{"id":42909,"date":"2016-11-03T23:12:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-03T22:12:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/two-months-only-after-having-celebrated-its-74-years-bonga-aka-kota-the-wise-man-released-a-new-album-entitled-recados-de-fora-messages-from-elsewhere\/"},"modified":"2020-05-04T23:42:31","modified_gmt":"2020-05-04T22:42:31","slug":"two-months-only-after-having-celebrated-its-74-years-bonga-aka-kota-the-wise-man-released-a-new-album-entitled-recados-de-fora-messages-from-elsewhere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/two-months-only-after-having-celebrated-its-74-years-bonga-aka-kota-the-wise-man-released-a-new-album-entitled-recados-de-fora-messages-from-elsewhere\/","title":{"rendered":"Bonga &#8211; Recados de Fora: a message of emancipation and fraternity across the oceans"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2791 pam-featured-content\"  src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bonga-recados-1-e1478252549358.jpg\" alt=\"Bonga \u00a9 N'Krumah Lawson Daku \/ Lusafrica 2016\" width=\"778\" height=\"371\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bonga-recados-1-e1478252549358.jpg 778w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bonga-recados-1-e1478252549358-759x362.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bonga-recados-1-e1478252549358-661x315.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bonga-recados-1-e1478252549358-465x222.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/bonga-recados-1-e1478252549358-375x179.jpg 375w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>Angolan semba, Cape Verdean morna, Brazilian Nordeste music and Portuguese fado: aged 74, the wiseman Bonga &#8220;Kota&#8221; performs the\u00a0rhythms and melodies he&#8217;s discovered during his never-ending exile and sends a message of emancipation\u00a0and fraternity across the Atlantic ocean, against all odds.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Two months only after having celebrated its 74 years with a stunning concert in his hometown Lisbon, <strong>Bonga<\/strong> aka \u201cKota\u201d (the wise man) released a new album, entitled <\/span><b><i>Recados de Fora<\/i><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (\u201cMessages from elsewhere\u201d) and shows that time can be your best partner when it comes to music. The voice, the melodies and the rhythms of the Angolan-born artist only get better with the years, like a stew tastes better the next day.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LUwS9Ntb6mc\" width=\"560\" height=\"100\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But sometimes food may taste bitter : <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThere&#8217;s kipico, there&#8217;s kibeba \/ There&#8217;s kanjika, there&#8217;s kizaka\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, sings Bonga in the song <\/span><b>\u201cRecados de Fora\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, listing four of the national traditional dishes, before admitting <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhat I ate was enough for me\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. It\u2019s a warning \u201cmessage from abroad\u201d addressed to the Angolan people who\u2019d better be wary of the shenanigans of the wealthy class rather than putting too much food on the table, or criticizing their own poor neighbours:\u00a0<i>\u201c<\/i><\/span><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don\u2019t scold somebody else\u2019s child \/ If yours is worse. \/ Don\u2019t eat from the pot \/ If you can\u2019t cook\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is Bonga a marxist singer then? He may not be an ideologist, but he\u2019s always been a true advocate of the class war idea that the oppressed should unite under the same interests.\u00a0<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cSons of Angola \/ Break out of your lethargy\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, he sings in <\/span><b>\u201cAnangola\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and goes on with:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Angolans<br \/>\nGet to your feet<br \/>\nAnd look around you<br \/>\nSing more about your real world.<br \/>\nSome people run away<br \/>\nSome people weep<br \/>\nOthers are in prison<br \/>\nBecause they spoke out.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in <\/span><b>\u201cNgo Kuivu\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (\u201cI Understood\u201d), here referring to the 17 young members\u00a0of the Revolutionary Movement for Angola who were jailed for \u201crebellion against the president of the republic and criminal association\u201d. Their crime? Together they discussed together the book \u201cTools to Destroy a Dictatorship and Avoiding a New Dictatorship\u201d, whose author promotes non-violent means to change the system. Indeed, 41 years after Angola gained independence, there is still a lot to be done regarding political and social matters, and Bonga\u2019s gravelly voice will not stop denouncing the abuse of power coming from a dictatorship that dare not speak its name.