The experience at the African-themed and #celebratingafrica hashtagged 24th edition of the Rototom Sunsplash -that took place in Benicàssim from August 12th to 19th-, still holds men and women that attended this years edition of the biggest Reggae festival in Europe spellbound.
How could it not, if the magical powers of the African continent already peak during the second main stage show of the first evening embodied by the talented Nkulee Dube and after the fantastic festival opening set by the Twinkle Brothers. Once the daughter of the sadly passed South African Rastafarian Reggae artist Lucky Dube performs her Dad’s song “Back to My Roots” nobody can stand still anymore. Think the rhythm that the festival was to take on was set? Well no, the same night, the peoples’ movement was determined to “Steppin’ out” as Rasta Man David Hinds was to come with his Steel Pulse act on the Main Stage.
In this style, each night throughout the whole of Rototom 2017, the powerful shows by the prominent artists hailing from Africa putting their countries on the world’s map, were added peaks to the festival’s solid first and second generation Reggae artists and acts making up the complete Dancehall, Rootsyard, African Village, Dub Academy and the newly casted Caribbean Uptempo and Jumping tents’ lineup.
Such peak was also Felabration -a celebration in memory of Nigerian-born Fela Kuti– put together by the youngest offspring of the founder and fusionist of traditional Nigerian sounds with funk and jazz named Afrobeats. A couple of years ago we’ve been reporting on Femi Kuti‘s witness account of the Afrobeats evolution into todays Afrobeat (see the Collective Wri(gh)tings). This year we could see Femi Kuti‘s younger brother Seun Kuti, together with and now leading his Dad’s band The Egypt 80 performing his father’s songs “as respect to my father’s sounds”.
Whether on stage or back in the press tent, Africa was in the mouths of everyone. From Toots Hibbert remembering touring Africa through to Don Carlos thinking about going back in order to set up a studio and help bring out some talent, all the artists in press conference –Chronixx, Raging Fyah, Christopher Martin and D- Major– every single one commented on Africa for our African colleagues. We got through to the probably most touching quote by Hempress Sativa, the young up-and-coming Jamaican female artist, who said: “Africa means the world to me. I am a black person, you know? And Africans were taken away from their homes, so a person like me don’t even know, what tribe I am from, don’t even know my family back there. So, Africa means the world to me, for me to reconnect, .. to recall the history, our heritage and to tell all the truth”.
Equally touching was the impeccable performance of a beautiful song that Treesha sang on the Main Stage in Swahili. Speaking to her after the show, she clarifies “I was born and raised in Nairobi, Kenya, so I speak Swahili fluently”. In a separate interview we find out more about this artist who we’d heard of last year when her exceptional collaboration with Royal Blu “Ride” was featured on Runkus “Move In”. It was a wait for this interview. The talented singer did not only appear on stage for her own show but following that one, she also supported Ky-Mani Marley & Gentlemen as one of their background singers.
Another grand momentum of the festival’s Main stage was Youssou N’Dour suddenly intoning “7 Seconds”. Senegal’s most famous and successful singer -breaking worldwide- threw us right back into 1994, a time when one stayed glued to the TV screens watching the black and white music video featuring himself and Nenneh Chery on the MTV European Top 20 channel over weeks and then winning the MTV Europe Music Awards in the category of Best Song. Seeing that this particular song still works on an international audience and watching the star live and direct is evidencing any praise for his songwriting craft.
With Alpha Blondy (Ivory Coast), the political and social savior, #celebratingafrica came in the form of dancing to the international artists’ classics.
This year, Rototom incorporated a new solidarity action into its programme by taking on the sale of specifically designed pieces -by four creatives collaborating with different NGOs- into the Rototom store and its merch stand. “We do not keep any of the revenue from the sales of these pieces”, Esther, the manager of the Rototom merch store explains, “every euro goes to the representatives of each project”. These include Bissap, a Senegalese tailor trying to raise funds through the sale of his rucksack in order to buy a sewing and an embroidery machine for the workshop he cooperates with in Touba, Senegal and the aim to equip young Africans for life by teaching them a craftsmanship. Here Jeekk, a project by Maria Acosta, a designer from Murcia and her husband Matar, supporting the NGO Yakaar Africa in the Bassari Country. The decision-making process behind choosing this particular NGO Yakaar Africa resembles one of flat rather than hierarchical structure, as Matar explains, there’s a lot of people involved who “believe in the project because they have seen it, and judging by what they have seen, people started joining and supporting it”. Farafina, another project by a mixed Spanish-Senegalese couple and Lidia Vilches, a young local designer -who’s just won a competition of Young Designers in the Valencian community- raising money for an Ethiopian NGO by contributing from her sales of the “Freedom Top”, a reversible top made from African wax cloth and carrying very long strings, so one’s free to tie it up as one pleases, what “represents world freedom” her younger sibling Clara stresses.
Celebrating Africa on the Main Stages or at the small stands and stages, Rototom completes what it sets out to do, come what want to come. With a quarter of the festival to go, the breaking news of the terrorist attack on the Ramblas of Barcelona, Catalonia reach in a shattering attempt. Shattering? No. Unity, respect and love grow stronger and stronger every day as artists changed their setlist to respond to the current situation, so as Nadine Sutherland -who opened the Main Stage set “U-Roy meets Big Youth“- explained in our interview “yeah, I felt it was incumbent on me as a citizen of the world being in Spain, 3 hours from Barcelona … to address it but not in a way that is dreary but in a way that is positive: that we can live here as children of the world and go out there and try to do what we can … to make this place a better place”. Hempress Sativa found encouraging words during her Main Stage debut in Europe putting her accent on love and emphasising that “we are one humanity”. That night it made perfect sense for The Wailers to be performing Bob Marley’s Legend albums songs and other artists in the days to come simply expressed their specific message through covering songs such as Luciano did with Michael Jackson‘s “Heal The World” closing Rototom Sunsplash Main Stage on Saturday evening.
Some further moments: Toots & The Maytals played over an hour of “only Number One songs”; Lynval Golding of The Specials alerted “you know, we’ve got lots of police problems in the world” showing his latest vinyl that he was to give away to a very delighted first-row lady. Explaining his recorded Reggae version of Know Your Rights with “this song was written by Joe Strummer and it is called Know Your Rights. Could you please listen to it?”. After a short pause he called “there’s 3 things I would like to say to you all tonight. Only 3 things and listen carefully: Black Lives Matter”. Inna De Yard‘s Winston McAnuff‘s “crowd sit”, the performances by The Silverstones, The Heptones – too many good ones to continue mentioning.
Any of the above records could be found at Massive International‘s stand -Camden Town’s famous record shop- and present on Rototom‘s festival site (for the first time since the festival takes place in Spain) where the investigation into the most wanted albums resulted in “Chronixx sold out but his Manager came to restock” on Chronixx’ debut album Chronology. Yes, Chronixx too, our special pieces are coming soon: Chronixx, Hempress Sativa, Keida, Nadine Sutherland…
Stay tuned throughout the year.
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Text by: Ilona “ilo” Kepic
