The FIFA world cup is now into it's final stages, with only a handful of countries left to compete for the worlds biggest sporting prize. FIFA has chosen a few songs as official anthems for this particular world cup, and I'm sure most people have heard them by now. One of them is performed by Shakira called "Waka Waka (This Time For Africa)".
It's a very catchy song, but what I want to talk about is it's origins. I'm not going to be saying anything new here to be honest - it's been said before in many other forums, books, news articles and documentaries - but I feel like it still needs repeating, because this is a trend in the music industry that really irks me.
The music industry seems to be very strict about copyright law, to the point that prominent artists such as CCR can be sued for plagiarizing themselves by lawyers in the music biz. And let's not even get into the horror stories of students being sued for millions in damages for having downloaded mp3s illegally. If there was anything they are extremely sensitive about, it would be respecting copyright and proper compensation to the rightful creators of the music right?
Wrong. I would argue that the most prominent criminals - when it comes to respecting copyright law in music - is the music industry itself. For proof, all we need to do is look towards Africa... and the Shakira song is unfortunately another continuation of the trend. First, listen to the chorus of "Waka Waka" by Shakira:
Now listen to the last section of Zangalewa by a Cameroonian band called the Golden Sounds, released in 1985:
These two songs are not just similar - the lyrics are even the same! You would think that the big lawyers behind Sony and Shakira would call up the Golden Sounds and ask for permission, give them writing credit, and pay them royalties...but no. Instead, they never asked for permission, writing credit was not given, nor did they pay the Golden Sounds the royalties that they deserved. Given how often the music industry flaunts copyright law, you would think they actually respect it. Turns out, they just care about it when it works for them, and ignores it when it's against them.
And this is far, far from the first time this has happened. Without getting into too much detail, such luminaries such as James Brown, Timbaland and Michael Jackson have been caught lifting/stealing entire sections and lyrics from African artists without paying the original creators. And those are just the examples that got caught (I would like to clarify that I have nothing against Shakira or these other artists. The problem really is on the industry side of things, I think). There's very little an artist in a developing world can do to force a major label in the West to pay royalties or get writing credit... and that's not even the most heinous example of this practice. For the worst, hard hitting, unjust example of the music industry ignoring copyright, we go back to South Africa, and the song "Mbube".
"Mbube" is a song written by Solomon Popoli Linda, a South African Zulu musician and composer, way back in 1939. Doesn't ring a bell? Take a listen:
This song has been covered a dozen times, been in countless movies, made millions of dollars for film and music companies, and is even in music textbooks...but Solomon Linda died penniless in complete poverty, unrecognized as the original composer. Solomon Linda was completely forgotten while the music industry stole his creation, and left the artist to die. Indeed, up until a South African journalist named Rian Malan wrote an article in the Rolling Stone about this (in 2000!), did this reality come to light. This led to the PBS documentary "A Lion's Trail", which also highlighted the unjust usage of Linda's song, the poverty that he and his descendants live/d in, and the millions that the song has made for the industry (I highly recommend this documentary, it's quite good). Fortunately, in 2006 Linda's heirs sued Disney and Abilene Music (over the use of the song in "The Lion King") and a settlement was reached, ensuring the acknowledgment of Linda as the original composer, and payments for all past uses of the song.
...but again, this happened only because a major media outlet enabled this to happen. Without it, it's extremely difficult for artists in developing countries - or heck, any other country really - to sue the music industry for stealing their work. Yet the music industry will go after downloaders with the very same law that the industry breaks all the time. Hypocritical, to say the least.
Africa has such a rich musical history, and it keeps growing, evolving, and expanding in it's artistry (as an aside: it's a shame that most people seem to think that there's such a thing as an "African" sound.....when there's really quite a diverse set of musical traditions that are quite different, depending on where you are on the continent). They should be compensated the same way that any Western composer would be.
The good news however, is that you - yes you are all a part of an amazing era where information can't be monopolized by a select few. While it's true that Sony did not acknowledge the Golden Sounds, thanks to the power of youtube and the internet, this discrepancy quickly spread over the internet and has now been addressed. The writers are credited, and compensation has been negotiated with the original writers. What took decades for "Mbube", took only a couple months for Zangalewa. Cool.
By the way, there's a bittersweet irony in all of this. The lyrics in Zangalewa - which Waka Waka stole in whole - are actually about White colonial oppression and corruption, written in the native language of Fang. That's why in the video they are dressed as old men with white beards.
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