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>IT\u2019S A WARNING \u201cMESSAGE FROM ABROAD\u201d ADDRESSED TO THE ANGOLAN PEOPLE WHO\u2019D BETTER BE WARY OF THE SHENANIGANS OF THE WEALTHY CLASS RATHER THAN PUTTING TOO MUCH FOOD ON THE TABLE, OR CRITICIZING THEIR OWN POOR NEIGHBOURS.<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cI should tell you \/ That everyone must be at its right place abroad. \/ While the privileged are coming here too \/ The poor will suffer everywhere\u201d<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> he sings in <\/span><b>\u201cMarikota\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a semba whose upbeat music contrasts with the violent lyrics, relating a woman\u2019s departure to Lisboa. She tries to flee the misery and violence she\u2019s been enduring in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">musseque<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the Angolan suburban slums where she lives. Not only does Bonga tries to show support to his fellow countrymen and women who live in his birthland, he also warns them against the dangers of an exile abroad, a dream many Angolan still cherish nowadays. He himself had to put up with exile in 1966 when the Portuguese secret police (PIDE) realized that the young 400 metres champion Jose\u0301 Adelino Barcelo de Carvalho who was bearing the Portuguese colours during the international athletics competitions, was the same person as Bonga Kuenda, the Angolan independence activist who helped building a network of revolutionaries abroad during his official travels as an athlete. He was forced to leave Portugal, and has since kept on helping the oppressed people through his emotional voice and the dikanza, a cylindrical body made of bamboo or wood rubbed with a wooden stick, that he plays with virtuosity, an instrument that stood as an anti-colonialist symbol.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ZeM3mg_HOA4\" width=\"560\" height=\"100\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dikanza, ungu\u00e9, puita, accordion&#8230; the instruments of the semba and rebita are everywhere on this record except on the rather surprising rendition of Z\u00e9 do Norte\u2019s classic tune \u201cSodade Meu Bem, Sodade\u201d that the Brazilian composer wrote when he was 11! After having been quoted by Caetano Veloso in \u201cIt\u2019s a Long Way\u201d (\u201cTransa\u201d LP) and by Maria Beth\u00e2nia (\u201cOlho d\u2019\u00c1gua\u201d LP), and then covered by Nana Caymmi (\u201cRenascer\u201d LP), the love song finds a new setting 50 years later, on the other side of the Atlantic with Bonga\u2019s rendition. \u201cSilence! Fado will be sung now!\u201d, as they shout in Lisbon: the Portuguese guitar and the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">viola<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> first frame the song in the genre popularized by Am\u00e1lia Rodrigues, but when Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora\u2019s close friend starts to sing, it immediately reminds that morna and fado share the same African roots. No need for a musicologist explanation here: this 4-minute musical argumentation is enough.<\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>PRECISELY, \u201cWORLDWIDE MUSIC\u201d WOULD BEST DESCRIBE BONGA\u2019S WORK, OFFERING AN ALTERNATIVE SOURCE OF INFORMATION FOR ANGOLAN PEOPLE, A PRISM FOR IDENTITY\u00a0UNDERSTANDING FOR AFRICAN CULTURES SPREAD OVER THE WORLD, AND A BRIDGE OF RECONCILIATION BETWEEN AFRICA AND THE WESTERN WORLD.<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The festive feeling is not missing, even though most of the topics are serious considerations about post-colonial life in Angola (<\/span><b>\u201c\u00c1gua Raz\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about the miserable life in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">musseque<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">; <\/span><b>\u201cEspalha\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about the opulence shown by the wealth during the popular festivities; <\/span><b>\u201cOutros Tempos\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about a nostalgic traditional Angola that still can be found despite the modern post-colonial storytelling and reality; <\/span><b>\u201cNgo Kuivu\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>\u201cRecados de Fora\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>\u201cAnangola\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>\u201cMarikota\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, already mentioned). Thus, there is still room for party (<\/span><b>\u201cTonokenu\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, an ode to the Angolan way for music and dance), and love (<\/span><b>\u201cOdji Maguado\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, a cover of a morna song penned by Cape Verde\u2019s most talented and prolific composer B.Leza in the \u201850s, and previously recorded by Bonga in 1994 and by Ces\u00e1ria \u00c9vora in 1990).