Spirit of Angola: Granular

Blog August 22, 2012

Hip Deep co-founder and senior correspondent <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?store=allproducts&keyword=%22ned+sublette%22">Ned Sublette</a> recently completed a three-week stay in Angola, and is in production on Afropop Worldwide's Hip Deep Angola series, slated to air beginning in September. SPIRIT OF ANGOLA is part of that project -- a blog series that illustrates his experiences visiting Angola’s capital city of Luanda and, in the north of the country, Mbanza-Kongo, epicenter of the historic Kongo culture and religion. ______________________________________________________________________ In Luanda, you have to go granular. Here’s what I mean. <a href="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2012/08/001-Big-Brother-Popula-camera-orig.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-4563" title="001 Big Brother Popula camera orig" src="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2012/08/001-Big-Brother-Popula-camera-orig-1024x700.jpg" width="640" height="437" style="vertical-align: middle; cursor: pointer; max-width: 100%; height: auto;"></a> This is a grab shot, snapped on the fly. I was trying to take a picture of the UNAC sign – the “National Union of Artists and Composers,” a type of institution familiar to those who have worked in Cuba. And of course I always snap street posters. Meanwhile, the street is reflected in the front windows. I saw that much at the time. It felt furtive, like I shouldn’t be seen with my camera in my hand, as if I needed to squeeze off the shot as fast as possible and get the camera back in my non-camera bag. You might could pop out your smartphone inconspicuously. But in Angola, where no tourists go, and American journalists are not wanted, a foreigner taking pictures on the street may possibly be questioned by a policeman (I was), and possibly thought an informer by local residents (which you really don’t want). Well, that was a pretty boring picture. But look a little closer, adjust for the lens distortion, tilt it, crop it, tone it, and there’s a composition there, with a structure of colors, grids, shapes, and cultural dissonance. <a href="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2012/08/002-8083-Big-Brother-Popula.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-4564" title="002 8083 Big Brother Popula" src="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2012/08/002-8083-Big-Brother-Popula-1024x584.jpg" width="640" height="365" style="vertical-align: middle; cursor: pointer; max-width: 100%; height: auto;"></a> That the poster and sign seem in dialogue was surely not accidental on the part of the posterer – but then, casual irony is the posterer’s stock-in-trade. As it turned out, though, what I was really taking a picture of was Big Brother Popula’s post-Orwellian poster, which I had no chance to stop and read at the time. Zeroing in on that, we get what I think is a truly interesting picture that documents a micro-moment in music history. This picture reminds me of a flag, with dexter and sinister reversed so that the flagpole is attached to the picture’s right edge. It’s the visual tag of an experience shared by a few people in the nearly hidden city of Luanda one night in June 2012. <a href="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2012/08/003-8083-Big-Brother-Popular-flag-1600.jpg"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-4565" title="003 8083 Big Brother Popular flag 1600" src="https://afropop.test.ejaedesign.com/migrated-uploads/2012/08/003-8083-Big-Brother-Popular-flag-1600-1024x588.jpg" width="640" height="367" style="vertical-align: middle; cursor: pointer; max-width: 100%; height: auto;"></a> See what I mean? You have to zoom in, go granular. As granular as the dustcloud Luandans must breathe. Cough. During the dry season, when I was there. Cough. Big Brother Popula happened before I got to Luanda, so I didn’t get to attend and therefore missed special guest Mona Star, but you can see Mr. Star on this clip from Sempre a Subir, which has become one of my all-time favorite TV shows, and which we will revisit later. <div class="video-container"><iframe loading="lazy" width="500" height="281" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/CHtBQZU5bVU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe></div> I wasn’t in Angola to mess with the upcoming elections, drive a bulldozer, or even write an exposé. I was there for music, which conducts its own transparency check. [to be continued...]