The concerns of Senegalese hip-hop artist Didier Awadi couldn’t be further from the lifestyle of fast cash, cars and women chased by mainstream American rappers.
Awadi is the subject of United States of Africa: Beyond Hip-Hop, which makes its Australian Premiere at this month’s Canadian Film Festival.
Directed by Yanick Létourneau, the documentary follows Awadi as he records the hip-hop album, African Presidents. His album is a celebration of the fighting spirit of Africa, and a tribute to revolutionary leaders like Thomas Sankara, Nelson Mandela, and even Barack Obama.
“We don’t want miracles but real measures,” raps Awadi in The People’s Cry. Awadi’s songs engage with day-to-day dilemmas like the rising cost of food and fuel, interlaced with stirring lyrics about the need for African unity and independence.
Awadi treks across the globe through Africa, Europe and America to research and record his album. He visits Washington in 2007 for the inauguration of Barack Obama, and records a track commemorating the legacy of Malcolm X.
In a particularly powerful moment, Smockey, a hip-hop artist from Burkina Faso, tours a landfill on the outskirts of Ouagadougou. It is dreadful to learn that the decrepit dump is also the final resisting place for assassinated president Thomas Sankara.
Within the lean eighty-six minutes of the documentary, Awadi’s preaching for social and political empowerment feels slightly heavy handed, but moving nonetheless.
Describing his album to a Sony representative in France, Awadi says, “I don’t classify this project as being rap. It is beyond rap.”
United States of Africa likewise transcends the realm of rap, offering a stirring voice for social change.
United States of Africa: Beyond Hip-Hop, 18 August 6pm Dendy Newtown, Possible Worlds 7th Canadian Film Festival 13-19 August
