“Being patriotic simply means having devotion to and vigorous support for one’s country, this attachment can be a combination of many different feelings relating to one’s own homeland, including ethnic, cultural, political or historical aspects.” Today we are only going to focus on Namibian music, as I believe Namibian citizens lack patriotism for the Namibian entertainment industry as a whole.
So many parties are responsible for this lack of patriotism starting with music consumers, artists, DJ’s, radio stations and event organizers.
How many times have you heard someone you know say that they don’t listen to Namibian music, at all or that they only listen to certain artists? Countless times right? That’s already an indication. Reflect back and ask yourself if you used to be or still happen to be one of those people. As for me, I do admit that in my early teens I slept on Namibian music and only listened to certain mainstream songs and artists such as Gazza, The Dogg, Jericho and Sunny Boy just to mention a few. Like most of you I was ignorant to the 70% of the entertainment industry.
If you only listen to 40% of Namibian music the rest must be international. Looking out from the inside I doubt that South Africans, Nigerians and especially Americans consume as much of our music as we do theirs.
Now that we have done some self-reflection, on to the people who are responsible for introducing us to new and all Namibian sounds out there – the media and DJs. The only radio stations local music thrives on are the ethnic/ traditional radio stations but they are not inclusive of all genres and different sounds and they mostly cater for the older population. As for the “urban” radio stations which cater for the younger and middle aged listeners, the music is mostly international. However I acknowledge and credit a certain few radio shows that allow local music to dominate their playlists and have local charts, keep it up.
As someone that attends shows and festivals, how many DJ’s can you say play majority local music? A select few, right? Let’s also point out that most of them are now only Amapiano DJ’s and we have like two popular Namibian Amapiano songs (DJ Spuzza’s Soek soek & Buti Vuitton x Slow P Chincha Kuluma), so you can guess who they are putting on for their one/two hour set, yep! Kabza and Maphorisa! Despite all this, I think we can cut DJ’s some slack because they mostly play what’s popping which brings us back to “You”, the consumer!
Next on the chopping board, event organizers. Events are the biggest source of income for artists, so before we get to the chopping, I would like to give credit to all event organizers for creating this platform. The only problem I have is when international acts come in. Can we also treat local artist with the same respect and hospitality as these international headliners? That goes for “YOU” the event goer as well, I know you are there to see “AKA” or whoever but some of us are there to also see Lioness perform. So please stop with those “We want … …” chants as it’s demoralising for the local artists on the line up.
With that said, if you form part of these above mentioned parties, please stop being ignorant and remember that it starts with you. Don’t wait for Namibian artists to pop internationally before you throw roses at their feet. Let us all start prioritizing Namibian art. LET’S BE PATRIOTS!!
Namibian Music Unlocked 