist - like this “dry” sound, slighty different from the later “rounder” Conga drum sounds, but comparable in sharp poignancy, that I like in polyrhythmic African-based “straight rhythm” music. From “dry” and groovy in Peru, the cajón became more “fluid” in Flamenco, but that also has an unique appeal, and embellished many Flamenco songs.

How a wooden box became culture.. More beautiful even: became a way of creative resistance of the oppressed, through culture.

In addition, of course, also an early example of “recycling”..

China: culture or politics?

China is now considered a global power.

Global powers are – indeed – global in impact, with economic power influencing virtually the whole world. One can argue that the whole concept has historical precedents, only in different forms and reach, from Mesopotamia, Babylon, to Egypt, Rome and its empire, Arab conquests, and European colonialism. More recently, the USSR and US. Powers absorbing and conquering others, with a disproportional impact on world affairs.

GLASS

China has historically always been powerful, but also rather isolationist in a sense. The famed Chinese wall being a symbol of that. Its economic power of yesteryear did a period compete with the Western world, until one invention/discovery by the West: crystal or glass. This in turn allowed development of telescopes, glasses for people, chemical reactions, and also e.g. electronics, based on glass. It gave the West a competitive edge over China, also a technological one, that it long has maintained.

The influence of China was culturally dominant in a large part of East Asia (incl. Japan), but remained seemingly inward-looking. There still was in history “expansionism” too, though, throughout the different imperial periods of China.

The competitive edge of the West over China since, simply said “glass”, could only recently be questioned, in modern (post-imperial) times: the Chinese republic was followed by a Communist state, that with some setbacks, in a ruthless manner, became a world power.

MAO

Mao Zedong epitomized that in the early stage, being a fascinating figure all in all. Contrary to popular myth, it was not Adolf Hitler who had one testicle/ball: it was another dictator who liked killing: namely Mao Zedong. It was never reported in Hitler's medical reports, so not the case, but probably a joke about a cruel dictator somehow overcompensating for having only one testicle.

In a sense this still applies, as Mao was certainly cruel and murderous in ruling, although his ideals seemed on paper more humane and positive: social equality versus Germanic superiority. Besides lacking one testicle, Mao was also relatively tall for a Chinese person, by the way, enabling more psychological theorizing.

CORPORATISM

The effect, anyway, the centralist Chinese state – mixing Marxist ideas with ingrained Chinese Confucian and Taoist (albeit adapted to the regime’s benefits and goals) values of obedience and family – became powerful. In time it incorporated capitalism and modernity with this centralist state approach. In reality, this shared remarkable similarities with Mussolini’s Fascism, started in Italy in the 1920s.

Probably as a way to end stifling “class struggle” in Italy, Mussolini made “corporatism” an important building stone of Fascist state rule: big capital (commercial companies) aligning with the state in controlling the masses/people. A first step toward totalitarianism, that in Italian society back then could be largely, but not fully implemented – though Il Duce Mussolini and his Fascist clique might have wanted that – due to the unorganized and “loose” structures of Latin/Catholic culture, characterizing Italy then.

It was attempted, though. My Italian father – born in the 1930s, once told me that he started going to school as a child during the last years of Mussolini’s rule (internal strive already started develop, and WW II in process), and had to give the Fascist greeting in a strict Italian school setting. This stopped with democracy after 1945.

TOTALITARIANISM

Hitler and the Nazi’s were more successful in establishing a “full” totalitarian state in Nazi Germany – influenced by Italian Fascism. Hitler named Mussolini as one of his inspirers. From school curricula, to local councils: the Nazi doctrine was supposed to shape all Germans mentally. Fascist corporatism mixed with racial and racist ideas of Northern Germanic, Aryan superiority, with partly roots in colonialism and separate sources, such as old German resentments and despise of Jews and Gypsies, or even the ridicule of neighbouring European peoples like Slavs, Celts, and Latins.

Especially the anti-Semitism became vicious, as is known, as well as the anti-gypsy policies, resulting in a mass genocide by Nazi Germany of especially Jews and Gypsies (Roma) in their occupied territories, as is widely known.

Such aspects of supposed cultural (or racial) superiority are historically recurring of course, with differing degrees of “totalitarianism”. It also recurs in China, especially today.

China’s Communism turned totalitarian/corporatist, some say, a “surveillance state”, adapted to modern technology (cameras, computer technology), but to repress and control the masses, and keep the central state power as absolute as possible, and obedience intact. Like in Nazi Germany, this totalitarianism was and is now “successfully” applied. The supposed superiority is now based on an ideology.

The cases of repressed culture in Tibet and the Uygurs (and other minorities in China), however, show that a Han Chinese sense of (ethnic) superiority is also there, despite ideological rhetorics.

CULTURE AND POLITICS

This lends itself to some interesting reflections on the relationship between culture and politics. The recent corona “pandemic” crisis showed this contradiction on a global scale. Not all people realized or saw this, since many were fooled into thinking it was actually a dangerous pandemic, and not – what it actually was – a “pLandemic”.

Some saw in those corona policies a type of global communism, China-style. Despite an obvious Chinese connection – the Wuhan lab - I consider it more capitalist-totalitarian and Western (in light of the WEF, Gates, and Fauci, being involved), and moreover: China is neither really Communist, but rather capitalist-totalitarian.

Culture in the end is stronger than politics, though it can be repressed. I experienced first- hand how Communism was applied in Cuba, in the Caribbean. A totalitarian control, including “snitching” on a neighbourhood level , seemed even to work there. Yet, there was also a way to get around it.

I do not know whether the latter is the case in China too: ways to get around it, flexibility in practice. The culture of obedience is supposedly much stronger there, although Cuba’s history of colonialism and slavery might have shaped such a passivity, albeit partly.

The “social credit” system in China, results from a cynical use of modern computer and internet technology, to control the masses’ behavior. It fights against all individuality, or individual deviance.

INDIVIDUALISM

This is a difference with Cuban communism. Some Protestants say that “individualism” arose with the Reformation: when Christians could read and interpret the Bible themselves, before it not allowed by the Catholic Church.

That is too simplistic. The creative ways of expressing one’s individuality have always existed, and even been the norm, within Catholic contexts, even if espoused otherwise.

Even during slavery in the Caribbean, Africans found ways to maintain their culture, even when not allowed. Spanish colonizers in Cuba allowed some cultural organizations for Africans, but even outside of that, more covert, African culture lived on.

The rich and varied musical legacy of Cuba is a testimony to this free spirit.

CONTROL

This “escaping state control” seems harder now in the computer and Internet age, and indeed China has a tradition of collectivism and popular obedience to authorities. At least, that is what is said.

This is only relative, and can only be, in my opinion. This is because I argue that culture is stronger than politics, even if the latter is aided by modern technology. People want love, enjoyment, relaxation, fulfillment, be pleased, and fun. Everywhere.

That “collectivist” sense in parts of Asia is in part an urge for “harmony” and security within a community, citizens may find relaxing or pleasing when knowing no better. It relates according to some to Confucian and Taoist ideas, - called “wu wei” – ingrained in Chinese culture, emphasizing from some perspective “inaction”, “passivity”, respect for elders, and “detachment of desires”.. but this is of course terribly simplified..

I think the Chinese Communist Party, however, only brought tension among most Chinese with their “social control” policies. Just like I have not encountered one Cuban in Cuba who liked to be controlled. Some went along with it, or even “snitched” to authorities, because their job or livelihood depended on it, but no one really wanted such a system. Let alone the culturally oppressed and repressed Tibetans, and other minorities (including religious ones) in China, or – I contend – most Chinese citizens.

Also, the Communist regime (Derg) that, in 1975, overthrew Emperor Haile Selassie in Ethiopia, and with that ended the ancient monarchy in Ethiopia, was no mass improvement. It substituted a – perhaps - archaic institution (an absolute monarch), that at least did not interfere with people’s lives, replacing it with Marxist totalitarian control over citizen’s lives at Ethiopian local levels. Even the Communist promise of education, social equality, and economic improvement in Ethiopia proved in balance not beneficial: more and larger famines were reported in Ethiopia after 1975 than during Selassie’s reign, and ethnic and other strives and conflicts (latently there) only increased with this stronger, interfering Communist state. Even with some benefits (e.g., food provision, egalitarian measures), common Ethiopian citizens did not want too much “top down” state control, and preferred to live their life and culture in their own way.

FREEDOM

Despite appearances, I think that what applies to Cuba and Ethiopia, also is the case for most Chinese citizens, though many may be hesitant to admit it. This admitting and self-realization takes time. Just like some only after about two years came to realize that “lockdowns” (also before this a common policy tool in China, by the way), and that entire corona policy, might not be appropriate in free, democratic societies, for such a relatively mild virus, and that some other goals may hide behind it.

