Word: madagascars
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...Tarika MADAGASCAR An upbeat fusion of energetic percussion, traditional instrumentation and socially conscious lyrics. Nearly every song sounds like a celebration of the spirit. Key albums: Soul Makassar...
Some political artists are also questioning just what "native music" is. The Malagasy group Tarika, which earlier focused on racism and corruption in its own country, took a trans-Indian-Oceanic pilgrimage to Sulawesi, the Indonesian home island of the first settlers of Madagascar, in search of the roots of their roots. The mesmerizing result, Soul Makassar, aims to transcend the local and the global, melding guitar and organ with traditional string instruments. On Aretina, singer Rasoanaivo Hanitrarivo bemoans finding many Sulawesi people ashamed of their own music, preferring Western pop: "You can hear something different/But it is hidden...
Rasoanaivo seems loath to make any further concessions to foreign ways, at least when it comes to her band. The purist aesthetic of Tarika's music--"It's 90% Madagascar," she says--testifies to her deep suspicion of globalization. "No one knows the good and bad any longer/The target becomes only to participate/No one fights for the differences," she sings on Disease, a track from Tarika's most recent CD, Soul Makassar (Triloka). Rasoanaivo draws a distinction between what she calls "roots music" and everything else. "Roots music," she explains, "means doing something you really feel in your blood rather...
...that Yi Susen, an agent for Chinese shipping company COSCO, has doggedly set up shop. "The Americans and Europeans control the big markets," he says, "but we can build our fortunes in Africa." Recently, Yi traveled to the island of Madagascar for a delicate dEmarche: figuring out the right amount of cash needed to convince a recalcitrant port official to allow his ship to load goods. "Very tricky," he says, with a wink. "In Africa, there are no standard rules of business." A Chinese shipping empire is made on one remote isle at a time...
...Madagascar, with its bright-eyed lemurs and forested hills, has tried hard to buoy its ailing economy by attracting Chinese investment. The nation's free-trade zones are dotted with apparel factories run by Chinese overlords and staffed with Chinese contract laborers. Last year, Madagascar doled out 600 visas to Chinese workers who construct everything from new roads to button-down shirts. Chinese factory owners prefer to ship in their own countrymen because, as one boss put it: "They work harder for less money." Miss Xu hails from Nanjing, the river port from which Zheng He launched his fleet...