Wednesday, January 26, 2005  

Yvonne Chaka Chaka
"Umqombothi (African Beer)"
Hotel Rwanda soundtrack
(Commotion, 2004; rec. 1993)

Last year I had the pleasure of seeing Yvonne Chaka Chaka sing at an outdoor festival in the Gauteng province of South Africa. The crowd went nuts when the Princess of Africa hit the stage; even Thulisile, our hilariously outspoken guide, unfolded her arms and started shakin' it to be breakin' it. Granted, I don't remember much of Chaka Chaka's actual performance because of too much "African beer" (actually, it was too many Norwegian Hansas), and because we were too busy droppin' legs in a big circle of peeps we had just met but felt like we had known for years. The evening was my favorite among the eight I spent in South Africa because we took to heart what Chaka Chaka sings on "Umqombothi": "Everybody, let's boogie together."

Awkward transition time: In 1994 people didn't boogie together in Rwanda.

Hotel Rwanda is an amazing film, and while I don't usually care about awards or awards shows, I wish this flick had been nominated for best picture by the Oscars because it would have stimulated more interest in the project. I haven't been so emotionally battered from a movie since The Pianist---another story about genocide, whose characters ask, as they do in Hotel Rwanda, "Don't worry, the world will come soon. How can it ignore what's going on here?"

Read more about what happened in Rwanda:
>We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will be Killed With Our Families: Stories From Rwanda
by Philip Gourevitch
>Shake Hands With the Devil: The Failure of Humanity in Rwanda
by Romeo A. Dallaire
>Various titles

Buy Yvonne Chaka Chaka CDs from Stern's Music.
Buy the Hotel Rwanda soundtrack from Amazon or iTunes.

Posted by CP | Link |

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