Freedom and independence seeking values may be more in the culture of Cubans (Afro- and Hispanic-) or Ethiopians historically, but are somewhere within most Chinese too, I contend. Also within most Europeans/North Americans, even if too many let themselves so passively be deceived by the corona plandemic hype, and accompanying fear-mongering. The search for freedom is, simply, too universal and human to be repressed long. In the end, I opine, people will want to break free.

In that sense, the recent “total lockdown” (in April 2022) of the city of Shanghai, because of a few corona cases, is the peak of absurd totalitarian wickedness. Millions of people in this big city were forcibly locked down in their own house, strictly limited in their movements, by the state and its forces. This is Fascism, even more than Communism.

It also is – in another sense – capitalism. State capitalism or corporatism, one can also call it. Shanghai is a crucial economic hub in China and the world, and the world’s biggest port. People with a flu (virus) might not work so hard, or at all temporarily, and slave masters want their slaves - exploited labourers - after all to be healthy, but not free..

Freedom is a road, seldom travelled by the multitude.. But it should.. (and that rhymes, ha!).

COLLECTIVISM

The cultural aspect of “collectivist” values in China, comes more to the fore when one considers the “capitalist” parts of China: Taiwan, Hong Kong, known for big manufacturing industries. “Made in Taiwan” has become economic cliché.

Someone I know well, a woman from the Philippines, settled later in the Netherlands with a Dutch citizen. She met him in a Taiwanese company (based in the Netherlands), that she already worked for in Taiwan, relating about harsh, “modern slavery” conditions: not allowed to leave a terrain, rough manners, extreme demands, no longer accepted (formally) in Western companies. The blatant disregard and lack of consideration for individual labourers/workers could be related to Chinese culture (collectivistic) – and its lack of democratic tradition -, she found, also differing from the Philippines. Her Netherlands partner, she met in the Taiwanese company based in the Netherlands, I know well too, and he told me how he was truly shocked by the bad manners and demeaning treatment he received, provoking in him so much anger, that he found it hard to control himself against the rude bosses, but contained himself, needing the job and income then.

This disregard and lack of respect for individual needs is thus found in both Chinese communist (China) and capitalist contexts (Taiwan, Hong Kong). A collectivistic culture of obedience, characterizing China historically, to a large degree might explain it. Still, there is more to it, I argue.

MATERIALISM

These "isms” (communism, capitalism) are ideological, yet also materialistic. In fact, “materialism” is the overriding category of both.

The “egalitarian” goals of Marxism and Chinese communists by Mao Zedong c.s. seem more humane, that the “profit maximalizing” exploiting capitalism represents. Both deny, however, individuality. Their materialism also denies true “spirituality” which in a sense is related to individuality.

Mao Zedong said to the Dalai Lama in the 1950s (when the Chinese started to conquer Tibet more) “religion is poison”. Tibet was then extremely religious – Buddhist -, with many religious festivals, and structures, determining the whole society, with a large proportion of the male population e.g. being trained for Buddhist “monks”.

Was it really just “religion” though - an institute and ideology -, and not just as much spirituality - a culture -, guiding Tibetan life and culture, that Chinese government forces sought to repress or destroy since the later 1950s? About 85 days of a year were up to then taken up by various religious festivals in Tibet, of an own Buddhist nature, before the Chinese communist take-over. These were all then banned by the atheist Chinese government.

DEHUMANIZATION

It is here that the “culture versus politics” question becomes more complex.

Common labourers at the bottom of societies suffer in all isms. Fascism, capitalism, and communism.

I structure my values partly by sincere, eye-opening conversations I had during my life with close ones, apart from own experiences of course (and reading good works). My mother (growing up under the Franco regime in Spain, a more or less Fascist regime) told me several times, often sadly, that she felt she was only meant to be a “slave” working - under harsh, demeaning conditions - as labourer in Francoist Spain, for bosses who were generally Franco supporters, reaching positions often through nepotism. Little freedom or respect for individual rights there, especially for the poor and powerless.

An ex-girlfriend of mine in Cuba, living then under Castroist Communism, said – also sadly – something similar: “they treat me like a slave”, with much compulsory extra work, e.g. agricultural harvesting in rural Cuba, as part of the national plan economy, also for people already working as teachers with a degree, as she did. Added to usual working hours, and compulsory. Often even uncompensated (perhaps some food items). She being mainly of African descent, made her use of the term “slave” extra painful, in light of Castro’s Cuba propaganda of “improving the position of Afro-Cubans”. In what way, improving?

All those materialist “isms” disrespect individuality, the own human “spirit”, which expresses itself in culture, replaced by a cold, dehumanizing view on humans, needing to fit in an unnatural and unequal economic ideology. As I sing in one of my songs: “ideology is not humanity”.

One can argue, thus, that historical “collectivist” and “obedience” cultural values of “harmony” in Chinese culture, have been hardened and “coldened” by these dehumanizing “isms”.

The totalitarian regime now in place in China, therefore has ironically ideological similarities with Western elites, such as those joined in the World Economic Forum, and the wealthiest 2% in all Western countries, the Rockefellers, Bill Gates etcetera, often family fortunes going back generations with large capitalist enterprises, or even to colonialism, as the origin of “multinationals” (e.g. Shell) goes back to colonial times. That the father of founder of the “club of wealthiest people” in this world, the WEF, the German Klaus Schwab, was an influential active member of the Nazi party is telling in itself.

Marxism, in theory, countered that capitalist exploitation, but within the same collectivist, materialist value system. It’s all about the money, still.

This same dehumanizing value system oddly suddenly “normalized” totalitarian, undemocratic policies, earlier practiced in China, also in Western nations, during that Covid “plandemic” since 2020. Lockdowns, curfews (in some countries last imposed under Nazi rule!), non-working (obligatory!) face masks, even obligatory “vaccination”/MRNA injection in some countries, unconstitutional yet structural discrimination of unvaccinated, etcetera.. all attacking and damaging free culture, medical freedom, bodily integrity, gathering, and small businesses, in other words: individual humanity.

The unholy, unhappy “social credit” system for citizens, in practice for some time now in a large part of China, treating citizens like children or even animals, is even experimented with – to degrees – now in some parts of Europe: Bologna and Rome in Italy, Bavaria in Germany. A cheap shot, maybe, but also countries with Fascist/Nazi pasts.

However, I am quite sure that the free individual spirit, indestructibly inherent in humans, will eventually want to break free from this, to return to “free culture” and “free spirituality”. There and everywhere.

The shocking footage I saw recently of people locked up in their apartments above sinister empty streets in Shanghai under state-enforced “covid” lockdown (for a relatively mild flu virus) – almost like animals in stables in industrial farms -, and the desperate screaming I heard from the houses, exemplifies this struggle, and this dehumanizing injustice.

It also should be a warning sign for most reasonable and decent people in this world: this dehumanizing totalitarianism is not what we want (anymore), nowhere in the world.

Tabby

There is real grief and sadness when there was real love. That explains why you really feel the loss when someone important in your life passes away.

Evidently, this is strongest with loved or related ones, or when in an intimate relationship, like a close friend or direct relative. Yet, it can also go beyond that.

The sad loss of Jamaican reggae singer Donald “Tabby” Shaw, of the legendary Mighty Diamonds band (active since 1969), recently, is an example of the latter. It also is an example of the “sudden shock”, as it was due to gunshots from a car, thus a murder. So unfair, so shocking.. all the more since there were images of Tabby Shaw dancing, enjoying himself on music in what seems an outdoor party, only minutes before the fatal shooting. This took place in Waterhouse, a part of Kingston, Jamaica.

A long sickbed, or a longer period in the hospital awaiting the inevitable end is - even with some hope - of course not pleasant, but it has the benefit of mental “preparation”, a more gradual adaptation, moderating the trauma and strain on the brain. The sudden death of Tabby Shaw is, however, much more impactful, shocking, and traumatic.

Especially, but not only for people who knew him well personally. As a singer with a great voice, much musical talent, and as the voice of the legendary Mighty Diamonds, Tabby Shaw was a musical legend himself. Gifted with a beautiful, soulful voice, his talent reached beyond that to songwriting. While the Mighty Diamonds members wrote songs alternately or together – and many were written by other members – Tabby could sing them as they should, getting the best out of a song: making you feel it.

I myself consider myself a Mighty Diamonds fan, for years now, so I am genuinely saddened by this loss. You might even say that his, Tabby’s, voice, and the Mighty Diamonds songs, were one of the soundtracks of my life.

I am not being too dramatic, when I think that I got through certain periods in my life better and happier because of the Mighty Diamonds - and with that Tabby’s voice, being in most cases the lead singer of the Mighty Diamonds songs.

