Djeli pop

Djeli pop
Honorine Uwineza, considered by many to be one of the founders of the genre
Native name	𞤔𞤫𞤤𞤭𞤺𞤢𞤤𞤤𞤮𞤤
Other names	Hourege pop
Stylistic origins	Djeli Electro Gaullican pop (contemporary)
Cultural origins	20th century modernisation of Ndjarendie traditional music
Typical instruments	Guitar Kora Balafon Marimba Drums Synthesiser others
Fusion genres
Djisco Djelectro
Regional scenes
Mabifia Garambura Diasporic

Djeli pop is a genre of popular music originating in Bahia. The modern conception of the genre became prevalent in the 1980s with the popularity of the genre amongst the Bahian diaspora, in particular the success of Garamburan artist Chloe Kolisi, but its original forms can be traced back to the mid 1960s in Mabifia where such music was seen as a way of combining traditional sounds with modern, especially Euclean, techniques as a revolt against the socialist regime of Fuad Onika. It is marked by its usage not only of traditional instruments such as the balafon, but also Euclean instruments like the electric guitar and even digital music software in contemporary pieces.

Despite its origins in the traditional Bélé Houregic caste, Djeli pop was quickly adopted by singers of other ethnic backgrounds. Its first star was Honorine Uwineza, an ethnically Barobyi singer who saw limited international success, but due to Mabifia's international isolation the genre remained highly local until its adoption by Garamburan artists in the 1970s. Thanks to the international connections of Sainte-Germaine, Djeli pop was able to attain international success. While Garamburan Djeli pop was initially related to the independence struggle due to its Mabifian links, it eventually became associated with the Pan-Bahian movement. This has continued to the modern day, and despite the prevalence of diasporic artists the focus of Djeli pop remains an embrace of Bahian traditions and pride in Bahian culture. Its popularity is not constrained to the Bahian population and diaspora, as its association with anti-imperialism and urban culture has led to the rise of a subculture in several Euclean nations.

History

Origins

The Djeli is a social caste which has existed for centuries in Mabifia. Under the Houregic system they were classed with other Artisanal castes, meaning that for the most part they were enslaved either to a merchant or Djelitier, the name given to a djeli who had managed to earn his freedom and led a troupe of musicians and trained them. Unlike other enslaved groups the Djelis were normally more or less free to move around and many had relationships with their owners closer to modern wage labour. With the fall of the Hourege system following Euclean colonisation, the relatively unofficial nature of the Djeli caste led to its continuation as a hereditary tradition of wandering musicians.

In the industrialisation which came in the early stages of Fuad Onika's regime in Mabifia, many rural people flocked to the cities in order to seek employment opportunities. With this urban influx came several Djelis, who came into contact with more Euclean musical techniques. The Villes nouvelles established in order to sustain the new industries became fertile breeding grounds for new social movements. One such movement was the Djeli pop movement, which attracted the youths who were growing up in these planned cities. Having been taken away from more traditional rural life and the stories told by their elders at a young age and thrust into a flawed socialist system plagued by shortages and persecution, they began to idolise traditional Bahian life and society. At the same time, their exposure to Euclean ideals and culture via contraband increased their taste for this. The result was a hybrid of Bahian traditional music and Euclean pop and Rock, characterised by strongly political lyrical themes and soothing rythyms.

Rise of Uwineza

Honorine Uwineza in concert at Iboïambou, 1966

What began as a protest movement by disenfranchised youths in Tangadougou soon attracted a national audience. The record "Kaloukoura - La Nouvelle Lune" by Papa Djounkoutigi was played on several pirate radio stations across the country and gained a cult following. This led to the musical style becoming more known among other communities who jumped aboard the fusion of traditional and modern styles. This led to the first flowering of the genre, as a diverse range of artists sprung up across the nation. One such artist was Honorine Uwineza, who grew up in the port city of Iboïambou. A Barobyi born into a Sotiran Catholic family, her father had served as a clerk under the colonial administration and was sent to a forced labour camp as a result. Along with several of her friends, she started to make Djeli-inspired music and soon managed to get some tracks recorded. Her first song, "Umuginizi" ("coward" in Kinyarobyi), sang of the fears that she felt under the current regime by telling the story of a woman who is too afraid to stand up to an abusive partner. The song's outward themes of female empowerment meant that at first it was not suppressed by the state media controls, and was even played on the state-run Musique 1 Ainde. The song's gentle yet powerful vocals and pertinent messages resonated with the Mabifian audience, leading to Uwineza becoming Mabifia's first true musical celebrity.

