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REVIEWS & CULTURE Socialist Worker 1 April 2020
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What to watch and listen to MANU DIBANGO
OBITUARY

1933-2020

when you are on lockdown MANU Dibango’s saxophone
driven mix of jazz, funk
and Cameroonian call and
response verses helped
put Africa at the centre of
European pop in the early
1970s.
Born in the city of Douala
in 1933, at 15 Manu was sent
Feeling starved of culture now everything is closed? Don’t worry, there’s plenty to Europe to study classical
piano in Paris. But he was
online. Socialist Worker has had a look at some things you may have missed drawn to jazz, and he began
playing saxophone in the
early l950s.
By the late 1960s he was
YOU’VE BEEN stuck in the house looking at ways of branching
for over a week. Home working isn’t out and reaching new
all it’s cracked up to be. You’ve run audiences.
out of excuses to go to the shops. In 1972, long before the
And you’ve already had your state term “world music” gained
sanctioned daily exercise. its unfortunate currency,
Socialist Worker culture page is
here to help.
Why not watch a documentary?
The BBC iplayer is a treasure trove
of those—and it’s got some hidden
old gems from decades past.
Heart of the Angel follows
48 hours in the life of those working
in London’s Angel tube station in
1989. Or for more past city life We
Live by the River, first shown in
1955, follows two boys from south
east London on a day out around the
post-war city.
If that’s a bit London-centric there’s
also The Colony, a 1964 film about Manu set out to ‘blow minds’
the lives of migrant workers from the
Caribbean living in Birmingham. Manu’s song Soul Makossa
Waiting for Work shows the lives was tearing up dancefloors
of unemployed people in 1960s across the world.
Hartlepool. And 1959’s Morning in It was a statement of
the Streets is simply “an impres- confidence, an echo from
sion of life and opinion in the back post-independence Africa,
streets of a northern city in the and it connected to both
morning”—Liverpool. black and white dancers.
For contemporary documentaries, SNOWPIERCER IS a class struggle sci-fi film available on Netflix And, as a hybrid form
there’s also One Day in Gaza. It’s a that mixed African and
documentary about Israel’s May 2018 Dilma Rousseff, and the rise of far from the back of the train fight to get YouTube and Facebook pages every European styles, it laid down
massacre of Palestinian protesters right Jair Bolsonaro. to the front and spread the wealth Friday from 7pm. And the National a challenge to notions of
that claims to look at “both sides.” But there are plenty of films and around. Theatre will stream plays from its Western cultural superiority.
Leo—Becoming a Trans Man fol- dramas you might not have seen as Or there’s Blindspotting, a dark YouTube channel every Thursday, His stuttered sax lines
lows a 15 year old as he transitions well. After the huge success of direc- comedy drama about a man trying to also from 7pm. answered chanted vocals and
gender. And Alt-Right—Age of Rage tor Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite in cinemas make it through his last three days of Socialist Worker will try to keep was close to the funk sound
is an exposure of the far right in the this year, many people discovered his probation when he witnesses a police producing a culture page throughout of black America, but with an
US, culminating in Charlottesville. sci-fi action film Snowpiercer. shooting. the coronavirus outbreak. We’ll identity all of its own.
If you pay for Netflix, there are An entire class society is contained If it’s not film you want, plenty of do our best to keep reviewing new Manu’s rhythms were a
some decent looking documentaries within one perpetually-moving train bands and performers are offering stuff—books, music, TV. precursor to what would
there too. One of them, The Edge after a climate change disaster wiped free online gigs. But some weeks we might just become known as disco and
of Democracy, follows the fall of out the rest of humanity. The Royal Opera House is stream- enjoy digging through what’s availa- were soon incorporated by
Brazil’s former presidents Lula and A group of lower class citizens ing free operas and ballets from its ble and telling you what we’ve found. the New York DJs that were
pioneering the scene.
Fun night of performance direct to your living room to advance African music,
Keen to use his new fame
Manu toured with a mixture
of established and up and
POETRY poems, including extracts first gig included long train journeys. coming artists, and created
Her shorter poems are
from her forthcoming book
Bricks, a reflection on
a thirst for music beyond
HOLLIE MCNISH Slug, out in February next a conversation with sprinkled throughout. boundaries.
On Facebook Live at year. her grandma on sexual Shoulders celebrates When Bob Geldoff and his
holliepoetry, Thursday She’s also performing pleasure and how McNish’s love for her Band Aid pop star friends
2 April from 9pm. On her support acts’ poems— “sexiness is explained the favourite body part. appointed themselves
Instagram Live @holliepoetry, and “drinking their wine”. same way day after day It’s a reminder of how saviours of Africa, Manu was
Thursday 9 April from 9pm McNish’s first gig featured after day.” important it is to celebrate quick to smell a rat.
pieces from Vanessa And in a time when it the parts of ourselves that Why were no Africans in
POET AND spoken word Kisuule and started with might be challenging to we really like. his celebrity line up? Why
artist Hollie McNish has her poem Not Worth explain the news to kids, McNish shines in her was the Live Aid concert so
had to postpone her Shaving Your Arsehole For. McNish shares her own delivery. Her chatty, white, he asked.
spring tour. It’s a good opener for a experience of talking to straightforward, often To counter the problem
Luckily, she is fun hour. her daughter about David hilarious style will light Manu helped organise an
performing three gigs If you’re already a fan, Cameron’s “pig incident”. up your living room. And all-Africa supergroup around
from her living room. It’s you’ll be pleased to see McNish reflects common you’ve got full permission the single Tam Tam Pour
a perfect chance to get to McNish performing old feelings about the world from the performer to wear l’Ethiopie.
know or revisit her work. favourites on sexuality and as it stands currently, what you want: “fancy, Manu’s brilliant career
The shows will weave motherhood. lamenting restrictions on pyjamas or nude”. was itself a challenge to the
old material with new Stand-outs in the Hollie McNish live at home hugging our friends and Siobhan Brown racism of the music industry.