I remember I went some years regularly to Cuba (around 2004), bringing along the Mighty Diamonds great Deeper Roots album, at the end being the one I played most, even out loud. Many Cubans got to hear this type of Reggae because of this, and many seemed to like it, especially with those good grooves. Somehow it still fitted within the Caribbean Cuban son and rumba surroundings. I went mostly to Santiago de Cuba in SE Cuba, known as the "most Caribbean" part of Cuba, where Marcus Garvey' UNIA movement had many departments, once, by the way, partly among Jamaican migrants, so that also played a role: the Mighty Diamonds devoted several good songs to the Black emancipation leader Marcus Garvey.

In my home in Amsterdam, Netherlands, I further listened regularly several Mighty Diamonds albums, so you can call me a fan. Even their later, “modern-sounding”, Dancehall-influenced – but still “Rootsy” albums from the 1980s and 1990s I liked. Good songs, good music and riddims.

There was also a certain “liveliness” or “jolliness” about most Mighty Diamonds’ songs, often with party-like vibes, proving uplifting. The better drumming and percussion, along with the “jolliness” made me personally a bigger fan of the Mighty Diamonds, than of, say, Midnite/Akae Beka, who also have many fans. But that is my personal taste.. You can be intense without being gloomy or boring, is all I say. Tabby’s singing with the Diamonds showed that joyful intensity.

The lyrics of the Mighty Diamonds could have a party or love vibe, but often were “conscious” and Rastafari-inspired, like Akae Beka’s, only on another level, perhaps more concrete and daily in “social comment”, compared to the more abstract level, Vaughn Benjamin brought listeners to.

THE SCENE

I devoted another blog post of mine to Akae Beka’s Vaughn Benjamin, following his untimely, for many unsuspected death. I noted that Akae Beka had many fans in the Netherlands Reggae scene – including in Amsterdam, where I reside -, and often “passionate” fans at that.

This sudden death of Tabby Shaw received likewise much attention, and was met with sadness in the Netherlands reggae scene. Justly, he and the Mighty Diamonds have many passionate fans too, and for many in the scene, Tabby was also a “veteran”, “icon”, or “legend”.

Some Dutch musicians and promoters worked with Tabby and the Mighty Diamonds, such as Michelle Boekhout Van Solinge of the Black Star Foundation, once arranging a show of the Mighty Diamonds with Ijahman Levi (show!).. I can’t recall if I was there, but I should have been, haha.

Michelle also met Tabby several times in Jamaica, mostly professionally, with as tangible result the backing vocals by the Mighty Diamonds on Amsterdam-based artist Leah Rosier’s song All Over The World.

Tabby and the Diamonds have played with several Netherlands-based musicians, even on international stages (Rototom festival in Spain, in 2018), including among others the experienced Freddy Poncin on drums. That is a challenge for these non-Jamaican musicians, since the Mighty Diamonds always had quality musicianship – real Jamaican Reggae – including the likes of Sly & Robbie, Dean Fraser, and (a special interest of mine) often nice added, varied percussion.

In the café called Jamaica Lounge in Amsterdam – not far from the part of Amsterdam where I live - , Jimbo, its Jamaican owner, told me he remembered the Mighty Diamonds from his youth in Jamaica, calling them “legends”, and describing their popularity. One of the first discs he ever bought, he told me, was a 12 inch (or “45”) of the Mighty Diamonds (feat. U Brown), costing then One Jamaican Dollar 30. Last time I went to Jamaica, a bag of a few grams of weed - enough for one big spliff, or 2 small joints – tended to cost about 1 US Dollar.. I had to think of this for some reason, when Jimbo told me of that price (1,30 Jamaican dollar for a 12 inch).. It’s however hard to compare.

I have seen several live performances of the Mighty Diamonds in Amsterdam, and elsewhere, having fond memories of them, sensing the quality music, and their particular strength: good vocal harmonies, and soulful vocals by Tabby. Valuable memories that cannot be taken away.

PERSONAL TRAYECTORY

I got into Reggae around my 11th year (1980s), and it took some time for me to get into the Mighty Diamonds.. In that stage, the “rougher” and mystical sounds/vibes of other Reggae bands like the Wailing Souls, Burning Spear, the Twinkle Brothers, or singers like Ijahman, attracted me more. This was perhaps due to the sophisticated and smoother (Philly/Motown) “soul” influence on the Mighty Diamonds, having myself just left a “soul” period (when I listened to e.g. Stevie Wonder). I wanted a change from that.

However, as I got to know more songs of the Mighty Diamonds, and started to pay attention to technical musical and vocal aspects, I appreciated them more and more. The voice of Tabby I liked, as well as the delicate, sophisticated harmony vocals. This differed from the vocal “call-and-response” focus of what is called “country” style Roots: bands like Culture, the Itals, the Twinkle Brothers, or the Wailing Souls. These bands also had great, intelligent harmonies, besides the call-and-response, but a bit “rougher”. Don’t get me wrong: I love “call-and-response”, so common in Black/African music, both as vocal as rhythmic (percussive!) aspect.. the Mighty Diamonds just elaborated more this very (originally African) call-and-response principle with their harmony vocals. In that sense, a bit similar to the Abyssinians, with likewise elaborate harmonies.

I liked most of the Mighty Diamonds albums, Deeper Roots (1979) - from a good period and studio (Channel One) - perhaps most, Right Time (1976) was a classic, and even an album that was considered a “flop”, even by the Mighty Diamonds themselves, Ice On Fire, following on the classic rootsy Right Time (1976) album, I enjoyed. It was a move to the US, to work with New Orleans musicians., maybe in response to the Black US “Soul” influence on the Diamonds. For many Reggae fans – expecting Roots like on the album Right Time before it - it was disappointing how US New Orleans musicians tried to approach Reggae wrongly, with some vague New Orleans R & B feels on this Ice On Fire album. The soulful singing of Tabby, and again quality harmony vocals, kept even this album listenable though, in my opinion.

Spread throughout their albums, the Mighty Diamonds had many, many good Reggae songs, some even classic ones, with Tabby Shaw’s beautiful singing, that will stand the test of time, due to their enduring quality. The flesh might die, but this music lives on.

AFTERMATH

The fatal shooting was such a sudden, ugly death, that it naturally had a shock effect, including on many fans like me. In the days after Tabby’s death, more speculation arose, linking the drive-by shooting not (just) to a sad coincidence, but actually a (criminal) retaliation. Some (Jamaican) sources mentioned the involvement in crime of Tabby’s son, actually being accused of homicide. The retaliation would relate to this, some think, explaining its uncommunicative, nasty execution. “Vindictive feelings ain’t appealing”, as Max Romeo sings on One Step Forward.

If this is true , it’s sad that Tabby’ son went “wayward”, so to speak, especially in light of Tabby’s positive lyrics, at times also lambasting crime. All kinds of social problems relate to this choice for a life of crime of course, but still a pity.

Another sad passing of another Mighty Diamond member got known too a few days after, the 1st of april of 2022: of Bunny Diamond (Fitzroy Simpson), mostly a harmony singer with the band, but a good songwriter too. In this case, he had a long illness (diabetes), and even could not perform often with the band, the last years. Still, he left his positive mark: vocally and writing several great songs for the band. The song Bodyguard is e.g. written by Bunny Diamond, but sung by lead singer Tabby..

Bodyguard was a later “hit”, while earlier classic hits in Jamaica and the Reggae world were the beautiful I Need A Roof, Right Time, Have Mercy, and of course Pass The Kutchie. The latter is probably also their internationally best known song, due to the cover (sans-ganja reference) by the British Musical Youth, with Pass The Dutchie. Only knowing Pass the Kouchie – however – serves no justice to the great artistry the Mighty Diamonds with their song book represented.

Some of my personal favourite Mighty Diamonds songs (other fans might have others):

-Africa
-Blackman
-Be Aware
-Cat O’Nine
-Red Tapes
-Shabby Raggy
-I Don’t Want Any Crumbs
-The Roots Is There
-That’s The Life
-Babylon Is Dangerous
-Fancy Lady
-Let the Dollar Circulate
-Corrupt Cop

Okay, all “conscious” tunes, but I also love some of the party songs, or love songs, with Tabby’s soulful voice, like Lost Without Your Magic, Talk About It (recorded with Lee Scratch Perry), Tonight, and they had some great other “ganja/weed songs” too, besides Pass The Kouchie (e.g. Peace Pipe). Even their head scratching-cover choices, in the end ended up okay, even improving on the original (Putting On The Ritz, for instance). Even better is their cover Gypsy Woman (originally by the Impressions, but covered in Jamaica before also, by the Uniques).

The Mighty Diamonds were a great band, so very sad that loss of two members (Tabby Diamond and Bunny Diamond) in a matter of days, with the also talented Lloyd “Judge” Ferguson remaining the only member alive. The legacy remains, of course.

