Sunday, March 23, 2008

Profoundness

Allison and I went to a concert last night that was, in nearly every respect, astounding. We saw an African artist from Benin named Angelique Kidjo. We have three of her albums and have both very much enjoyed her music. So for our March date, my lovely wife took me to see her in concert. She is a vocal "phenom" and both of us were blown away by her ability to dance. She danced with energy and rhythm, yet not seductively. Both she and her bandmates exuded joy as they played their music. All the musicians were African save one, from Brazil. And, to put it crudely, they all "kicked a$$."

Anyway, she shared some of her philosophy; with which much of it I disagreed. However, she did make a poignant observation about America that struck me because of its truth and the courage it must have taken to express the sentiment in such a straightforward and frank manner. She said something like this:

"You know, all of us must have something of ourselves in order to be able to give to somebody else. In your country [America], you are empty; so what you give to others is emptiness."

3 Comments:

Blogger Bryan Daniel said...

i'd be interested to know why she thinks that America is empty.

March 23, 2008 at 7:23 PM  
Blogger Joel said...

Obviously, I don't know exactly why she thinks this, and she didn't directly explain it during the concert. But I can begin to understand how she might come to that conclusion based on some of my knowledge of African culture. African culture highly values family, community, reciprocity...all of these reflect relational priorities. Contrast this to America, where (from an African perspective) the highest cultural values are independence, individualism, and the accumulation of wealth. These values reflect a low priority on relationships. Seen from an African perspective, I can readily understand how American culture could be viewed as empty.

March 23, 2008 at 7:53 PM  
Blogger Josh in FW said...

good explanation. the muscian's comments of the emptiness of Americans is a good example of how the "open-minded" are often just as "closed-minded" as those they criticize.

May 19, 2008 at 5:06 PM  

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