African Reggae

Lucky DubeFoto: Press kit

A short history of African reggae, from its roots to the present day. As well as classic and contemporary reggae from around the continent, there's some reggae-influenced Afropop, and a look at reggae's influence on African hip hop.

In 1980, Bob Marley arrived in the newly independent Zimbabwe to play a concert celebrating the country's independence. It was something like the Beatles' 1962 arrival in New York: an event that changed the musical game for a whole continent. 

Marley's outspoken religious and political beliefs - Rastafarianism, Afrocentrism, anticolonialism - were incendiary enough in his native Jamaica, but they gained a whole new dimension when transplanted back to the motherland. The years following Marley's Zimbabwe concert saw the continent-wide emergence of a cultural phenomenon that had previously been known only in Ethiopia: the African Rastafarian. 

Alpha BlondyFoto: Press kit

One of the first to hear the call was Lucky Dube, a Zulu singer in South Africa. Lucky Dube was a mbaqanga musician, making Zulu dance music, but In the post-Marley years he discovered reggae, embraced Rastafarianism, and soon became a star across southern Africa. Meanwhile in West Africa, a different story was unfolding. Seydou Koné returned home to Cote d'Ivoire after living in New York, where he had discovered Jamaican reggae and Rastafarianism. Back home, he took on a new name - Alpha Blondy - and became the first of many reasons that Cote d'Ivoire is hailed as the heartland of African reggae. Independently of each other, in the mid-'80s Lucky Dube and Alpha Blondy established African reggae as a continent-wide musical movement.

[Correction: since broadcasting this show, it's been pointed out to me that another extremely important influence on the development of African reggae was Peter Tosh's 1983 concert in Swaziland. Apologies for the omission, and respect to the Steppin' Razor!] 

However, there was African reggae even before these two giants emerged. Arguably the first such album was recorded not in Africa but in Jamaica: for this story, we have to go back to 1977 and the strange legend of Kalo Kawongola and Seke Molenga. These two Congolese musicians travelled to Jamaica to make their fortunes, but without success. Hungry and broke, they arrived at the house of Lee "Scratch" Perry, the legendary Jamaican dub producer. Perry decided that Jah himself had sent these men to his door, so that they could invent a new African-Jamaican music together. Perry's conclusion might or might not have been ganja-influenced, but, like many of his unusual ideas, it worked brilliantly. Together with Perry's house band The Upsetters they recorded a set of songs which defies categorisation, except insofar as we can say that it's definitely Congolese, and definitely Lee "Scratch" Perry dub. The sessions are presently available on a Trojan Records release. 

While on early African reggae, we return to a recurring Friday Ripple favourite: multiracial South African punk-reggae dissidents National Wake. There'll be more on this in next week's show, when we repeat last year's South African punk documentary special "Waking The Nation". Also included in this week's show is a 1983 track from National Wake offshoot Dread Warriors. 

Tiken Jah FakolyFoto: Press kit

Moving on to the present day, African reggae 's biggest contemporary superstar is the fiery Tiken Jah Fakoly. Exiled from his native Cote d'Ivoire, banned from Senegal following his public criticism of the Sengalese government, Fakoly now lives in Mali. There's an enormous amount of great reggae happening all over the African continent right now, and the Friday Ripple picks some highlights - like Zimbabwe's Rantoboko, South Africa's Zoro, Sierra Leone's Khady Black and Mauritania's Paco Lenol. 

But this isn't just a reggae session. There's also a couple of Bob Marley covers from Senegalese pop chanteuses Viviane N'Dour and Titi, and, towards the end of the show, hip hop; lots of hip hop. Regular listeners will have noticed that African hip hop often has a much bigger reggae influence than hip hop from other parts of the world. Hopefully this week's show explains why. 

The full show is streaming on the Radio Wave Jukebox under Friday Ripple > 29.1.2010. The playlist looks like this: 

Bob Marley - Zimbabwe (Island)
Lucky Dube - Rastas Never Die (Gallo)
Lucky Dube - Prisoner (Gallo)
Alpha Blondy - Apartheid is Nazism (EMI)
Alpha Blondy - Cocody Rock (remix feat Neg'Marrons) (EMI)
Kalo Kawongola, Seke Molenga & Lee "Scratch" Perry - Bad Food (Trojan)
National Wake - Walk In Africa (Rhythm)
Dread Warriors - Dread Warriors (Gallo)
Tiken Jah Fakoly - Quitte le Pouvoir (Barclay)
Tiken Jah Fakoly - Deliverance (Barclay)
Rantoboko - War! (JuJu)
Khady Black - Mr Government (Supreme Management)
Vivian N'Dour feat. Frankie Paul - Lively Up Yourself (Jololi)
Titi - Tayoumako (Jololi)
Zoro - Jabulani (Putumayo)
Paco Lenol - Allah (self-released)
Nutty & Wharley - Give Me A Chance (Out Here)
Black Noise - Africa Could You Be Loved (Cape Flats Uprising)
Terry Bonchaka - Lomna Va (Out Here Records)
Alpha Blondie & Mokobe - Travailler C'est Trop Dur (EMI)
Tata Pound feat. Tiken Jah Fakoly - Deliverance (Survie)
H20 feat. Zubz - African (Out Here)
Positive Black Soul - Boul Fale (remix) (World Music Network)
Makkan J - Reupeutal (Bois Sakre)
Teba - 'sassination (African Dope)
J.Period & K'naan - Stir It Up (Messengers mix) (self-released)