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Xbq1bsdUJug\" width=\"560\" height=\"100\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Humanist to the bone, the globetrotter must have met at least as many passionate people as the number of songs he wrote on the 32 albums he has recorded in the course of a 44-year long career. Amongst them was the late R\u00e9my Kolpa Kopoul, a tireless music lover, journalist, radio host, and DJ who died last year. <\/span><b>\u201cBanza Remy\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (\u201cA thought for Remy\u201d) is Bonga\u2019s tribute to a friend, but also to one of his very first supports and to a pro-active promoter of the African diaspora music from Caribe, West Indies&#8230; years before the discriminatory term \u201cworld music\u201d was invented.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Precisely, \u201cworldwide music\u201d would best describe Bonga\u2019s work, offering an alternative source of information for Angolan people, an common identity prism for African cultures spread over the world, and a bridge of reconciliation between Africa and the Western world. And the whole thing is wrapped into a beautifully crafted artwork that still promotes emancipation\u00a0and fraternity across the Atlantic ocean, against all odds.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"m_-3055226624509316246gmail-p1\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>LISTEN TO THE ALBUM AND FOLLOW OUR PLAYLIST &#8220;ALBUM OF THE WEEK&#8221; ON\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/panafricanmusic\/playlist\/1iT7LYG9lXf839ZfiaPeqy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">SPOTIFY<\/a>\u00a0&amp;\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.deezer.com\/playlist\/1867419722\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">DEEZER<\/a><\/strong><strong style=\"font-size: 18px; text-align: justify;\">\u00a0!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/user\/panafricanmusic\/playlist\/1iT7LYG9lXf839ZfiaPeqy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-328\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green.png\" alt=\"Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green.png 709w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-661x661.png 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-465x465.png 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-375x375.png 375w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-200x200.png 200w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-85x85.png 85w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Spotify_Icon_CMYK_Green-73x73.png 73w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\u00a0\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.deezer.com\/playlist\/1867419722\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-347\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer.png\" alt=\"Deezer\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer.png 512w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer-100x100.png 100w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer-465x465.png 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer-375x375.png 375w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer-200x200.png 200w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer-85x85.png 85w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/Deezer-73x73.png 73w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Bonga &#8211; Recados de Fora, release 4th november 2016 on <a href=\"http:\/\/hyperurl.co\/hzs0qv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lusafrica<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_2794\" style=\"width: 1510px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2794\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2794\" src=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora.jpg\" alt=\"Bonga \u00a9 N'Krumah Lawson Daku 2016\" width=\"1500\" height=\"1500\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-759x759.jpg 759w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-1010x1010.jpg 1010w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-100x100.jpg 100w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-1440x1440.jpg 1440w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-661x661.jpg 661w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-465x465.jpg 465w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-375x375.jpg 375w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-200x200.jpg 200w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-85x85.jpg 85w, https:\/\/pan-african-music-production.fra1.digitaloceanspaces.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/562752_Bonga_RecadosDeFora-73x73.jpg 73w\" sizes=\"(min-width:1010px) 759px,100vw\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-2794\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bonga \u00a9 N&#8217;Krumah Lawson Daku 2016<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two months only after having celebrated its 74 years, Bonga aka \u201cKota\u201d (the wise man) released a new album, entitled Recados de Fora (\u201cMessages from elsewhere\u201d).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":2791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11036,9373],"tags":[4499,6071],"location":[7854],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42909"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42909"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=42909"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=42909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}