Atelier Yaffe hosts a showing of movie Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat and a discussion.
The movie https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5zCOoWCwuQ traces the history of the Belgian Congo using historical footage on the cusp between colony and independence in 1960. It did not go well.
At the time was a great game for influence between the Soviet Union and the United States.
In the lead up to independence rival groups, funded by Western interests, struggled for control of the mineral-rich country. In June 1960, Patrice Lumumba was selected prime minister by the new elected parliament. In September, he was overthrown by Mobutu Sese Seko in a military coup. In January 1961, he was executed and his body disappeared.
The struggle between East and West played out in the UN, shown in the movie, and with American cultural diplomacy. America sent Lous Armstrong in October 1960 to perform to great acclaim. Armstrong later questioned his involvement while the CIA throughout worked to remove Lumumba. There is a short segment with Larry Devlin.
The film includes many scenes of black musicians of the time who were leaders in the ultimately successful civil rights movement. Is there more work to do? Absolutely. What is the role today of black music in that?
"Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat explores how Black music, culture, and global politics intersect — revealing who controls culture, whose voices are amplified, and what histories are erased or reclaimed. This gathering invites community into reflection, conversation, and collective learning drawing from African and Diasporic wisdom, Sankofa, and Ubuntu to look within and move forward together."
Strongly recommended.
Reservations may or may not be required, their socials are unclear. At Atelier Yaffe https://www.atelieryaffe.com/ 111 NE Martin Luther King Blvd, enter on Couch 6:30-9 Free
End notes:
Movie Lumumba (2020) by the great director Raoul Peck reenacts the story with contemporary actors, color and all
The story of Congo continues. The Rwandan War 1994 overflowed into Eastern Congo where it is still happening in the form of warlords mining tantalum, gold, tin, and tungsten. The tantalum is known to be illegally exported to China. That is depicted in movie When Elephants Fight, the Grass Gets Trampled (2016)
Book King Leopold's Ghost (1998), later movie, tells the dark story of Congo leading up to 1960
Book Fate of Africa summaries each African country's decolonization
Movie When We Were Kings (1996) has the story of the Muhammad Ali's 1974 boxing fight in Mobutu's Congo
Book In the Footsteps of Mr Kurtz 2002 tells the story of Mobutu Sese Seko
Book The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of a Western family in the Congo outback in the voice of each character, Devlin is a small character
