Calling All the Global Citizens!
As I sat pondering art forms that I came across in regards to this class and it’s focus on the idea of Diaspora, I looked mainly towards M.I.A., specifically to her video “Boarders”. I began to dive more into her music and suddenly whilst listening to “Bad Girls” I could not help but remember a video that, in my opinion seemed to express a lot of the same themes you find with M.I.A.’s work but also with those discussed in this class.
I first came across this video while writing a research paper as an on the side assignment on Indigenous Media and it’s affect/impact on the global scale with Professor Freya Schiwy. The video, in a very intense and modern style, approaches the issues of oppression, racism, segregation, decolonization, rebellion. When thinking about the idea of revolutionary media, as I discussed in my research paper, I used this video as an example to express how different ethnic groups gather around shared struggles and goals. While Ana Tijoux touches upon the issues latino, she uses her lyrics to incorporate so many other nations so as to connect the hardships of many.
This idea about the “global citizen” that we see represented in M.I.A., I believe, is shared through many people. In Ana’s video we see this shared citizen of many speaking to all. As she calls out to the “all that are neglected” she begins to create this idea of Diaspora Communities. A quote from Salmon Rushdie about “re-describing” how the world is and its people interact within it, reminds me of this idea of the shared struggle of these minority groups and their need to reshape the worlds view on them and all those that face the issues this video addresses.
I think the part that impacted me the most about this medium of art was that it tied a group of people that many choose to not relate, let alone understand. Featured in this video is Shadia Mansour, an Palestinian rapper that many have deemed the “Queen of Arabic Hip-Hop”. In this video, while rapping in her native tongue, she discusses war in Syria and the relation between the struggles of those all around the world to her own peoples experience. I believe this is the most important element of the video because the impact it has the audience is so intense. In my experience, when she began to rap, I felt as if I was finally forced to hear someones pain and anger. I did not understand what she was saying but I could feel it and at that moment I felt what the words she was rapping.
I feel that in many ways that is how many of groups of people that experience Diaspora wether for economic benefits, work, exile, or even the chance at a better life, we all relate in one way or another through the experiences that brought us to where we find ourselves and our people today. We don’t need to know another story to feel what they feel. This video is revolutionary not only in the style and format in which the artist created but in its ability to bridge the gaps between boarders and operate as a call for all to identify as global citizens.
