Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra musical-surfer - 25.10.2001 14:20
Een uitzonderlijke kollektieve Amerikaanse band, die het op zich hebben genomen de muzikale EN politieke erfenis van FelaKuti voort te zetten. Afscheids-mail van een lid en indrukwekkend gedicht. http://www.antibalas.com OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM MARTIN -22 OCT 2001 Brothers and sisters: OUT FOR NOW... Yes, Iīm out for now...off for at least two months to Mexico to take care of my mom, whoīs fighting cancer, away from the bombs, the anthrax, the checkpoints, the rumours, and all the official hypocrisy that has put all of us living within these borders in a very precarious position, regardless of our personal beliefs and practices. OUTSIDE THE BUBBLE I look forward to living outside the "bubble" for a while. In America, we reap only the benefits of open markets and economic growth. Mexico, like many countries, has received the ass-end of these new globalization policies, and because they see how things really work. For instance, the price of the frijol (bean) which is a staple and one of the few things the vast majority of the poor can afford, skyrocketed from 9 pesos per kilo to 22 pesos after the WTC bombing. The clothes and electronics Americans buy which seem to get cheaper and cheaper do so because labor strikers in other parts of the world get fired, tortured, or killed when the organize, because factories use their economic leverage to dodge environmental, labor, and tax laws. We are all guilty, indirectly or directly for so much of the suffering. (African American literary giant Amiri Baraka breaks it down in a brand new poem which Iīve included at the end of this message) MOVING FORWARD, FOR REAL The bravest thing that Americans can do now is not to line up in goose step behind George Bush, the Army, the NYPD, etc. but rather to take this opportunity to change America for the better, so that real justice exists in this world. If we follow "official orders", we continue on a downward spiral. Notice that in this critical time, we are not being told to examine our wasteful behavior, our racism, our culture of violence, but rather to blindly accept the erosion of personal liberties and go out and spend, spend, spend. If we think for ourselves and take the worldīs perspectives and interests into account, things can only get better, safer, more stable, not just for us, but for everyone in the world. This is the ONLY way to avoid further attacks and bloodshed. The government and the war industry have too much at stake to do whatīs right. It is up to us, then. In the words of Bobby Seale, SEIZE THE TIME!!! HASTA PRONTO So with this, I wish everyone, whether you agree or disagree, the best of health, the safest of times, the greatest of joys to you all, your friends, your families. See you on the other side... Love and mucho ache, Martin Perna (Antibalas) ----------- Somebody Blew Up America By Amiri Baraka They say its some terrorist, some barbaric A Rab, in Afghanistan It wasnīt our American terrorists It wasnīt the Klan or the Skin heads Or the them that blows up nigger Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row It wasnīt Trent Lott Or David Duke or Giuliani Or Schundler, Helms retiring It wasnīt The gonorrhea in costume The white sheet diseases That have murdered black people Terrorized reason and sanity Most of humanity, as they pleases They say (who say?) Who do the saying Who is them paying Who tell the lies Who in disguise Who had the slaves Who got the bux out the Bucks Who got fat from plantations Who genocided Indians Tried to waste the Black nation Who live on Wall Street The first plantation Who cut your nuts off Who rape your ma Who lynched your pa Who got the tar, who got the feathers Who had the match, who set the fires Who killed and hired Who say they God & still be the Devil Who the biggest only Who the most goodest Who do Jesus resemble Who created everything Who the smartest Who the greatest Who the richest Who say you ugly and they the goodlookingest Who define art Who define science Who made the bombs Who made the guns Who bought the slaves, who sold them Who called you them names Who say Dahmer wasnīt insane Who? Who? Who? Who stole Puerto Rico Who stole the Indies, the Philippines, Manhattan Australia & The Hebrides Who forced opium on the Chinese Who own them buildings Who got the money Who think you funny Who locked you up Who own the papers Who owned the slave ship Who run the army Who the fake president Who the ruler Who the banker Who? Who? Who? Who own the mine Who twist your mind Who got bread Who need peace Who you think need war Who own the oil Who do no toil Who own the soil Who is not a nigger Who is so great ainīt nobody bigger Who own this city Who own the air Who own the water Who own your crib Who rob and steal and cheat and murder and make lies the truth Who call you uncouth Who live in the biggest house Who do the biggest crime Who go on vacation anytime Who killed the most niggers Who killed the most Jews Who killed the most Italians Who killed the most Irish Who killed the most Africans Who killed the most Japanese Who killed the most Latinos Who? Who? Who? Who own the ocean Who own