The Hate U Give (2018), Songs About Africa, part 2 & This Week's Statistics

As a dedicated cinephile and a fanatic list-maker, I list every movie that I’ve ever seen, be it in a cinema, on TV, on video, on DVD, or on my computer. I’ve been doing it since I was 9-years-old. I also grade my films, on a scale of 1 to 10. I don’t often give out a 10, less so as I grow older. The last time I awarded a feature film with my highest mark was in 2013 (also a short film in 2015.) Well, a few moments ago I awarded a film with the grade of 10/10. This is the film we’ll be talking about today.

The Hate U Give (2018), directed by George Tillman, Jr., is not a gay-themed film. Not at all. It is a film that examines the racism that permeates American society (in this case) but also the rest of the world. So, since racism and homophobia go hand-in-hand more often than not, this film is also about us: it’s about every human being.

Starr Carter (an amazing Amandla Stenberg) is a black girl who lives with her parents. Her father is a store-owner and her mother works at a hospital. (Two more impeccable performances by Russell Hornsby and Regina Hall.) The family lives in the “black” neighborhood but Starr, along with her two brothers, are sent to a “white” private school, so that they will have a chance to go to college and flourish, instead of ending up around gangs, drugs, or teenage pregnancies, as is their mother’s reasoning. At the same time, their father teaches them from a very young age the 101 for surviving a chance encounter with the police. The Carters are a good, loving family.

Starr has to have two faces: one for her school, where she needs to blend in with the privileged kids and one for the neighborhood, where she needs to downplay her education. It’s a tricky situation but Starr is intelligent and articulate enough to balance the two, even at the expense of letting her real self shine through.

Things change when Starr is a first-hand witness to a tragic act that turns the tables for everyone. From that moment on, things escalate to tragedy – but also to the life-affirming aversion of further tragedy. I will say no more, in order not to spoil it for you. There will be tears but there will be smiles as well…

The film won the Best Narrative English-Language Feature award in the Chicago International Film Festival. The Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society awarded it with Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Breakthrough Performance for Amandla Stenberg. The film was also a winner or nominee in numerous Film Critics Associations; in all, its pedigree is 17 wins and 22 nominations.

Here are excerpts of reviews for this film:

Jessica Kiang in Variety: “Without compromising the complexity of the issues raised, or condescending to the youth of its protagonists, The Hate U Give strides with absorbing, intelligent certainty through the desperately dangerous, uneven terrain of racially divided America.”

Kate Erbland in IndieWire: “It’s a film that contains multitudes, and only asks for a world willing to do the same.”

Katey Rich in Vanity Fair: “It doesn’t take a dystopian future or a sci-fi bent to present a teenage girl who faces enormous stakes and near-constant potential for violence, and The Hate U Give represents Hollywood’s first real ability to recognize that.”

The following is my reaction after the film ended. It was the first paragraph I wrote. Excuse me for using all caps but that’s how strongly I feel about it:

WE ALL CELEBRATE OUR NATIONAL HOLIDAYS, THE VICTORIES, TRIUMPHS, AND EXTREME ACTS OF HUMANITY. THAT IS PART OF WHAT MAKES US WHAT WE ARE. BUT OUR NATIONAL DISGRACES, INDIGNITIES, AND WRONGDOINGS ALSO MAKE US WHAT WE ARE. IF WE ARE TO PROGRESS AT ALL AS A SPECIES, EVERY ONE OF US, THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE, INDIVIDUALLY AND COLLECTIVELY, MUST RECOGNIZE THESE DARK MOMENTS AND ATONE FOR THEM. EVERY COUNTRY HAS SOME. UNTIL WE SEE EVERYTHING AS IT REALLY IS, WE WILL CONTINUE TO BOIL IN THIS CAULDRON OF BARBARISM THAT WILL EVENTUALLY BURN US TO NOTHINGNESS.

As an epilogue, John Donne’s classic poem is more than fitting:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee. 

This is the film’s trailer:

These are interviews by the film’s actors and crew:

The song We Won't Move, performed by Arlissa, was shortlisted for the Best Song Oscar. It should have made the final five:

This is the title song, by Bobby Sessions ft. Keite Young:

Also in the film, DNA., By Kendrick Lamar:

Also in the film, Ocean Eyes, by Billie Eilish:

Also in the film, All Eyez on Me, by Tupac Shakur:

Also in the film, Hey Baby, by Diplo vs. Dimitri 'Vegas' Thivaios (as Dimitri Vegas) and Michael Thivaios (as Like Mike) feat. Deb's Daughter:

I think it’s appropriate to listen to a few more songs that have something to do with Africa, be it their title, subject matter, or the performing artist. Today, we begin with South Africa, specifically Johanessburg. Gimme Hope Jo'anna by Eddy Grant is actually about this city:

Weeping is an anti-apartheid protest song written by Dan Heymann in the mid-1980s, and first recorded by Heymann and the South African group Bright Blue in 1987:

Sun City is a 1985 protest song written by Steven Van Zandt, produced by Van Zandt and Arthur Baker and recorded by Artists United Against Apartheid:

Now, here are three songs about the great Nelson Mandela. Free Nelson Mandela (1984) was written and performed by The Special A.K.A.:

We have listened to Hugh Masekela in part 1 of this story. In 1987 he released a protest song called Bring Him Back Home (Nelson Mandela):

Happy Ever After by Julia Fordham was inspired by Nelson Mandela's struggle through apartheid in South Africa and his imprisonment:

