Holidays in Ethiopia are arguably the most ideal times for enjoying an endless variety of Ethiopian traditional songs and dances. It all starts as soon the dark clouds clear and the sun starts to send its generous rays thereby announcing the beginning of the end of the rainy season. Soon after, yellow carnations start to sprout everywhere, in the fields, around the hills and in the green the valleys. Rivers are progressively emptied of their waters and start to dry up by the end of September. Music vibrates in the air with new vigor as it announces the dawn of a new season, a new cycle of life and the birth of a new hope.
The media are filled with holiday music by some of our best singers in the major languages of the country. As usual, “Abebayehoy” sung in praise of the yellow carnations, is the first tune of the season, and has become a kind of cultural anthem. The problem with this single tune is that it is sung by the same vocalists, with the same melodies and lyrics and with a kind of seasonal punctuality. Almost all the radio stations echo songs that praise the weather, the foods and drinks with a kind of nostalgia or remembrance of past times. These songs are played year after year and no one bothers to replace them with new tunes and creativity seems to have dried up.
In the 1960’s and 1970’s, new traditional music and dances were presented to the music-loving public that was awaiting the performances by the then legendary singers and dancers. The performers used to come up with new tunes on the eve of new year day when the entire night was dedicated to broadcasting the songs live on the radio to people who stayed at home and enjoyed themselves immensely. The shows stop well before the new year dawn broke and people were busy preparing for the festivities. The new tunes take the place of old ones and you could listen to them everywhere you go until the following year comes with new vibrations.
This is not the case nowadays, as creativity among our artistic community is either on the slump has taken a more commercial direction. A number of music shows are offered for the public and broadcast on various TV stations. However, the shows that are run by private companies with the objective of identifying new talents and bringing them to the public view take place almost yearlong and mainly consist of recycling old songs sung by legendary entertainers of the past.
Profit seems the main driving force in this kind of activity because judging from the advertisement revenues and the popularity of the shows, it is absolutely certain that the organizers make a lot of money. That seems mainly why that new music shows are popping up on major broadcasting channels and prominent music critics are taking part as judges or reviewers. This is also what the economics of show business is demanding.
One cannot argue against “privatizing” artistic shows or looking for new and young talents. Making money is not a sin in a country with so many talented youngsters and in the presence of a budding music industry. Most state-run theatres are no more functioning with their earlier capacity or dedication. They have no money to invest in order to reinvent themselves in the context of the new realities. The point is that the new approach gives more emphasis on the commercial side of the bargain and less attention to producing fresh artists that are not imitators but original creators of new songs and dances.
Imitation must be the easiest road to financial success because it is easier than creating new music with new lyrics and requires a lot of creativity in the production process. All this takes time, a lot of money and hard work and most operators in the local music industry seem to have lost the appetite for hard work and the dream of creating new songs for the new year. They seem to be captivated by the opposite option of encouraging old songs to be sung by teenage singers without much talent and make money by recycling songs that have been recycled a dozen times in the past. The potentials for creating original vocalists and musicians in general is being lost amidst the frenzy of making money quickly by any means by feeding new generations of audiences who badly need something for entertainment by any means possible.
There are of course exceptions to the rule. There are indeed singers, composers and producers who have gone up the ladder of financial success and built their reputation on solid ground, thereby earning deserved fame and fortune. The main reason why the imitators of old songs are not much successful may be because they are singing old tunes that have become boring as they were sung for decades by generations of imitators. That is also why the new imitators often disappear from the scene as soon as they come to the public stage. Unless you can beat Tilahun Gessesse, there is no reason for you to imitate his songs because by doing so you expose your own lack of talent and fail to win the sympathy of the audience.
In the final analysis, this approach is disappointing if not demoralizing to the genuinely talented youngsters who could create their own original songs because they are frustrated by the shadows of the legends. That may also be one reason why the number of original creators is dwindling these days because there is no change in the established practice of making money by encouraging youngsters to sing their favorites songs instead of coming up with their original tunes.
One of the main characteristics of culture is its dynamism and the capacity to absorb change, renew itself and live up to human aspirations that are also dynamic in nature. Human nature is such that it always aspires for change with changing times. It seeks the new and discards the old or improves it. No country has achieved artistic grandeur by imitating others who are more talented than they are.
Culture is said to be a reflection of the material conditions of human existence. This does not however mean that culture is the direct or faithful reflection of material conditions. The best artistic talents or new productions were not necessary created under better material conditions. The classic Ethiopian cultural expressions in music, the arts, dances and other expressions appeared when society was relatively underdeveloped. By the same token, happy times did not always produce the best music, dance, poetry, or paintings. Neither difficult times always lead to pessimism in arts and culture.
The material or economic conditions of ancient Axum, which saw a high level of artistic development was not materially as advanced as 20th century Ethiopia. The level of economic or technological development was relatively less advanced than now but the arts, architectures, music and literature were unprecedentedly advanced for their times. Leonardo Da Vinci imagined some of his amazing discoveries in engineering, medicine and biology as well as in painting (i.e. The Monalisa) when ancient Greece was still a city state and economic life was not as prosperous as it was in subsequent centuries.
The same can be said about Asian countries that were far advance in their arts and culture in general when the rest of the world was left far behind or was altogether non-existent. What is called Western arts and culture came into existence a few centuries ago while African and Asian societies basked in advanced civilizations for thousands of years. Greek and Roman civilizations were exceptions to the rule.
Although they were part of what we call now Europe, they were far advanced in arts, culture, science and technology, philosophy and general knowledge. Such ebbs and flows in the rise and fall of civilizations are common in human existence the stretches for millions of years. Those who were first to come to last positions, while, those who were last become first. Following all the upheavals, chaos and order, what remained a constant factor was the human spirit that proved irresistible in expressing itself and changing through the times.
By the same token, Africa was once among the most advanced societies with the most advanced civilizations on earth as the above examples of Egypt and other countries shows and anthropological discoveries demonstrate. The European fascination with African arts is only one example or a proof of the past superiority of African culture. Picasso’s attraction to African masks and his inspiration for his cubist sculpture and paintings can be taken as a clear illustration of this contention.
Coming back to our original discussion, we in Africa have immense potentials for creativity in almost all artistic endeavors but our inability to encourage our young artists to be true to their African roots and manifest their creative talents has led them to choose the shortest possible road to “success” by imitating either their own local legends or foreign icons while they themselves could attain the summits of success. They are doing this either for getting acceptance and applause from the white and capitalist dominated global entertainment industry that is accepting what it likes and rejects what it dislikes even if the African tunes are potentially more sophisticated and appealing to wider audiences. African artists must first be acceptable by this global artistic machinery before they are accepted to the marketplace. This may be regarded as a shrewd way of denying African artists of their artistic roots potentials and condemning them to cultural vassalage to the global artistic industry.
MULUGETA GUDETA
THE ETHIOPIAN HERALD WEDNESDAY 11 OCTOBER 2023