CONNOTATIONS

In a broader context, the fatal shooting of Tabby Shaw shows other severe problems within Jamaica, or perhaps even the world: the gun and gang violence and rampant criminality, especially affecting poor ghetto communities in Jamaica, including Waterhouse, a ghetto area where Tabby was killed.

This actually got worse since the 1980s, many say due to political and CIA machinations in Jamaica bringing guns to Jamaica, where before early Rude Boys or “tough guys” had to be content with knives or machetes. Inter-party warfare and guns took a hold of poorer communities, with Dons (criminal leaders) coming to control areas of downtown Kingston, supporting a specific political party, therefore more or less protected, but thriving on division.

These historically developed links between poverty, politics, and violence/criminality in Jamaica have been the subject of many Reggae lyrics, including by the Mighty Diamonds, but little has been done over the years to halt it, at least not by higher-placed politicians, after all profiting from the divisions.

As Mutabaruka said in a recent radio show (also commenting on Tabby’s death), this gun violence and crime is an actual “pandemic” too, and much more neglected.

This also shows – in my opinion – the corruption and skewed nature of international and Jamaican politics: hardly addressing poverty, violence, and crime in Jamaica, yet enforcing draconian, dictatorship-like measures for the new flu virus, called Covid 19. Covid, according to nonpartial, nonpoliticized sources, was not even that mortal or severe, soon after April 2020 reaching flu-like levels, rendering it even – according to some – a “fake pandemic” or “plandemic”, with corona policies serving other elitist (political/economic) goals.

Meanwhile, serious (interrelated) poverty, crime, and violence problems in poor parts of Jamaica – and elsewhere in the world! – were neglected, and even sidelined because of the foolish “hype” of Covid 19.

Not even the totalitarian lockdowns or curfews, the corona policy makers liked so much, affected crime that much, only marginally and temporarily.

Corona policies, and now other “hypes” as distractions, such as the Ukraine war, outweighing even in Jamaica news about developments and wars on the continent most Jamaicans originate from: Africa..

The harsh corona policies did in the end not solve much medically (vaccines are a selling product for Big Pharma.. not much more: medical benefits limited for most people), but did benefit certain wealthy elites – also financially -, and a power hold on the populace – increased citizen control -, these same elites thought necessary.

On the other hand, really trying to solve inequality, hunger, poverty, and violence in the poorer parts of this world, was never attempted, only claimed by international organizations, or with little effect.

Tabby Shaw’s sudden, tragic death by a drive-by shooting (some say a “criminal retaliation”) in a ghetto area of Kingston – of someone who was before all a Reggae artist with positive lyrics -, is a sad and brutal reminder of the negligence of “real” problems in this world.

The very same real problems that the Mighty Diamonds addressed in many of their lyrics.

Artistic photography?

“The practice of photography is no longer a means for recording reality. Instead, it has become reality itself.”
~Ai Weiwei

Artistic photography is a field which many of us encounter throughout our lives. In fact, in tandem with photography as such.

I remember the changing technology throughout my life, regarding photos. From camera rolls you left at a photo shop for them to develop, to the ease of digital photos in this time, eventually on our mobile phones. It is a kind of – what is called - “commodification” toward mass consumerism.

Though I in the course of my life often enjoyed taking photos, such as during travels, the “art” was for me more in what I photographed – e.g a landscape, houses, weather – than how I took it. I did often not even bother to check out all the camera’s technical options and possibilities (lighting, panorama, zooming, highlighting) that much, only when necessary.

I did not even quite know how more “professional” photos were taken: something with resolution, sure, and with stands, and other added equipment.. Bigger cameras too. Much more I did not know. Neither did I ever have much interest in buying a more expensive, professional camera.

My interest got awaken more by visits to museums devoted to photography in Amsterdam – you have a few nice ones -, and elsewhere, such as Bilbao, combining usually specific compositions and scenes from everyday reality, that happened to be captured with camera. One exhibition, for example, I saw in Amsterdam’s FOAM museum was of photos of socially critical (exiled, freedom-loving) Chinese photographer Ai Weiwei (photo hereunder).

It opened my eyes for the fact that photography is – in fact – or can be considered – an actual art form: more than just documenting, or catching a real moment.

“In the '70s, in Britain, if you were going to do serious photography, you were obliged to work in black-and-white. Color was the palette of commercial photography and snapshot photography.”
~Martin Parr

COMMODIFICATION

I am afraid that with the massive spread of smart phones in the last decade, many people fancy themselves good, even artistic photographers, just by selecting good scenes and images, looking perhaps a bit at lighting. It is now not a “project” anymore, e.g. camera rolls you used to take to a developer to be picked up later, relating to a certain vacation or event. Now with the smart phones and the Internet it became a continuous “photo focus” as we go through life, some more fanatical than others.

“Technology has eliminated the basement darkroom and the whole notion of photography as an intense labor of love for obsessives and replaced them with a sense of immediacy and instant gratification”.
~Joe McNally

A funny building, bike, or car, a strange obstacle, a lively street scene, street art, extraordinary people.. all can be “photo worthy”, and when deemed as such, these digital photos spread publicly easily through social media, indeed full of such personal photo galleries.

Though I like taking photos and nice photos too, sometimes I feel it to be “overkill”. That might be a personal thing, for I have never been very “visually oriented”: music and text/content attracted me more, eased my mind more. For the same reason, I have never been a “film buff”, certainly not of the “superficial and spectacular” Hollywood films, with often more visual spectacle than substance. At least, there should be a balance.

Yet, a photo does not mean much by itself: there is always a story behind it, that makes it intriguing.

There is first the reporting, historical, and social value. The look in the eyes of people, usually tells a whole life story, without “deceptive” words.

HISTORY

As photography developed as such since the 1820s and 1830s, first in France, and then slowly “improved” and internationalized, some historical periods did not or hardly have direct images, rather representation, including paintings and drawings.

SLAVERY

One of those historical epochs I miss “documenting” photographs of, is that of slavery of Africans in the Americas, and the related trans-Atlantic slave trade between Africa and the Americas. Such a crucial and impactful period for many people and several continents, is visually mostly represented by drawings and paintings. Some drawn by those officially hired, but sometimes still with free spirits.

An example of the last is the Scottish-Flemish soldier in Dutch service John Gabriël Stedman, who showed the cruelty of slavery in Suriname, a Dutch colony. His drawings/sketchings were mostly supported by written historical sources, including the cruel punishment and conditions of slaves.

Somewhat ironically, he was sent to Suriname as a soldier to help suppress slave rebellions in that colony, later somewhat switched as he got in a relationship with a slave woman, and began to question the conditions, or at least the severity, of slavery. Some images of slavery in Suriname he left that were manmade, yet somehow educational. Not real, but hinting at reality.

Similar drawings/sketching or paintings of slavery exist from elsewhere in the Americas: e.g. the French colonies, Brazil, Jamaica, and Cuba. The painters/drawing artists tended to be somehow serving the colonial government, but at times more free to allow some reality, besides the “idealizing” of all-too picturesque plantations, as a harmonious village, that it never was: it was overall based on fear and violence.

I worked for years in a scientific institute studying (especially) Caribbean slavery, and I remember those drawings, often as illustration in works about slavery, in e.g. Jamaica or Suriname (with drawings by the mentioned Stedman). Later historical epochs were of course illustrated with, well, photos.

A selection of such paintings/drawings of African slavery in the Americas, I used for the video of my song Backra Massa (including Stedman’s sketches in Suriname).

PHOTOS OF SLAVERY?

Photos, on the other hand, could “hide” or “rework’ the reality of plantation much less than such drawings or paintings, and I even theorized once that the British abolished slavery (in 1836) fearing the photos (that soon spread to Britain by the 1830s) of plantation slavery in its colonies, and the negative image of cruelty it would give the British Empire. Slavery was abolished later in places like Suriname, the US, Brazil, and Cuba, between the 1850s and even 1880s, so photos of plantation slavery could have been made there more, but mostly were not allowed, for being unfavorable to the colonial authorities, or inconvenient. Yet, some were made.

“It takes a lot of imagination to be a good photographer. You need less imagination to be a painter because you can invent things. But in photography everything is so ordinary; it takes a lot of looking before you learn to see the extraordinary”.
~David Bailey

There are some actual photos of people who were actually slaves, African-born and American born, and those are intriguing and impactful. Especially in the US, between the 1840s and 1860s – including the transitional civil war, actual photos were taken, of plantation slaves in southern states like South Carolina or Virginia. Quite some photos of slaves were also made in Brazil and elsewhere.

The expression on faces of actual slaves are telling and impressive, as well as the general context. These photos visualized the horror and tragedy of dehumanization, of being made inferior like cattle. Facial expressions of enslaved Africans show often a mixture of resignation, sadness, and anger. Photos can capture that directly, drawings/paintings only imitate that.