I will not leave South Africa before reminding you of the two gay South African artists that I had the honor to present on this blog. This is Khanyisa "Majola" Buti with one of his best songs. It’s called Mountain View and it’s about gay love. Unfortunately, the sublime studio version is not on YouTube but this is a great live version:

The most famous gay singer from South Africa is Nakhane Touré. Here he is with Fog:

Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas was a collaborative effort in 1984 to raise awareness and funds for the famine in Ethiopia at the time. Written by Irish singer Bob Geldof and Ultravox’s Midge Ure, the song featured some of the biggest names in music at the time: David Bowie, George Michael, Duran Duran, Culture Club, U2, Kool and the Gang, Sting, and countless others:

Following the success of Do They Know it’s Christmas, Michael Jackson was inspired to co-write We Are the World with Lionel Richie to raise further funds for African famine relief. The song was released on March 7, 1985, and boasted an even more impressive star-studded roster for the tune, with the likes of Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Bruce Springsteen, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder contributing. The song received numerous honors, including three Grammy Awards. Despite controversy about the somewhat self-aggrandizing lyrics, the song raised more than $63 million for humanitarian aid in Africa and the US:

The little-known British band Latin Quarter reached chart success with its 1985 single, Radio Africa. The somewhat light tone of the melody does not hide the political nature of the song that talks about “hearing only bad news from Radio Africa,” as the band goes on to mention a variety of conflicts from the continent, ranging from war to famine, to oppression by Robert Mugabe to foreign investment and colonization.

In true "old Kanye" fashion, the rapper offers a highly self-aware and cutting message on his 2004 single "Diamonds From Sierra Leone." The song's remix featuring Jay Z is even more poignant. The song centers on the issue of conflict diamonds. West expresses an internal conflict that leaves him torn between his innate love for the flossy stone and suffocating guilt about how it's excavated. "See a part of me says 'keep shining.' How? When I know what a blood diamond is," he rhymes:

Miles Davis was one of many early jazz artists who showed a concerted desire to connect with Africa through his compositions. Nefertiti is one of his more obvious homages, but many of his later, more experimental songs contained rhythmic African sounds. The 1968 record, named after that famous Egyptian queen, features haunting horn riffs and features Herbie Hancock on the keys:

On Liberian Girl, Micheal Jackson finds himself singing to a Liberian woman whom he's fallen deeply in love with. The song was released in 1989, the same year as the onset of the First Liberian Civil War, and many women in the country found the song empowering:

Lauryn Hill made this song while she was pregnant with her first child, Zion. It references the Biblical city of Jerusalem and also draws on the Rastafarian interpretation of Zion as Africa. She sings of a return to "beautiful Zion" through the birth of her son, and in speaking of her, then, oncoming motherhood, she offers a metaphorical nod to "Mother Africa."

On Africa Landó, notable Afro-Peruvian band, Novalima, tell the story of an African slave brought to South America by Spaniards. The song details the struggles that the young girl faces and forces listeners to reflect on the often overlooked history of slavery in Latin America and its lingering effects on Afro-Latino populations:

Much like his father, Damien Marley's music is also heavily rooted in Rastafarian ideals. On him and Nas' 2009 joint album with Distant Relatives, the two artist reference the continent as a way of highlighting the shared roots of black people across the diaspora. On Land of Promise Marley asks listeners to envision the continent in a new light, by paralleling African cities with major US cities." Imagine Ghana like California with Sunset Boulevard, Johannesburg would be Miami, Somalia like New York," sings Marley on the songs opening verse.

With the song Africa, D'Angelo crafts a soul-stirring ode to the continent in a way that only he could. "Africa is my descent, Africa is my descent, and here I am far from home. I dwell within a land that is meant for many men, not my tone," he chants over glimmering production. It's reflective, dreamy and evocative of everything that's hopeful about the continent.

In Brown Skin Lady, a mellow 1998 track, Talib Kweli and the artist formerly known as Mos Def, recording as Black Star, praise the beauty of the black women atop classic, late 90s hip hop production. They knock Eurocentric standards of beauty and highlight melanin-enriched women across the diaspora from the Caribbean to Latin America and beyond. They make specific mention of women in Nigeria, Ghana, Tanzania, Zambia, Mozambique, and Botswana.

There are many more songs on the subject, so, perhaps a third part to the story? We’ll see…

Finally, these are our statistics; As far as countries are concerned, the United States, Canada, and Australia see their all-time rates rise, the latter two rewarded with a one-place climb on the all-time top 10. Meanwhile, France and Greece experience minor losses. The rest of the major players keep their percentages stable.

Here are this week's Top 10 countries:

1. the United States

2. the United Kingdom

3. Canada

4. Germany

5. Australia

6. France

7. Brazil

8. Greece

9. Russia

10. Spain

Here are the other countries that graced us with their presence since our last statistics (alphabetically): Afghanistan, Algeria, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Belgium, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Côte d'Ivoire, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, FYR Of Macedonia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Laos, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nepal, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Saint Lucia, Saudi Arabia, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Taiwan, Thailand, Trinidad & Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, US Virgin Islands, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Happy to have you all!

And here's the all-time Top 10:

1. the United States = 33.1%

2. France = 16.9%

3. the United Kingdom = 11.3%

4. Greece = 7.9%

5. Russia = 2.7%

6. Canada = 2.0%

7. Germany = 1.9%

8. Australia = 0.92%

9. Italy = 0.90%

10. Cyprus = 0.81%

That's all for today, folks. Till the next one!