Watching lion king clips and listening to amazing jazz and classical music on a Wednesday morning… after spending Friday at a pan African party, had Arabel and Binti sleep over and walk, shop, coffee at Costa and a great laugh with Arabel, while Binti decided she had to get some work done, the two of us were high on something- I should think hormones. We hit Zamalek and bought amazing leather belts, jewelry from Sami Amin. Got body oil, towels of Egyptian cotton and perfumes from Nerfatari- We felt like Nubian Pharonic ladies in waiting. Lunch at Hardees and coffee at Costa with a good laugh and much boy talk. Okay; this is not really what I was planning to say. I have a mass of research work, a 20 page final paper and a thesis to defend and submit all this needs to be done in ten days. What the heck am I doing with my life?
I spent Monday at a most amazing Sudanese concert; I have finally come to the conclusion that no African ethnic group plays better music than the other. On Friday we danced to Lingala, that comes with its own soul, music that no one can really place, in many ways its only the African born that can enjoy lingala- not being racist, I don’t know how anyone else can feel it not even black people from outside Africa, it just has its place in African soil. With the depth of soul and beat to it and the traditional vibes- it’s the music that runs through north to south and east to west, every African appreciates the indecent dancing and pure sensual satisfaction that Lingala gives. its the kind of music you listen to when you are happy and just want to dance it out and also when you are feeling all sexy with a lover! It just does it.
Oh my, this incoherency, it seems like a part of me, my Professors sometime complain about my papers lacking organization, I ram over things like I will loose them and boom, there goes coherency- anyway the world is still a better place without all this perfection that I once thought I could never do without. As I was saying, Monday concert, This famous Sudanese musician IDK was playing Sudanese music which run through my blood like it was the oxygen that kept me alive, and the music was to die for (O Ugandan Phrases!). Apart from having extremely hot men to glare at, with dreadlocks that made me want to spend a day washing and waxing that hair, there was this little boy who I literally wanted to run away with. He was up on stage dancing, and am not talking about the shaking of the body; he had moves… real moves, and curtsied in his own way every time a song ended. I imagined his father was the lead singer. Almost half way into the concert the musician whispered something in his ear and the boy walked off the stage, after about 10 minutes he was back- “No! No! You just can’t keep me away from what makes my heart beat!” am sure that’s what he was thinking. He gives his father a shy side look waiting to be sent back but no, father knows too well, that music in your heart cannot be fought. In less than a minute he was back right where he was before, this time with a host of three sisters who he was showing around the stage.
I was on fire and in awe of the music, Samel and Atif could not stay in their seats, they got up and joined a group of men dancing at the front. It always amazes me how much sexism exists in Muslim countries, even on the stage it was only men, when a few women went up it was foreign women. After a while a few Muslim women in their hijabs joined dancing when the song hit home, a song in Arabic about how Sudan should be one country, united filled with peace. All those with that hope, jumped to agree with the music. Hope, hope- it is a good thing, I hate when it is deferred which is what my pessimistic side tends to imagine at such times. What happens if Sudan goes through 40 more years of war, will it be more songs of peace, or will we just give up an accept it as the fate of Sudan?
I conclude as I listen to a clip of lion king that music has a way of changing things, the way life should be is altered in music. Now I can’t do much but laugh when Timon files Simba’s paws and him and Pumba teach Simba how to eat ants and slimy things. Simba seemingly grows happily living on this… How warped can this be? But that seems to be what was in the story of creation in the bible, we were all (animals & humans) living on vegetables. Now am not really sure where going, but music and its ways am leaves me happy and satisfied in all its various genres, it has a way of consoling me when my thesis situation is in puffs! When I can’t understand Islam, and when the Sahara is blazing hot! I can’t really do much without music, it’s the addiction am never giving up.