Here is such an impressive series regarding the US, but there are also interesting photos during slavery, of slaves, taken in Brazil, Cuba, and elsewhere.

http://nationalhumanitiescenter.org/pds/maai/enslavement/text1/photosenslaved.pdf

GREY AREA

These documenting photos of “harsh reality” (including those taken during WW II and the Holocaust, in wars, of famine) – with little room for “posing” – contrast somewhat with later “journalistic” photos – photojournalism -, often with interested parties (promotion, often for commercial or political reasons), but also with more artistic aspirations of photography developing over time.

A grey area between “reporting/documenting” photos and “art” photos developed, normally called “documentary photos”. Capturing moments – as photography does -, but in a specific wider context. “Stylized reality”, you can consider it, e.g. a photo series on “Life in the favelas of Rio”.. Of course photos of such a project are not random, or taken nonchalantly, as so many do with their smart phones, nowadays. They are professional photos. Moreover, they refer to a social reality one wants to “report” on, as it were, visually. There’s a story and a message.

“Photography is the easiest medium with which to be merely competent. Almost anybody can be competent. It's the hardest medium in which to have some sort of personal vision and to have a signature style.”
~Chuck Close

From this, the following step is toward what is known as “fine-art photography”, defined as “using photography as a medium for creative expression” and with as goal “expressing an idea, a message, or an emotion”.

An intriguing field, which I myself however could never grasp fully, yet often appreciated, such as in museums, online, in books and journals. Of course, I tried to make “fine-art” photos myself, with limited means, haha. Using light/shadow, setting, and perspective, etcetera, as so many may have. I remembered that one of my older brothers took it further: he was more visually oriented than me – even took up painting -, but also devoted for a period time to “fine-art photos”, including in black and white.

(Photo above: taken in photography museum Huis Marseille in Amsterdam, Netherlands.)

Yet, what I still not fully understand is the difference between “representational” (or documentary) photography and “fine-art” photography: is it the same difference as between figurative and abstract art?

A painting friend of mine from El Salvador, who made mainly abstract paintings with medical references (he was also a doctor/physician), told me: “You don’t “understand” abstract art, but instead you “feel” it..”.

Is that it?

ORCHESTRATED

All in all, my ambiguous relationship with artistic or fine-art photography lies precisely in its staged, orchestrated character. Scenes are not natural, people are not themselves, but pose. Or are they? In one’s posing one expresses one’s dormant ambitions or desires, still shining through in the facial expression and attitude, however orchestrated and “artificial” a photo scene or setting may seem.

Other modern fine-art photos include the “photoshopping”-like techniques, moving even more into the world of the fictional, artificial, and unreal, but with an artistic function. The latter is an added value, because there are countless “photoshopped” photos based on lame humour, as well as photo manipulations for political or economic goals.

Large political crises (or “hypes”), like the one around corona since 2020, often make – like dictatorships – use of photos and films to “shape” minds. The Nazi propaganda of superior Aryans, versus footage of a Jewish ghetto, that Nazi films portrayed as filthy and with sordid characters and facial expressions, or related to newsreels about dictators like Mussolini or Franco doing “good” works, like opening a bridge or estuary, in the country. Nowadays, some photos of overloaded hospitals, or a man collapsed on the street (of course an unusual reaction to a flu, however severe, by the way) are proven to be manipulated, or misapplied (with a lying text) to the supposed “danger” of covid..

Psychologically, this is also interesting. As knowledge developed that “traumas” tend to be very “visual” in remembrance, especially among the victims. They often remember "visual" details of traumatic events stronger than, e.g. background noise, things said, smells, or – remarkably – sometimes even the felt physical or mental pain. This shows the strength and impact on our brains of "the visual" or imagery. Of course this very strength was and is misused, such as for political or commercial goals.

AMSTERDAM

The two photography museums I visited several times in Amsterdam, the Huis Marseille and the FOAM, convinced me of this added value of an “artistic” goal, rather than “comedic” or political/economic ones. They exhibited international photo art, often with political connotations, but indirectly.

In addition to my regular visits to these and other museums over the years (including also in Marseille, and the Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, N. Spain -photo above), in my personal circle I encountered people who told me about their professional photographic activities. Dimitris Meletis (orig. from Greece) has his own site, and also Alessandra Carnio (Argentinian, of Italian origin), both of whom I met in Amsterdam. There are also examples of their art and work on these websites.

https://dimitrismeletis.com/

and

https://www.alessandracarnio.com

To both of them, during conversations, I made the same joke: that I feared that with those smart phones, almost everyone fancies oneself a somehow “artistic” photographer, mostly unjustly. That “joke” of mine is only funny because it is true. Expectedly, their response was something along the lines of “that’s not the same..”. Not the same, they hinted at, because of an artistic approach, preparation, and technology/tools.

Especially for those interested in water and bridges, by the way, the Dutch capital Amsterdam is an appropriate location. One of the cities in Europe – and even the world – with most canals and water through the city, and – relatedly – the city with most bridges in the entire world (true fact).

Though the overall architecture in Amsterdam is perhaps more “Protestant” and “Germanic/ Northern European” than what one knows of flamboyant or graceful architecture in e.g. Southern or Eastern Europe, it is not without nice decorative and beautified streets, houses, of cityscapes, along with varied social and human scenes. Both Meletis and Carnio used the city Amsterdam for their photo art too.

While Alessandra Carnio seems to focus more on “fine-art photography” as such (including "portraits"), and Dimitris Meletis has a broader, professional approach (including video/documentaries on international social themes, and commercial photo assignations), both try to make a living out of it, and therefore have to operate commercially, on a market. Thus, they each in their own way move also in the “grey area” between fine-art photography and something more economic or political. Like with other “pure” art forms: there is no money in it, so they have to.

Yet, the world right now needs pure art, and also this art, especially after the overload of political and mass media manipulation – including misuse of photos and imagery – during the so-called “corona crisis” since Early 2020, and the draconian “lockdown and curfew policies” damaging (or attacking?) culture and art. The morbid emphasis on a virus and supposed “infections” driven by elites, had little joy and inspiration, due to its political – and some say cold financial – motivations, especially leaving a bad taste, as the stated “public health” goals were merely an excuse or a cover.

In reality, this “plandemic” as some call it, creates something unreal, by “faking” the real. Art – including fine-art photography -, does in fact the contrary: it shows the real through the unreal. Exactly the opposite.. That's the reason for censorship of "free" art in dictatorships.

And all of us with our mobile smartphones? It depends on the person and ambitions, but mostly resembling “representational”, reporting, or quasi-journalistic photos, thus more daily and mundane.

CONCLUSION

The implicit question throughout this essay was if I really view photography as a valid creative art form. This essay served in a sense for me to assemble arguments in favour or against that notion.

An interesting article I found on the Internet, addresses this same question:

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/is-photography-art-debate/

I can conclude from all this, that I consider some types of photography as actually artistic, as is called “fine art-photography”, relating in my opinion mostly to “intent” and goals, as also the "formal" definition of art, I mentioned before. Techniques are not irrelevant, but advanced techniques (perspectives, camera, lighting etc.) have been used – some say: misused - as much for commercial or political photography.

Goals of artistic photography should ultimately relate to edifying, enlightening – as all art. In other words: showing different ways to view reality, rising above it, while enchanting or “moving”. This is different from the utilitarian goals of commercial aims or political propaganda. It is more uplifting.

I have seen quite some examples of this too..

"I think art certainly is the vehicle for us to develop any new ideas, to be creative, to extend our imagination, to change the current conditions."
~Ai Weiwei

Shock doctrine?

If you cannot bear nonsense much, this is not a good time to follow the news.. Of course, there have always been interests - monetary or otherwise - and biases regarding world events.

The big powers always had ways, even in “democratic” times since 1945 in the Western world, to shape the news information to the masses for their own interests. The “war on terror” – specifically of Islamic fundamentalism – was a recent example, while the proven lying surrounding war efforts of the US, regarding e.g. Iraq, another one.

SHOCK DOCTRINE

I “resaw” Naomi Klein’s recommendable documentary Shock Doctrine (2009) recently, noting more of such historical hypes, often nationally focused, such as in Chili with Pinochet’s coup in 1973, enforcing basically through a “shock therapy” neoliberal/stakeholder capitalism, after removing Left-wing, democratically elected president Allende. This was aided by news distortions and misinformation in the US (where Milton Friedman’s economic neoliberal School of Chicago capitalism was based), to legitimize such a violent coup, for citizens.

The same occurred in Argentina with the coup by Videla in 1976. The same harsh, shock therapy was later applied in Russia after communism, Iraq, and elsewhere. Privatization and making the rich richer: that's what the shock therapy sought to attain. The rule and policies of Thatcher in Britain and Reagan in the US in the 1980s ensured this neoliberal free-market capitalism (“trickle down economics”), internationally, but with still an Anglo-American inclination.

