Uneven Development: Listening to the 'South', Listening to Vancouver

Amadou Et Mariam & Manu Chao – Senegal Fast Food Apr 20, 2009 – 04:19 (Lyrics Language: French) Amadou & Mariam Sénégal fast-food Lyrics: C’est au Mahattan fast-food Dakar Sénégal cinéma le Paris, Demain je serais parti, La gare Dakar, Bamako Mopti Y’a pas …

The video that I have posted is a music video of the song “Senegal Fast Food” by Amadou and Miriam in collaboration with Manu Chao. Included in the following is the English translation of the lyrics, as well as a short bio of the couple as found on their own website:

Sénégal Fast-Food

It’s at Manhattan fast food’s
Dakar, Senegal, cinema le Paris
Tomorrow I would be gone
The Bamako Mopti station
There is no problem…all is well
Today I am getting married, I have confidence
Amoul solo, Gao, Algeria, Tunisia, Italy
There is no problem, I love!
At Manhattan fast food’s
Dakar, Senegal, cinema le Paris
Elevator for the ghetto
It is midnight in Tokyo
It is five o’clock in Mali
What time is it in paradise?
We who leave our countries

May the children of the country not forget us
We who are in this thing
This thing that none of us would know how to name it
We who are in faraway countries
May the children of the country not forget us
It is midnight in Tokyo, it is five o’clock in Mali
What time is it in paradise?
Dakar, Bamako, Rio de Janeiro
Where is the problem? Where is the border?
Between the walls, thread one’s way
In the elevator for the ghetto

Short Bio:

It’s now 28 years since Amadou Bagayoko and Mariam Doumbia  met in Mali and started  making music together. Mariam had grown up singing at weddings and traditional festivals while the teenaged Amadou had cut his teeth as a guitarist in Les Ambassadeurs, one of West Africa’s hottest and most legendary bands. Both are blind and they met in 1977 at the Institute for the Blind in Bamako (capital of Mali), where they were both studying Braille and found themselves  performing together in the institute’s Eclipse Orchestra. They married in 1980, the same year they played their first official concert together as a duo.

Summary:

The lyrics of “Senegal Fast-Food” are slightly abstract and ambiguous but it seems to be talking about the international movement of people, how difficult it is for people from countries like Senegal to leave, and once they have arrived, the difficulties that they face. This touches on a subject that is often overlooked in the discussion of little “d” development, which is the problem of human mobility in an increasingly globalized world. Ideally the opening of borders promoted by development would allow people to freely move between borders, but the reality is that countries of the global North continue to discriminate against immigrants from the global South mostly based on income, skill and health. Connecting this issue of human mobility with uneven development, a pattern emerges where people of relatively higher income and education from the global South enter countries of the global North, while people most desperate for the opportunities in the global North are denied access. While this is certainly a oversimplified statement of the reality of the situation, it is undeniable that this form of human mobility does more harm than good for people of the global South as the people with wealth and education are being drawn out of the country where it is most needed. I personally do not speak French, nor do I have a deep understanding of West African culture, so being able to see the video adds another layer of meaning to their music for me because it contains messages that might have been lost in translation or cultural context.

Comment:

I have posted a video by Amadou and Miriam because I believe their music represents a more holistic voice of the global South, as well, they are interesting subjects for analyzing the definitions of “sub-altern”.  I feel their album “Dimanche a Bamako” is holistic in the sense that there is a balance between the messages of struggle and demand for political justice as well as a celebration of life and culture in Mali. I could not find a video for the song “Politic Amagni” but it is a strong example of the political aspects of their album as one can see from the lyrics;

Politics requires blood, tears
Ignorance, lies
Lives and votes
This is why, my friend, it is evidence
Politics is violence
Politics is not good
Politics is not good
Politicians, listen to us
Politicians, when doing politics
Remove from it theft and corruption
Remove from it lies and hollow words
Remove from it conflicts and crimes
Politicians, listen to us
We do not want demagogy
We do not want corruption
We do not want exactions
We want honest men
We want upright men
We want happiness for everybody
We want peace for everybody
Politicians, listen to us …

Not only is this song a response to the actions of the Malian government, but it is important to note in the last line, that it is a call to be heard. In contrast to these strong political messages, there are also songs of celebration such as “La Fete au Village” which is about a girl getting ready for the party in the village, and “Beaux Dimanches” which is about weddings on Sundays in Bamako, the capital of Mali. Thus, I think their album is an important reminder that the voice of the global South is not just about the negative issues, as important as they are for the global North to hear, but also of pride and celebration of their culture and the positive aspects of their lives.

From face value, Amadou and Miriam certainly seem to represent the sub-altern voice, as they are blind and Malian. I certainly do not want to undermine the struggle the two must have had to endure in order for their music to become the success that it is, but I think it is also important not to romanticize their story. The pair were able to attend the Bamako Institute for the Young Blind in a country that is ranked 178 out of 182 in the UN’s Human Development Index report of 2007.  While I was not able to gather information on the financial background from which they were raised, I would assume that they were well-off enough to be able to afford an education in music. Certainly it would be too simplistic to associate wealth with the power of discourse, as other factors such as identity and physical disabilities also create barriers for communication, but I believe it is an important point to consider when assuming that Amadou and Miriam are voices of the sub-altern.

In considering whether their message can truly be heard, several factors need to be considered. The first factor, and possibly the most important is the issue of language. In an interview with Radio France Internationale, Amadou and Miriam said that they still write all their songs in their native Bambara and then translate them after into French. For an English speaker such as myself the translations from Bambara to French and finally to English undoubtedly alters the original meaning of the lyrics as language is very culturally specific and translations are often conducted by a third-party. Furthermore, it is also important to remember that this album was produced in collaboration with Manu Chao, who definitely had an influence in the content as well as the sound of the songs. In addition, Amadou and Miriam are both blind, therefore one needs to question the control they were able to exercise over the content of the video. Despite the multiple obstacles Amadou and Miriam face in delivering their intended message, I think that their music is a still a important voice of the global South because of the message they drive to deliver of “love, peace and justice” (quoted from an interview from Radio France Internationale) and their ability to reach a wide audience with their great tunes.