Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post provides a re-print of an online transcript of a 2012 (United States) National Public Radio (NPR) show about Angola's kuduro music.
The two videos that were embedded in that NPR article are included in this pancocojams post.
The Addendum to this post presents some information about Coréon Dú, an Angolan artist, creative director and producer who put together the Os Kuduristas project to introduce the music to audiences beyond Angola and who is quoted in that NPR show.
The content of this post is presented for historical and cultural information.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to Coréon Dú for his cultural legacy. Thanks also to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
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Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/04/costuleta-tchiriri-kuduro-and-two-other.html for a pancocojams post entitled "Costuleta - "Tchiriri Kuduro" And Two Other Videos Of Angolan Kuduro Music/Dancing". Also, click the "kuduro" tag below for other pancocojams posts about kuduro dancing.
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REPRINT OF 2012 NPR RADIO SHOW
From https://www.npr.org/sections/therecord/2012/12/26/167628341/kuduro-the-dance-that-keeps-angola-going 'Kuduro,' The Dance That Keeps Angola Going
December 22, 2012
Heard on Weekend Edition Saturday
Anastasia Tsioulcas
[The original article includes a link for the 6 minute audio of this radio show and two Os Kuduristas YouTube videos.]
"Kuduro is the infectious, pulsating music and dance that races along at about 140 beats per minute. It's the sound that moves the southwestern African country of Angola. A group called Os Kuduristas — "the kuduro ones" — has been bringing kuduro to clubs and spaces across the globe, including Paris, Amsterdam and, most recently, New York and Washington, D.C. But their story is complicated.
Singer M.I.A. has worked with a kuduro -inspired crew. And reggaeton star Don Omar had an international hit with Lucenzo with a song called "Kuduro Danza".
So what exactly is kuduro? Choreographer Manuel Kanza, who goes by his last name and who has been traveling the world with Os Kuduristas, says it's all about the dance. "It's inspired by so many things around our environment, our world," Kanza says. "Anything can make a kuduro move. For example, we also imitate the movement of a frog, the movement of animals, the marching of soldiers. Everything can make a movement."
It's also music of the streets that spreads virally, says Marissa Moorman, a professor of African history at Indiana University who specializes in this style. "It's sort of everywhere. It's played very widely on what are called candongueiros, which are these collective taxis, essentially, which are maybe 12- or 15-seater vans. It's the most common form of transportation [in the capital Luanda]," she says. "Even though the radio station will play some kuduro, most kuduro is produced in studios in the musseques, which are shantytowns. So most artists will produce in the museq studios and then hand out copies of their CDs to candongueiro drivers and get them to play it in order to popularize it and promote it."
Kuduro is party music, the kind you'd find in clubs anywhere in the world. But it has a deeper meaning in Angola, a country still scarred by a 22-year civil war that just ended only a decade ago.
"You know, when kuduro started, we were a country at war, and our young people and even our older generation was trying to make their kids, children, nieces and nephews and neighbors, etc., feel comfortable and try to transmit, however possible, a sense of normalcy," says a producer and musician who goes by the name of Coréon Dú. He put the Os Kuduristas project together to introduce the music to audiences beyond Angola. "Kuduro was more a celebration of being alive," he adds, "because we did have our family members were in the army, or lost a leg in a land mine, or something like that, but we wanted to focus on the positive."
Coréon Dú might well want to focus on the positive. His real name is Jose Eduardo Paulino dos Santos. It's one of the most famous last names in Africa. He's the son of Angola's president, Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in power for 32 years.
"I don't focus on that," says Coréon Dú, "and, very honestly, it has no impact. It seems like I came from a privileged background, but that's not really the case."
He'd like to be known best as a musician and producer. But a lot of what goes on in Angola is a family affair: Coréon Dú produces much of the programming that runs on TPA 2, the television channel run by his sister. Another brother runs a $5 billion sovereign wealth fund on behalf of the nation.
Angola is the second-largest oil producer in Africa and one of the world's biggest diamond producers; rent on a two-bedroom luxury apartment in Luanda averages $7,000 per month. Yet 80 percent of people living in Luanda live in shantytowns. And most earn less than $2 a day.
Professor Moorman says average Angolans are no better off today than they were 10 years ago. She adds that kuduro reflects what Angolans have endured.
"You can't separate its beginnings from politics," Moorman says, "from this history of the civil war and the ways in which the violence of that war was played out very particularly on the bodies of young men, right? Young men were recruited both by the state and by the rebel forces to fight in the war. I think it's not actually a story of victimization. It's a story of triumph over bone-crushing conditions, essentially."
Choreographer Kanza says kuduro dance transforms these sorrows into something else. "What we do is like trying to have fun out of something that is really serious," he observes. "For example, in the time of war, people would imitate the crippled man walking — so, taking that movement of the crippled person into a movement of dance. Like coming from the dead!"
As a result of the civil war, the median age in Angola is now less than 18 years old — and producer Coréon Dú says those young people are kuduro's main audience.