the airplanes Who own the malls Who own television Who own radio Who own what ainīt even known to be owned Who own the owners that ainīt the real owners Who own the suburbs Who suck the cities Who make the laws Who made Bush president Who believe the confederate flag need to be flying Who talk about democracy and be lying Who the Beast in Revelations Who 666 Who know who decide Jesus get crucified Who the Devil on the real side Who got rich from Armenian genocide Who the biggest terrorist Who change the bible Who killed the most people Who do the most evil Who donīt worry about survival Who have the colonies Who stole the most land Who rule the world Who say they good but only do evil Who the biggest executioner Who? Who? Who? Who own the oil Who want more oil Who told you what you think that later you find out a lie Who? Who? Who? Who found Bin Laden, maybe they Satan Who pay the CIA, Who knew the bomb was gonna blow Who know why the terrorists Learned to fly in Florida, San Diego Who know why Five Israelis was filming the explosion And cracking they sides at the notion Who need fossil fuel when the sun ainīt goinī nowhere Who make the credit cards Who get the biggest tax cut Who walked out of the Conference Against Racism Who killed Malcolm, Kennedy & his Brother Who killed Dr King, Who would want such a thing? Are they linked to the murder of Lincoln? Who invaded Grenada Who made money from apartheid Who keep the Irish a colony Who overthrow Chile and Nicaragua later Who killed David Sibeko, Chris Hani, the same ones who killed Biko, Cabral, Neruda, Allende, Che Guevara, Sandino, Who killed Kabila, the ones who wasted Lumumba, Mondlane, Betty Shabazz, Princess Margaret, Ralph Featherstone, Little Bobby Who locked up Mandela, Dhoruba, Geronimo, Assata, Mumia, Garvey, Dashiell Hammett, Alphaeus Hutton Who killed Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Medgar Evers, Mikey Smith, Walter Rodney, Was it the ones who tried to poison Fidel Who tried to keep the Vietnamese Oppressed Who put a price on Leninīs head Who put the Jews in ovens, and who helped them do it Who said "America First" and okīd the yellow stars Who killed Rosa Luxembourg, Liebneckt Who murdered the Rosenbergs And all the good people iced, tortured, assassinated, vanished Who got rich from Algeria, Libya, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Who cut off peoples hands in the Congo Who invented Aids Who put the germs In the Indiansī blankets Who thought up "The Trail of Tears" Who blew up the Maine & started the Spanish American War Who got Sharon back in Power Who backed Batista, Hitler, Bilbo, Chiang kai Chek Who decided Affirmative Action had to go Reconstruction, The New Deal, The New Frontier, The Great Society, Who do Tom Ass Clarence Work for Who doo doo come out the Colonīs mouth Who know what kind of Skeeza is a Condoleeza Who pay Connelly to be a wooden negro Who give Genius Awards to Homo Locus Subsidere Who overthrew Nkrumah, Bishop, Who poison Robeson, who try to put DuBois in Jail Who frame Rap Jamil al Amin, Who frame the Rosenbergs, Garvey, The Scottsboro Boys, The Hollywood Ten Who set the Reichstag Fire Who knew the World Trade Center was gonna get bombed Who told 4000 Israeli workers at the Twin Towers To stay home that day Why did Sharon stay away? Who? Who? Who? Explosion of Owl the newspaper say The devil face cd be seen Who make money from war Who make dough from fear and lies Who want the world like it is Who want the world to be ruled by imperialism and national oppression and terror violence, and hunger and poverty. Who is the ruler of Hell? Who is the most powerful Who you know ever Seen God? But everybody seen The Devil Like an Owl exploding In your life in your brain in your self Like an Owl who know the devil All night, all day if you listen, Like an Owl Exploding in fire. We hear the questions rise In terrible flame like the whistle of a crazy dog Like the acid vomit of the fire of Hell Who and Who and WHO who who Whoooo and Whooooooooooooooooooooo! ---------------------------------------------------------- In 1934 Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones) was born in the industrial city of Newark, New Jersey. After attending Howard University in Washington, D. C., he served in the United States Air Force. In the late fifties he settled in New York?s Greenwich Village where he was a central figure of that bohemian scene. He became nationally prominent in 1964, with the New York production of his Obie Award-winning play, Dutchman. After the death of Malcolm X he became a Black Nationalist, moving first to Harlem and then back home to Newark. In the mid-1970s, abandoning Cultural Nationalist, he became a Third World Marxist-Leninist. In 1999, after teaching for twenty years in the Department of Africana Studies at SUNY-Stony Brook, he retired. However, in retirement he is as active and productive as an artist and intellectual as he has ever been in his career. Currently he lives with his wife, the poet Amina Baraka, in Newark. More info on Mr Baraka: http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/a_f/baraka/baraka.htm ---------------------------------------------------------- Website: http://www.antibalas.com |