So these Western democracies were throughout recent history certainly not immune to propaganda for their purposes, only a bit less extreme or closed-off than in regimes like that of e.g. Iran.

DICTATORSHIPS

Since 2020 many former Western democracies (however relative) stopped being democracies in the strict sense. The Trias Politica – separation of powers – has been discarded for a monolithic emphasis on fear for a flu virus called Covid 19. I myself tend to call it a “hyped-up” virus, and with good reason. Certainly by now, impartial science shows how this covid is no more severe than the influenza, even before the Omikron variant they mention. Before Covid 19 was like a “quite” heavy flu, now a medium-level flu. Never was a “state of emergency” really legitimate or appropriate (pure medically), beyond perhaps a few weeks in Early 2020, making many countries – especially in the Western world – de facto illegitimate “full dictatorships”.

The hype/propaganda worked anyway, to create chaos, then to shut down societies, destroy smaller businesses, and reorder economies, on the way to what in globalist circles is called Agenda 2030, or the 4th Industrial Revolution. Part of the shock doctrine?

Trinidadian scholar (and later politician) Eric Eustace Williams showed in his study Capitalism and Slavery (1980) that the very first Industrial Revolution in England was financed largely with the British slave trade and slavery in British colonies. Denying of human rights, and taking freedoms away, were sacrifices people were forced (not willing) to make for this economic goal.

Williams even argued that Britain’s later anti-slavery stance (abolishing it before some other European countries) was less humanitarian than it seemed: the industrial revolution made the slavery gains simply less necessary for Britain’s economy.. It’s all about the money..

More subtly, history now kind of repeats itself. The same driving forces – the world’s richest elite - , and comparable goals: economic reset, - economic “shock therapy” at this wealthy elite’s benefit. Another dimension of modern slavery.

UPDATED

Yet, this shock therapy was adapted – or updated - to current times and contexts, with instead of the military as means, now politics and “health policy”, and with Big Pharma and Big Tech playing now the roles that the Plantocracy (slave-owning castes), industrialists, and landowners played before. This time also more "psychological torturing" methods than direct physical ones (reinventing you as infectious, sick being, fear of infection, problematizing "having fun with others"). In the same way as before they “bought” politics and assured corruptible political stooges.

Meanwhile, they cleverly made the world believe it is really about public health. At least, a part of the world. Apparently, fear mongering proved effective enough, even keeping people from checking trustworthy sources about this virus: if more people did that, they would have found out its danger is exaggerated, not absent (like the earlier flu is also real, and could be deadly for vulnerable people), but, indeed, “hyped up”.

People who have not yet lost their mind, and have found the proper information, have to put up with a lot a biased news and propaganda from the mainstream media. Often transparent in its bias and aims, yet somehow bought by people in “a fear modus”, that stops clear thinking, and using our entire brain.

According to brain studies, things like “fear” are triggered in a certain, “primal” part of our brain – shared with reptiles. This reptilian, primal brain is aimed at “survival”, and therefore contains “fear”, as well as getting by financially (money), survival of the species, etc.. A pity, because our brain has more parts we can use too, with more conscious, intelligent and creative thought. Those parts where beautiful things like culture, love, and empathy, and balance, - and good memories! - also can be found.

These are not the brain parts the people behind this plandemic (a rich elite, the WEF, etc.) want to stimulate. Eventually, these made since 2020 de facto dictatorships of former Western democracies, including Fascist elements like State-Big Business alliances (an idea of Mussolini too), and structural discrimination against unvaccinated people.

The injections promoted by Pfizer, Moderna, and those companies, are technically not even “vaccines” as such, but gentech-based, and are not tested enough. They might have dangerous side-effects, and some say these are proven already, such as with the recent collapse of healthy, young athletes. This should be studied more, and all non-natural medicinal methods can have negative side-effects, of course, and even more a new technology messing potentially with our DNA.

Besides that, Covid 19 is not severe enough for most people for such a mass “vaccination” campaign, with pressure - and even force! - in some countries. Even promoted for children.

Limiting the people’s free movements, lockdowns of all hospitality, banning gatherings, even forcing the people to stay home, keeping distance, face masks.. all this did not help against the spread of the virus. Pure power politics, and showing who is the boss. It was also meant to keep the hype and fear strong among the people, so they’d take the “vaccines”, and ensure all citizens have QR Codes. Some see this as the advent of a “control society”, with governments – rather: regimes – controlling citizens digitally in more aspects in their daily life.

Many before 2020 in free societies, would not have thought that activities as mundane like “going to a club” or “going to a bar” would be made conditional by powers that be: but precisely that occurred in several countries. People put up with a lot, as long as you put fear in their heads.

NEIL YOUNG

The recent Neil Young affair should be also placed in this light. I did not know, but apparently he was a musical artist from the rebellious “hippy” generation. I just thought he was an older Rock artist with some Country influences.

His stance against supposed “anti-vaxer” Joe Rogan on Spotify, showed the same lunacy and loss of sense many people – even some of whom I expected better – unfortunately exhibited during this plandemic.

To recapitulate: Neil Young took off his music from the Spotify platform, as on that same platform was also the podcast of Joe Rogan, a comedian and presenter, who was critical of the “vaccines”, and at least gave a stage to those critical of the plandemic policies, including vaccines.

Of course, Neil Young is by now an old man, feeling perhaps more vulnerable, and therefore more susceptible for the propaganda tricks: Covid 19 – like previous flu viruses – was relatively more dangerous for older people, or those with otherwise compromised immune systems.

It could be that – selfish fear -, which is all too human (that primal brain, I mentioned). Some argue, however, that it is more corrupt than that, pointing out that the rights to Neil Young’s music are owned by big companies connected to Pfizer, Black Rock, etc.

That action by Neil Young – taking away his music from Spotify because Joe Rogan was on it too, is extreme nonsense in more than one way.

First of all: what about freedom of opinion and freedom of speech? Someone can have a different opinion than yours in a free world, Young once sang to “ keep on rocking in”. I fear, the ”health” trick of the authorities was clever: Fascist intolerance of other opinions now can go under the disguise of “public health” issues.

That action by Young is also nonsense because there are in fact no “anti-vaxers”, as the MSM portrays them for propaganda purposes. Rogan, or some people he interviewed in his podcast, were critical of some of the policies, or of this specific MRNA injection, so much enriching companies like Pfizer. These objections are based on reasonable – and legitimate! - concerns of necessity or possible adverse effects.

Many with such objection against these covid “vaccines” did not have this so much with old-type vaccines (for polio, tetanus, small pox, etc), that some even have taken.

The final reason why that action of Young is nonsense is that it is purely symbolic, stupidly symbolic at that.

Other musical artists, like Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, or the Stone Roses’ Ian Brown, criticized the “vaccines” and lockdown policies too, and elsewhere Nena in Germany, and Spanish singer Miguel Bosé (with also many fans in Latin America) early on pointed at the Big Pharma and elite corruption behind the plandemic, Spain’s government – according to him – sold itself too.

These voices were largely marginalized in the present dictatorships, but their music is also on Spotify. Van Morrison even made some anti-lockdown songs.

Moreover, there are many songs critical of the corona policies/plandemic, including the covid “vaccines”, also on Spotify. Especially in genres with a history of social critique, developed among poor people, these are common, notably in Reggae music from Jamaica.

To a lesser degree, also in conscious Hip-Hop this can be found. Especially Reggae, though, as there are several critical songs about the plandemic (also named as such), the “vaccination” campaign, and related policies.

Reggae, especially Roots Reggae, is also influenced by the Afro-centric, spiritual Rastafari movement, combining with the lament of poor “sufferers” from the ghetto’s, and a history of slavery and poverty, to help explain a stronger mistrust – probably founded – of enforced restrictions by authorities.

Like in other poor countries, some people have to get out of the house to simply eat – so the odd “stay home!” ordinance caused irritation among poorer Jamaicans, as did the lockdowns limiting small businesses and simple market vendors. Also, the Fascist ban on gathering and parties, travelling limits, – and the closing hours “terror” - , of course seriously affects a country with a rich popular and (internationally known) musical culture like Jamaica.

These corona policies are remarkably coordinated internationally – along with the accompanying propaganda and misinformation in the MSM – and psychologically clever (referring to older family members, trampling rights gradually, instilling fear regularly) - , and indeed many people in Jamaica were “fooled into fear” as elsewhere, often temporarily. Far from all Jamaicans, though, and well-known Reggae artists like Buju Banton, Sizzla, Lutan Fyah, Bushman, Hempress Sativa, Natty King, Luciano, Chronixx, and Queen Omega, had no reserves expressing this critique openly in lyrics of their songs, also regarding the “vaccines”. These are also found on Spotify.

