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Villagers in the Sahara are swapping songs via bluetooth and archiving them in their cellphones. Do they have those? Of course! even in villages that don't have reception ;). "They're not just phones, they're all purpose media devices". According to the article, people in WestAfrica use their phones in much the same way we use our computers. This, if you recall, takes place in the "sahel", the desert we saw on the video in class. Somehow the image of boys crossing the sahel with their cattle, surviving on milk because they don't have enough food, and listening to music on their phones seems funny to me.
Phones are being used as a way of exchanging culture; the guy in the article uploaded some of his western music into the phones, and copied some of the African music for himself, then put the songs together as a cassette, to show the world what the sahel people listen to. There is a link where you can listen to the songs. This is proof that no matter how poor, hungry, or destroyed by war a place is, there is always a little extra space for Art. =]
what an interesting idea, just using those phones for music! Seems a bit of a waste but I guess iPods and MP3s usually don't have blue tooth capabilities. I agree, it does seem strange; I guess it's time to change the way we think!
ReplyDeleteI love the description of it: "Listening to the mixtape is like sitting beside a desert radio controlled by a restless herdsman." I noodled around a found some of the tracks--interesting stuff.
ReplyDeleteThis shows that cell phones are accessible to even the most unfortunate of communities and this is a very creative way to express themselves.
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