On the back of Umuginizi's nationwide success, Uwineza released several other songs upon a similar rubric. Most of the songs used themes of love and fear in relationships in order to mask political criticism of the regime, while some branched out into religious themes. Her song "Impamo" ("Reality" in Kinyarobyi) saw influences from Gospel music and told of her theological journey from Catholicism to Southern Orthodox Sotirianity. She mainly sang in Kinyarobyi, but branched into Gaullican and Ndjarendie in order to widen her appeal. Her Gaullican songs and "The one I love is gone", her only Estmerish song, saw success outside of Mabifia and led to the rise of Djeli pop as a Bahian phenomenon. She undertook one tour of Rwizikuru before the Rwizi-Mabifian Split, playing to sold-out crowds in Mambiza and Port Fitzgerald in 1965.

However, her success was unable to be replicated in the Euclean markets. While Uwineza gained a following among the Mabifian diaspora in Gaullica and Estmere, this did not cross over to mainstream listening due to the lack of attention towards Mabifia as a centre of arts. In 1968, Uwineza came under suspicion of the state after one of her original band members confessed the anti-establishment messages of several songs. Thinking she would be safe from persecution thanks to her stature, Uwineza released "Bahiens, levez-vous!". This song made no effort to conceal its political message, and was swiftly pulled off the radios after there were reports of protests against the central government. Fearing arrest, Uwineza attempted to flee the country but was arrested and shot whilst trying to flee police custody. Many believe that she was shot so as to avoid incarceration, as her popularity would likely lead to disturbances. When the news got out about her death, there were riots in several major urban areas but these were suppressed. Her death was unable to stop her music from being listened to, and Uwineza quickly became an iconic figure in the Mabifian underground music scene.

Club Mambiza

Chloe Kolisi was the first Bahian woman to appear on the cover of the Rythme magazine in 1977.

The rising popularity of Uwineza in Mabifia saw the idea of Djeli pop manifest into a movement against Rwizikuru. It perked up especially in 1969 following the war over Yekumavirira, which saw Garambura declare its independence from Rwizikuru with the support of Mabifia. Chloe Kolisi was one of the first artists to produce music following the ideals of Mabifian Djeli pop, and cited Uwineza as a significant influence on her style of music. Kolisi birthed a strand of Djeli pop now referred to as "Club Mambiza", a catch-all term for all Garamburan Djeli pop, which heavily influenced the culture of Garambura throughout the 1970s. Along with the emergence of Djisco on Kolisi's second studio album, Bvarura, and the general popularity of Djeli pop increasing rapidly in the early-1970s in Garambura, it became one of the first early-modern musical revolutions in a whole country.

With Mambiza's large international integration compared to Mabifia, owing largely to its colonial past, Djeli pop began to spread worldwide, gathering traction in Gaullica, Estmere and a plethora of other Euclean nations, particularly those with strong colonial history. Kolisi herself was known for her raw and unapologetic lyrics, often referencing Bahian struggles for independence and anti-imperialist ideology in her music. Kolisi became one of the first musical icons of Garambura in the process, and played her first Euclean show at an underground bar in Verlois. Her music began to pick up traction in Euclea and she became the first story of international success in Djeli pop, with Uwineza following suit but mostly being appreciated posthumously. Critics who reviewed Kolisi's work in the 1970s often cited her passionate, angry and loud delivery in her music as one of the main characteristics that set her apart from others in the early pop scene, with some early punk bunds also citing her raw delivery as inspirational. When Kolisi passed away in 1981, she was seen as a defining factor in the growing rebellious music scene of the 1970s, and was named Artist of the Year by several popular musical publications throughout the world during her career.

Into the mainstream

Kolisi's successes catapulted Djeli pop into the Euclean popular imagination. The genre was quickly embraced by diasporic communities as a way of finding links with their Bahian roots, leading to a wave of new Djeli pop artists within Bahian immigrant communities. This

Controversies

Accusations of historical revisionism

Djeïne during a performance in Mambiza in 2016.

One of the major modern faces of pan-Bahianism in global pop culture, Mabifian-Gaullican artist Djeïne came under criticism in 2018 for remarks made at a concert in Verlois. She claimed to be the "Houregess of pop music", and when asked to explain the title went on to describe the system in a way that was described as "historically revisionist to the extreme, to the point of depicting the Houregic system as vastly superior to modern Bahia" and claiming that Bahian slavery was "humane, and a part of Bahian culture which should not have been erased by the colonists". Facing widespread criticism in Euclean media, she later claimed that the remarks were taken out of context but did not offer any further explanation and instead claimed that she was being vilified for her race. Several popular radio stations removed her songs from air, but overall sales of her music increased by 4% in the three months after the event.