Amandla!
Years ago, I watched this beautiful documentary called Amandla (Xhosa word for “power”)
It chronicles the struggle of the Black South Africans when the apartheid government came to power in 1948. It also covers the decades of increasing violence and repression, then finally “victory” in 1994 when Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first democratically chosen president.
I’ve always been fascinated with the Black South African movement against apartheid and have read, listened, and watched much about it. What was so unique about this film was it focused on the music of the movement, and how the power of song was used to communicate, motivate, console, unite and, ultimately, beget change.
I really connected with this film as it made me think about Shabad Keertan and in particular – Vaars, and how it may have been used to motivate and inspire the Khalsa during battle. I would strongly recommend this documentary for a film discussion at any Gurmat camp or retreat. If anyone has seen it, I would love to hear your review!
3 Responses to “Amandla!”
definitely a great film, i saw it years ago when it first came out. music has played such an important role in freedom movements around the world…its potential to uplift and inspire people is huge. that's one of the things that's so beautiful about sikhi–how central music is to our practice. the entire SGGS is written in rag, which is just incredible. my life as a musician started at sikh camps on the harmonium and tabla singing shabads…
definitely a great film, i saw it years ago when it first came out. music has played such an important role in freedom movements around the world…its potential to uplift and inspire people is huge. that’s one of the things that’s so beautiful about sikhi–how central music is to our practice. the entire SGGS is written in rag, which is just incredible. my life as a musician started at sikh camps on the harmonium and tabla singing shabads…
Amandla documentary is very good because through this documentary gain the lot of knowledge while i cannot categorically vote that Science studies are difficult. The best I can say is that they require a lot of concentration and focus. Furthermore because of being experimental in nature, you ought to have a very sober mind whenever you are going to class. Otherwise you would easily loose the network.