A subculture is defined as “an identifiable subgroup within a society or group of people, especially one characterized by beliefs or interests at variance with those of the larger group.” A subculture is a modern phenomenon that arises within the established public culture either as an artistic expression or a faith movement with its own rituals and practices carried out by its members.
A good example of subculture is the reggae movement in Jamaica that has emerged as a movement for peace as expressed in sings and lyrics with distinctive styles and ways of artistic expression as well as distinctive rituals and ways of life. The Rastafarian movement has its own cultural expression that has grown out of Jamaican mainstream culture and spread around the world. “Members of a subculture are typically defined by their shared identity, shared meaning, stratification, resistance and marginalization.”
Another example of subculture is cultural groups that represent the marginalized and minority groups. Subcultures may not be permanent features of public culture or a crystallized into permanent movements. They are often transitional, fads and lifestyles that can come and go when change fashions. The hippies, hipsters, hip hop, punks and others; These movements often originate in one country or one part of the world and spread to other parts as their influence and followers grow.
Subcultures can also disappear when other subculture groups emerge with other and more attractive expressions of subculture. Subculture is not confined to arts or music. There is also what they call academic subculture often initiated by college students whose main interest or objective is academic excellence and alternative ideas to the traditional or mainstream academic traditions.
The Amharic term Arada denotes at least three things. It is at the same time the name of an old market, known as Arada Gebeya, which was located right where the Addis Ababa City Administration building stands. Arada also means a smart and fast guy spending time around the Arada area which is located somewhere within the perimeters of Piazza. Ye’Arada Lij therefore means a boy or a young man who was born and grew in the Arada area and is generally known for his courage, compassion, friendliness, playfulness, love for women and for booze often indulging in drunken brawls in bars and alehouses.
The term or name Arada, it seems, is changing its meaning with changing timers and circumstances and assumes sometimes positive qualities and at other times, negative traits of character. Ye’Arada Lijoch can be translated as The Children of Arada or as natives of Arada. I had once penned a collection of short stories entitled “Ye’Arada Lijoch”. It is my maiden work and featured a day in the life of a homeless boy around Piazza.
The story is about a bunch of homeless children who roam around Piazza, which is often mixed up with Arada, and among them was an urchin called Belihu, who joins the children the moment he left his home due to the cruelty of his step mother. She often beat him and forced him to go hungry, and spends time with his homeless and hopeless peers. Luckily, Belihu landed a job as a helper aboard a wiyiyit or an old taxi and when night fell he went to look for a place to spend the cold night with the help of his friend who took him near the St. George church where they managed to find a corner.
Belihu’s first night in Piazza was terrible as he witnessed the cruelty of another tough guy who is considered the “ruler of Piazza” by his merciless treatment of homeless children and collected cents and dimes from them through coercion and beatings and terrorized the urchins who willingly or unwillingly submit to his brutality. Behailu is a victim of such miserable circumstance and one night as he witnessed the tough guy beat another child who refused to pay his “due” after working the whole day.
It was too much for Belihu to witness such an act of ferocity and he rebelled by defending the poor chap who fell on the ground under the first strike from the so-called tough guy. Belihu was not only courageous enough to defend his friend but also took him to another corner in Piazza after leaving the place where the tough guy was the virtual ruler. In this way, he came to the rescue of his poor friend while at the same time serving as a good example of to the rest of the boys who had no guts to protest against their powerful companion.
The setting for the short story was Arada or Piazza and the idea for the story came to me one day as I travelled aboard one of the now extinct wiyiyit taxis where the helper was a little boy of seven or eight. I was struck by his short height and his childish face that radiated the purity of his innocent soul and the courage he mustered to face the adversity of city life at such a young age. When I sat down to write the story, what came to my mind was his face, his smile, and the courageous comportment in general.
Let me stop at the story here and return to the other Arada Lijoch, or the boys of Arada, the grown up young men who were the feared and venerated residents and actors of the backstreets of Piazza. By the way, there is a song sung by the hip-hop artist Lij Michael, in his last album that features the nature of the modern Arada Lijoch whom he described as lovable, kind and always flashy in their best costumes. The song is a eulogy to the old Arada Lijoch who are not around now and are forgotten by most surviving members of the old generation.
By the way, Ye’Arada Lijoch may be taken as members of a cultural or music subculture nowadays merged with hip-hop and other music styles. The Arada culture started with young boys who are now in their sixties and seventies. They are often nostalgic of their lives and times they consider glorious and were filled with adventures, music, dance and oftentimes beer hall brawls and sometimes gunfights. Fights often started over claims of possession of the prettiest girls around what is traditionally known as the Wube Bereha or “the Desert” neighborhoods north of what are now Piazza.
Subcultures are often associated with youth cultures. There was at one time in Ethiopian musical subculture what is known as the ‘The Twist’ generation or the generation of young people of the 1960s who were fond of Twist dancing, Elvis Priestly-style. This style spread like bushfire around the world and caught the imagination of young people everywhere. One of the most prominent Ethiopian singers of that generation was of course Alemayehu Eshete who imitated not only Elvis’s mannerisms on and off stage but also his hair style and dance improvisations. Even after the end of the Twist era, Alemayehu continued to reflect the dominant style of the era in his songs and dances.
Now, we are in the midst of the Hip-Hop and Dance Hall era. “Hip Hop is a genre of music most often characterized by a strong, rhythmic beat and a rapping voice track.” It all started back in the 1970s in New York among Black and Latino youths. There are many hip-hop groups in Africa and Ethiopia who have mastered not only the melodies and mannerism, the costumes and hairstyles as well as the lyrics of the hip hop era. Their songs and rhythms consist of short verses, often one word stanzas mixed with techno and pop melodies.
It is interesting to note that most of the pop music culture around the world in general and Africa in particular came not from within the continent but were imported from abroad and particularly from the West and the US. This point was recently given emphasis by an African writer on culture when he said that, “For a long time, most of the inspiration for contemporary Nigerian pop culture references in fashion, film or music has been derived from Western sources, often the US.”
Although the source of Hip Hop is the West, African musicians are trying to blend it with Afro-music, jazz and pop as well as traditional beats that resemble the new wave. One can see this trend among Hip Hop groups not only in Nigeria but also in southern Ethiopia where traditional dance and beats are similar to the original Hip Hop music. There are also various Hip hop groups in other parts of Ethiopia that try to adapt the new wave to their traditional music with impressive success. What Ethiopian Hip hop musicians so far lack is the ability and boldness to carry their creativity to the international music arena where they could enjoy fame and fortune. The new Arada boys of Piazza would indeed be more than happy to see them move and shake the international music scene with local adaptations
BY MULUGETA GUDETA
The Ethiopian Herald September 15/2023