What Neil Young basically demanded is censorship, and that makes it worse. If he had just said: I do not wish to keep my music on the same platform (Spotify) as this guy Joe Rogan, whose opinions I detest so much, it would be his right to do so. Insane, but his right. He demanded, however, a choice between him (as well-known artist) and Joe Rogan, taking a dubious, propaganda stance, of a political nature, making me indeed suspect some Pfizer/Big Pharma corruptive forces behind it..

A pity that a rock star once known – apparently – as a hippy rebel could sink so low.. Is it because of fear, or because of money?

Some artists, also from that “hippie” era, like Joni Mitchell – and also an old woman by now – copied Young’s ill-informed move (taking way songs from Spotify), I understood.

POSTSCRIPT

On the one hand, this recent affair confirms the same nonsense as before during the plandemic, the same mind-games and unfounded “progressive” image authorities want to give the corona policies, now with the seeming public support of some (supposed) “hippie-like” artists.

The same nonsense, but betraying at the same time a bit more desperation.”The narrative is crumbling apart”, many people in the resistance against the elitist, plandemic “shock doctrine” say hopefully. Relatively, this is true. More people got to know the truth over time, and the pressure on vaccines - even for children -, and as requirement for work, even drove the “homely” people who could do without bars, restaurants, or clubs/concerts, now also to more suspicion.

Rewatching Naomi Klein’s Shock Doctrine convinced me of the largely “neoliberal” agenda at play here, albeit mixed with some functional Chinese Communist “social control and credit” dehumanizing nonsense aspects, to achieve the ‘shock” effect, or “disaster capitalism” this enables.

The comparison with historical fascism is not purely rhetorical. The combining of Big Business (now Big Tech, Big Pharma) with politics, was an “invention” of Benito Mussolini, the spiritual father and initiator of Fascism. Similarities increased when after a “fear mongering” year, the international “vaccination” campaign began (in 2021), and the discriminating marginalization and removal of rights of certain non-complying or resistant minorities (i.e. unvaccinated) took hold.

My main conclusion in this post is maybe this: there is nothing remotely “progressive”, “liberal”, or “Left-wing” about this corona policy/shock doctrine. Besides political persuasion: there is not even much “humanitarian” about it.

In line with the documentary the Shock Doctrine, the crisis was created for an economic reset (WEF’s Great Reset), as a “shock therapy” toward economic enriching the already wealthy, increasing their control over the masses through digital and pharmaceutical means, as the 4th Industrial Revolution, actually only rich and upper classes want.

Like in Chili, Argentina, Iraq, and elsewhere before, this “shock doctrine” could not be achieved, when there was still a functioning democracy: it required a dictatorship, and sideling the populace, either through poverty, war, or fear.

This is not what I consider “Left-wing”, to say it mildly. To say it less mildly: it is more like Fascist capitalism, with a sanitary excuse.

Patronizing efforts to bribe and include well-known musical artists for the propaganda with a “hippie” image for the corona cause (with after all much more musical artists on the opposing, resisting side), and the totally unfounded framing of anti-plandemic protesters as “extreme right” – as also Trudeau did again with the truckers, as I write this occupying Canada’s capital Ottawa -, are in my opinion ridiculously transparent as acts of desperation of people without moral arguments.

Kwanzaa

I know about Kwanzaa for some time now already, associating it with African Americans in the US, as a way to reconnect with the African roots. The festivities following “Western” Christmas, starts at the 26th of December, and lasts a week. Each day has a theme, and it involves presents and other rituals.

The festivities – “invented” in 1966 - are based on African traditions, and indeed the very name (from Swahili for “first fruits”) refers to historical African “harvest” celebrations, common throughout Africa, but of course also common in rural areas elsewhere. The themes of the days further seek to revive African communitarian principles, so lost among people of African descent in the Western world.

SIMILARITIES

In this, what they call, neo-African conception, it shares similarities with Rastafari as a movement, but also differences. The similarities are in the reconnecting with the African roots of Black people in the Americas. The differences are in the sense that Kwanzaa does not strive to be religious or even spiritual in the strict sense, while Rastafari is a spiritual movement, partly based on “rereading” the Bible from an African perspective.

Other similarities with Kwanzaa as festival, I find from what I know of “neo-African”, or “danced religions”, as some scholars call them: Haitan Vodou, Cuban Santería, Palo Mayombe, Surinamese Winti, and so on.. Again, Kwanzaa does neither have that spiritual component – let alone of “spirit possession” as in these traditions - , but does share the “community” and “structured festivity” aspect with these traditions.

“Community building” seems to be the main goal, all these African-centered movements among Afro-Americans have. The methods differ somewhat.

RASTAFARI

I find it philosophically interesting, that both Rastafari (originating in the 1930s in Jamaica), and Kwanzaa (designed by a Black Power activist and scholar, Maulana Karenga, in 1966), share that connection with the Black Power movement. In the case of Rastafari more through Marcus Garvey and his teachings, in the case of Kwanzaa, and its creator Maulana Karenga, more with (next generation Black Power activists) Malcolm X, Black Panthers, civil rights movement, etcetera.

Since Rastafari is older, Kwanzaa was probably influenced by it, in its conceptions, for instance, besides direct African models. Indeed, its creator Karenga said that one of his influences was Marcus Garvey, so there is a link.

I am more a Rastafari adherent, but still appreciate Kwanzaa’s theme-centered – and positive – focus on community building and self-determination. “Self-determination” is in fact one of those “day themes” in Kwanzaa (the 27th of December): defining oneself.

That’s why I started to celebrate it a bit.

It is, by the way, today mainly celebrated by African Americans, and elsewhere in the African diaspora, but there are today also White and other people celebrating it.

I don’t know much about the inventor of Kwanzaa, Maulana Karenga, but read more and more about him.. He had a turbulent life, but also some interesting and inspirational ideas. His later distancing of Kwanzaa from any specific religion can be deemed tactful, so as not to alienate African Americans considering themselves Christian or Muslim. Even some Rastafari adherents celebrate it, also here in the Netherlands.

Perhaps, the Rastafari movement is too loosely organized for such “structured” festivities, and some miss that (although Haile Selassie’s coronation and birth dates are regularly celebrated among Rastafari, world wide).

Since Rastafari is older and international, and I personally got into it way before in Kwanzaa, I find it interesting to compare the two, specifically hoping to deduce what Kwanzaa has to offer what was not there before, especially to repair the cultural identity within the African diaspora.

RELIGION

Christianity is – or rather: became – a mainly European religion, “Europeanized” over time. Islam started mainly as an “Arab” religion, and – while spread among various peoples – it still is largely “Arab” in its orientation. So African Americans belonging to some Protestant churches, or to the Nation Of Islam, kind of “compensate” through a focus on African cultural principles, guiding Kwanzaa days. A difference, as said, with Rastafari, being more a faith in itself.

Interestingly, there is a similarity with e.g . Vodou or Santería, in that a European Catholic Church-focus is responded to with African retentions, also spiritually. Likewise in Africa itself, European Christianity or Arab Islam, is often mixed or alternated with indigenous spirit faiths.

Neither Kwanzaa nor Rastafari seem to promote so much the “spirit possession” aspect of the African heritage. Their progressive aims seemingly left little room for such “backward”-seeming magic, although Euro-Christian propaganda (calling it ”devilish”) also created a distancing. There is after all a strong Protestant Christian influence in both Jamaica and the US.

BLACK POWER

The primary focus on the own Black community, of the Kwanzaa days, shows a Black Power influence, in which Jamaican Marcus Garvey played a pioneering role.

This “reconstructing” of a damaged identity because of slavery and deracination, certainly is a key element in Kwanzaa.

Yet, I argue, its principles and concepts are quite universal. The concept of “harvest festivals”, “eating together”, and passing-down values, are found historically in all cultures, in different ways.

The seven “theme days” of Kwanzaa, might betray its creator (Karenga)’s academic and scholarly past. It has theoretical, verbal “themes”, meant to structure intellectually a reality, that normally is just “lived” as part of community life. Universal, but with an African dimension.

Still, being a bit “academic” myself, I can see the value of that categorizing intellectually: it sharpens thinking and the focus on, importantly, positive notions. Notions that are, in turn, much more broadly human, than what can what can be categorized or even put in words. Thinking without overthinking.

INVENTED TRADITION

Some speak in such cases as Kwanzaa of “invented tradition”. I heard it in sociology classes I followed, but never cared much for the term. I find it subtly demeaning and negative. Partly it seems neutral, but it ridicules unjustly, I think. Even if originating or “invented” later, a tradition/custom can still be based on real, cultural traits living – if dormant – among specific populations. The cultural loss due to Trans-Atlantic slavery was destructive, yet not fully. African culture was maintained, and partly reworked, still with the underlying African cultural values.

Kwanzaa is an interesting example of that.

