A friend of mine is a political activist in Angola, he s actively involved in the student movement which is fighting to restore democracy locally. Luaty aka Ikonoklasta spoke out against the government during one of his shows, he urged the crowd to attend an anti-government rally, and ever since he s been beaten up, arrested, his house was broken into, his girlfriend kidnapped, his whole family terrorized with anonymous death threats etc.On June 11 he flew into Lisboa to join the Portuguese Kuduro group Batida for their European tour. H was arrested at the airport, the Angolan secret service planted in excess of 1kg of cocaine in his luggage. It's highly improbable that he will serve any time, as it was even clear to the Portuguese customs officers that it was a set up, but he s yet to stand trial.
Click the "CC" on the video to get the English subtitles.
Here's some of Ikonoclasta's music, it's kind of political soca/grime/electronica with a whimsical edge:
Batida - Cuka feat.Ikonoklasta (English Subtitled) from Fazuma on Vimeo.
It's not often that electronic music explore topics beyond partying, especially one promoting explicit political viewpoints. This particular tune about about many things, but the message that stands out is don't waste you time boozing, the government is using it to distract you from it's suppressive conditions. In context with the current regime in Angola it makes prefect sense.
And some background on the student protest movement in Angola.
Additional info about other detained protesters can be found here: http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/07/05/angola-protesters-detained-disappeared
Help do your part to spread the word and raise awareness. Like, share, tweet, and repost this article and videos among your social network. Thanks and big up to Lukasz for bringing this to my attention.
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