Skip to main content

Aymara Hip Hop

 A quick collection of links about Aymara hip hop, which was mainly active during the life of Abraham Bohorquez who is considered one of the founders of this type of music. During the time of Evo Morales´s government it then seemed to fade a bit as maybe it´s major impetus was the time leading up to the massive mobilisations which brought Evo´s party MAS to power, but there are various writings about it.

http://upsidedownworld.org/archives/bolivia/rapping-in-aymara-bolivian-hip-hop-as-an-instrument-of-struggle/

https://rebelion.org/el-rap-en-aymara-el-hip-hop-boliviano-como-instrumento-de-la-lucha/

Known as Wayna Rap or Nacion Rap, it does manage to fuse a lot of sounds I love but Abraham´s girlfriend Nina Uma does mention it was certainly not a feminist movement for the most part, and it was not linked via a big industry so it could spread to other countries or continents, so remained limited to the El Alto area. Fortunately there are also female artists like Uma herself and Sdenka Suxo Cadena who do bring in anti patriarchal and even anarchist topics.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMuMoWEKlE The film about the life of Abraham Bohorquez and his seminal band Ukamau y ké, which fused hip hop with andean instruments and a strong anti capitalist, anti colonial viewpoint that brought the aymara language and traditions to the forefront.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Poem for peace, from a pirate recording in a Cairo Museum.

My love With peace I have placed loving flowers at your feet With peace With peace I stopped the seas of blood for you Forget anger Forget pain Forget your weapons Forget your weapons and come Come and live with me my love Under a blanket of peace I want you to sing, beloved light of my eyes And your song will be for peace let the world hear, my beloved and say: Forget anger Forget pain Forget your weapons Forget your weapons and come And live in peace These I believe are the words of a widow at the tomb of her beloved. I got the words from this italian website . It was used in a seminal Italian anti-war song " Luglio Agosto Settembre Nero " by the band Area (although I guess they weren't called anti-war songs then) - whose vocalist Demetrio Stratos indirectly gives the name to this blog, and whose music is the inspiration for a lot of my mine. It's adapted in turn from a greek folk song, but no-one knows who wrote the original words, except that Stratos was probably...

My Interpretation so far of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings

This Sutra, handed down by Ananda, the Buddha's companion, then found and translated to Chinese by Kumarijiva, is part 1 of a trilogy consisting of the Lotus Sutra, The Innumerable Meanings Sutra and the Meditation Sutra. It is studied and known among others, by Nichiren Schools of Buddhism, and it's his interpretation that I probably share most with: http://nichiren.info/OngiKuden/text/Muryogi.htm First of all, it is meant to be read by Bodhisattvas. Boddhisatvas are people who use what they learn to teach others about how to be Buddhas. When I think of Boddhisatvas, I think of people like Gandhi or Martin Luther King etc, people who fought beyond their own lives for the greater good or peace, perhaps even without knowing what the right way or right practice is. The Innumerable Meanings Sutra says these people will attain the supreme enlightenment that the Buddha attained, eventually, although the short term effect will be that everyone is a lot better off. Laws, people and so...

Reviving Indigenous Wisdom: Exploring the Intersection of Paganism, Shamanism, and Decolonisation

For me, paganism in the British Isles has primarily revolved around music, ceremonies at stone circles, solstice singing, and practices like Samhain. It also encompasses eco-awareness and active defense of the Earth. I've also wondered how these practices differ from Norse, Germanic, or other cultural traditions. Recently, as I got into Andean spirituality or cosmovision especially since the time of the chilean uprising in 2018 and when I witnessed indigenous delegates attending COP26 in Glasgow, I discovered connections between Mapuche ceremonies from the southernmost ends of the Americas and those performed by Scottish groups with ties to indigenous or at least traditional spirituality. Through these ceremonies, people expressed a sense of rekindling a lost link. I believe this spirit stems from a desire to heal a wound or reclaim something that was taken away. In Chile and other parts of the world, we refer to this process as decolonising. Perhaps it arises from the belief that ...