COMMUNITY

Additionally, I argue that the “community values” expressed within Kwanzaa, are not only relevant to the African Diaspora worldwide, but also to the whole of humanity, certainly also in this “corona crisis” time. In it, governments feel entitled to interfere with people’s social life and contacts, even more than decades before, with as excuse an infectious flu virus. Plandemic, New World Order, some think. Others think it is actually about health, ignoring the trampling of rights and freedoms we were used to. In psychology that is called “cognitive dissonance”.

I myself begun to think it is indeed a plandemic, because they did not involve the people they claimed to protect, and because of the world’s rich elite behind it (now united under the World Economic Forum - the WEF -, in part inheritors of the Bilderberg group), with accumulated wealth going back even to colonial times. Of course, my mistrust was awakened when these peoples started to tell us how we should live our lives..

I can study actual scientific sources (even did that professionally, once), and unfortunately my suspicion was confirmed after studying the actual (relatively limited) danger of that virus, and the actual (non-health) interests behind them. Therefore I added the L to pandemic (pLandemic) too.

From a bird’s view – or in modern terms: zooming out – it involves mass dehumanization, as well as “infantilization”, as we are commanded like we are children, and our natural, human urges are being criminalized. The history of specific Black/African Americans shows much more extreme and prolonged experiences of dehumanization, starting with trans-Atlantic slavery, or even earlier with the Arab slave trade in Africans. This was followed by centuries of exclusion, poverty, and discrimination.

LESSONS

As the most experienced usually teaches the novice, the new learner, in this case the accumulated wisdom from suffering from the Black Power movement since Marcus Garvey, and the civil rights movement in the US, more or less are summarized in the themes of Kwanzaa. The wisdom of community life, precisely that being under attack with this plandemic (probably for “divide and conquer” purposes). This experience can offer useful lessons for people now confronted with sudden dehumanization and restrictions.. “Sudden” when compared to the relatively freer democratic periods in Europe after WW II, Fascism, and Communism..

The state and political class now turned again dictatorial, bad-intentioned and only self-interested, and is – like in Mussolini’s Fascism – aligned with Big Business (which includes Big Tech and Big Pharma), and these rich elites behave as adversaries of the common people. Therefore: strengthening community life – the actual people – is the only answer toward and solution for a free life. Community is the basis of Kwanzaa.

I know, it was intended for Black redemption specifically within the African Diaspora, and for an oppressed racial minority in the US context, but universally Kwanzaa can, I argue, still offer good building stones for an alternative for the New World Order (NWO), the rich elite in this world wants (for which Covid policies prepare the ground).

This alternative for the New World Order/New Normal by necessity has to be at the benefit of the people, not a small elite thinking themselves to be superior because of their accumulated wealth. The open global plans for Agenda 2030, the Great Reset of the WEF, and a 4th Industrial Revolution.. that is what this elite wants..

Does this combine with the world Kwanzaa (or its followers) want? Of course not..

PRINCIPLES

More specifically, the seven African principles of Kwanzaa (called Nguzo Saba), or “theme days”, of Kwanzaa can demonstrate that (full description of these you can for instance find on the Wikipedia page on Kwanzaa):

UNITY

This first day of Kwanzaa (orig. for Black Unity) - the 26th of December - calls for communication, and free gathering. Well, this has been discouraged since March 2020, with all these draconian covid-related policies.

SELF-DETERMINATION

Independent thinking has also been discouraged during this totalitarian approach. It specifically “narrowed our frame” toward a hyped-up flu virus, disregarding our true interests, and the actual wider world. Censorship is also part of the current totalitarian approach.

COLLECTIVE WORK /SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

The key word is equality. The shared responsibility comes from within and is therefore proven true, not forced from above. False senses of solidarity can after all be easily manipulated by powers that be, as dictatorships and variants of Fascism earlier in history showed. This is what happens now, as the “fear” for a relatively mild virus is being misused.

COOPERATIVE ECONOMICS (OWN BUSINESSES)

For some reason, the corona policies, this plandemic, attacks small to medium businesses, while enriching and empowering bigger businesses, meant to replace them.

Thinking about it, this means that independently starting your own business for a specific community will be made difficult. They want more control by the Big State-Big Business over them.. Therefore more money and power to the richest elites, but also limiting freedoms of possibly rebellious, independent-thinking communities.

PURPOSE (COMMUNITY BUILDING GOALS)

With repressive governments/regimes, being open about your ambitions can be dangerous. The corona policies were even at times “opportunistic”, restricting what they saw people do (the terrible sin of “groups having fun” somewhere).

Marcus Garvey said that Black people’s plans “is their own business”, and need not be disclosed for “approval” by the White man.

Doing instead of talking, is therefore important here, and letting natural human characteristics flow, among people.

“Let respect just groove around”, as Curtis Mayfield sang.

CREATIVITY

This plandemic is a war against culture, and against joy, as a forebode to the joyless/modern slavery-like New World Order. It is also an attack on freedom. This is because freedom and joy/cultural expression inherently go together, and can never be separated for long.

FAITH

Whatever spirituality one adheres to, the very spirituality goes against the “material”, numbers/figures focus of this plandemic. The obsession with (manipulated, false) numbers (contagion/infection) is psychopathic. Cold, lifeless numbers to keep the masses scared.

As a Dutch comedian (Theo Maassen) once joked: “some things are too terrible for words, but never for numbers”... Spirituality = humanity = life.

I therefore recommend a Kwanzaa World Order instead of a New World Order, to abandon this dystopian “corona plandemic” way and route.

It is possible, even if it seems – as people with wicked and evil plans always present it – inevitable, or unescapable. We should and can go another way.

CONCLUSION

My “research question” or “thesis” – to put it academically – in this post was broadly: what is the added value of Kwanzaa?

For the Black struggle in the US and internationally, it seems to thrive, though up to now never eclipsing the best-known festivity known as Christmas, in its characteristics (Santa Claus, trees, reindeers, etc.) of German/Anglo-Saxon origin, besides the Christian/Jesus reference. Only later Christmas went also to the “Latin” world: South Europe and Latin America, and in fact global.

Kwanzaa is more African-based in its characteristics, and has a cultural and social focus. It achieved some popularity among African Americans, and Black people elsewhere, often combined with other celebrations. It affirmed and strengthened their sense of identity and cultural pride: these are important.

I see the global corona policies as – among other things – a “war against culture”, as I sing in one of my songs. I came to conclude this definitely, after studies showed the draconian measures “limiting contacts”, “lockdowns”, and “curfews”, had NO effect on virus spread. Governments just want more “control” over the people: attacking/limiting/changing their culture is a way to do that.

Kwanzaa is about reviving a repressed culture, promoting positive, constructive values. Exactly those values that are now under attack with the plandemic that prepares the way for a New World Order of technocracy, control, and stakeholder capitalism.

Kwanzaa values are on the other hand based on community life, and from the bottom-up: sharing, cooperation, but also own choices and identity. Compared to the NWO/WEF/New Normal values they are much more African, and also much less materialistic. Kwanzaa expresses mainly cultural and immaterial goals. These are more important, even if money addiction is widespread among all races. Numbers are lifeless and never end, so cannot give inspiration and joy by themselves. In essence it is not just a battle between freedom or slavery, but in a deeper sense also – philosophically – between “life” and “death”, between “good” and “evil”.

It is therefore much bigger than “race” as such. In certain epochs a focus on “race” was necessary in the Americas. Marcus Garvey did good works regarding this. The Mighty Diamonds sang, Garvey “gave the black man self-respect”, and many other Reggae artists (e.g. Burning Spear) praised him for this too. This self-respect is aimed at humanity, and is needed now among all groups affected by the plandemic .

Those content or agreeing with even the strictest of corona policies – let’s say: non-socializing, fearful types -, or still believing the covid/”killer virus” narrative, are difficult to save right now. For the others, more skeptical and critical, Kwanzaa’s community/culture values seem now more required than ever. Even urgent.

In addition, when all this nonsense is over – or in parts of the world with much less strict corona policies/influence - Kwanzaa values would be good values, I opine, because of their immaterial, sharing “community” and more “human” and “popular” base. It is a good antidote to the cold "power" governments seek, and “money” capitalists seek. As Marcus Garvey – one of the several inspirers of Kwanzaa – wrote already in 1927, in his long poem ‘The tragedy of white injustice’: “Cold capitalists and money sharks, make life unsafe, like ocean barks”.

Now with this plandemic (as during Mussolini’s Fascism) with politics and big business (and press, judiciary etc.), combined power/control and money into one big totalitarian whole, toward a New World Order/New Normal. Beneficial to a small elite, restrictive and repressive to the dependent rest.

Instead of this New World Order, I therefore propose a Kwanzaa World Order..

That is what my celebrating Kwanzaa at the end of 2021 – more structured and focused than before – taught me: its “community life” values are needed in this world.