"Kuduro really is, I would say, the energy of this specific generation, the generation that was born I'd say especially between the mid- to late 1980s and right now," he asserts. "And it's still that sort of really vibrant energy that really reflects the current Angola."
Coréon Dú's love for kuduro seems genuine enough, but you can't help but wonder how much of his recent tour helps the government rebrand itself for international consumption — and how much of his support for the music helps keep a very young Angola loyal to his father.”
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Here's excerpts from the Wikipedia page for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Eduardo_dos_Santos
"José Eduardo dos Santos... born 28 August 1942)[2] is an Angolan politician who served as President of Angola from 1979 to 2017. As President, José Eduardo dos Santos was also the commander in chief of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and President of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), the party that has ruled Angola since it gained independence in 1975.[3] He was the second-longest-serving president in Africa, surpassed only by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, who took power less than two months before dos Santos.
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Dos Santos has been accused of leading one of the most corrupt regimes in Africa by ignoring the economic and social needs of Angola and focusing his efforts on amassing wealth for his family and silencing his opposition, while nearly 70% of the population lives on less than $2 a day.[34]"...
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According to his Wikipedia page, Coréon Dú, one of sons of former Angolan President José Eduardo dos Santos, was raised in Angola, in Portugal, and in the United States. He returned to Angola as an adult. Read the Addendum to this post with particular attention to this quote: "Coréon has been very vocal over the years about how being related to people with political careers has negatively affected his career both in and out of Angola."...
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
[These videos were embedded in that 2012 NPR transcript about Angola's Kudoro.]
Video #1: Os Kuduristas EPK
oskuduristas, Sep 9, 2012
Born of Angolan renaissance in the Information Age, Kuduro, which means 'Hard Ass,' is the cultural expression of a new international and post-war generation. Os Kuduristas, a global initiative designed to introduce Kuduro internationally, is bringing Kuduro's powerful form of expression to Paris, Amsterdam and New York through interactive events and programs in September and October, 2012.
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Video #2: BEST OF BATTLES
oskuduristas, Oct 4, 2012
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ADDENDUM -INFORMATION OF COREON DU
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cor%C3%A9on_D%C3%BA for information about Coréon Dú
"José Eduardo Paulino dos Santos (born September 28, 1984) better known by his stage name Coréon Dú, is a multilingual Angolan artist, creative director and producer.[1] He is known for his distinct musical style, bold fashion choices and his contributions to projects inspired by Angolan Pop culture in the realms of music, dance, fashion, TV and film.[2]
Coréon Dú was born in Luanda, Angola, to Maria Luisa Perdigão Abrantes and José Eduardo dos Santos.[5] He spent the first years of his childhood in Luanda, Angola. A few years after his parent's separation, Coréon moved to Lisbon, Portugal and began living with his maternal grandparents at the age of 8. Coréon later moved to the U.S. to be educated. At the age of 11 he moved with his mother to Northern Virginia near Washington D.C.. While in middle school, he found his voice and began to pursue singing. During high school he became a soloist in the school choir, and developed a keen interest for musical theatre.
Coréon continued to perform in choirs during his time at Loyola University went on to gain a BA in Mass Communications. In 2010 he pursued a master's degree in Dance Theatre: The Body in Performance from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London.[6]
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Coréon has been very vocal over the years about how being related to people with political careers has negatively affected his career both in and out of Angola. He also recounts that most Angolan radio stations and DJs in his home country refuse to play his music, and most major concert promoters refuse to book him for shows. He only started gained visibility mainly through catchy songs that became favorites of Luanda taxi drivers and music pirates, and innovative music video concepts.
Though most speculated Coréon Dú was referring to independent or opposition owned media, Coréon was also referring to state-owned media as well as private mainstream media and professionals. Independent radio professionals and even DJs at Radio Despertar owned by one of Angola's large opposition parties have been claimed to be early supporters of Coréon's music in their airwaves. Mainstream music media only started following as direct fan demand for his work grows over the years.[99][100][101]
Allegations of nepotism have surrounded Semba's success as a TV production company, and many other aspects his family's involvement in Angolan public business and politics.[102][103]
He has also come under fire by Angolan media religious groups and political groups for the inclusion of LGBT talent and issues in the TV shows produced by Semba Comunicação
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After public dismay of the new programming and cancellation of some favourite television shows in January 2018 the Angolan Government's new leadership tried to save face and approval ratings by throwing Coréon and his company under the bus. The company responded with a public statement clarifying its role and even how much it was earning for its content services in comparison to the publicly published yearly national television budget ( Semba produced most of the entertainment and promotional content for two of the three TPA channels reportedly charging under fees approximating only one-fifth of the budget spent on the main TPA channel
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Nearly a year after Semba's content was taken of the air by their former client, a new market study has shown that TPA 2 had dropped from being in a leading position amongst viewers in primetime slots to the now being one of least viewed according to the market study reflecting the last quarter of 2018."...
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