A Global Mother's Day Shout Out

This Mother's Day the band wanted to send a global shout out to all the Sweet Mothers of the world! So we've started a social media campaign to share the "Sweet Mother" remix video with the women we love, along w/ a free download  mp3 download of "Sweet Remix"!

 

 

Download the Free mp3 of 'SweetRemix' via SoundCloud

 

Whether you remember the epic story behind the making of this video in DNA's hometown of Accra, Ghana, or you're seeing it for the first time, it is a tribute to the mothers across the globe who make our world go 'round. Please share it as a Mother's Day love letter to every mother you know!

 

Happy Mother's Day!

Sweet Mother

Today is a very special day for a number of reasons. I'll try not to be extra mushy about it, but it's my last day on The Stream. Over the last year I've had an incredible opportunity to speak to people around the world about things that they care about. From the challenges facing youth in Bosnia, to the revolutionary change happening in the Arab World, and the rise of Private Prisons in the US. I've been able to catch a glimpse of what moves people to stand up and be counted.

 

I've had the opportunity to work with an amazing team, who daily put heart and soul into highlighting the untold stories of those who are too often forgotten by global society - to literally give voice to the voiceless and to do so with dignity and honesty and somehow manage to have a good time doing it. In the past year we've challenged the prevailing notions of what broadcast media should be and dived headfirst into the possibilities of what it could be. We've taken heat for doing so, and we've received kudos. I can't tell you how wonderful the feeling is to work with a group of people so fully committed to giving people across the planet a chance to speak their own truth. I want to take this moment to speak a bit of mine.

 

Something that's been particularly moving for me in working on The Stream has been the chance to highlight amazing stories from Africa. Whether the continent's connection to the global Maker Movement, the rise of #OccupyNigeria, or the innovation happening across the continent.  This has been meaningful for me not only because I'm Ghanaian, but because for many years I was frustrated at the limited, skewed and often lazy depictions of who "we are" as Africans. Long before I joined The Stream I decided to make my own statement on that very point, through a music video showing a "day-in-the-life" of my hometown Accra:

 

 

The African continent has a wealth of material, cultural and human resources and I believe we are at a crucial juncture in our history where we have a real opportunity to see our great potential become manifest. In a few weeks I'll be making a visit to Accra to give a farewell send off to my dear sweet Grandma, who helped instill in me the love of my homeland, her people and all we have to offer (if you watch the video carefully you will see her). It was through her legacy and that of all my forebears that I learned the value of knowing when to speak and when to listen - so that others might also be heard.

 

In leaving The Stream I feel proudest that I was a part of helping so many people be heard. So I want to dedicate this special day to two very special women - my dear Mmaa whom I will never forget so long as I live, and the woman she gave birth to, who would grow to teach me the value of living for something greater than myself.  Today I honor you my Sweet Mothers.  I could never have come so far without you.

 

D.N.A

Pride of Africa

Photo: AFPWe came.  We played.  We conquered.

Strange words for me to utter in the wake of Ghana's stunning defeat by penalty kick in their World Cup quarter-final match against Uruguay.  I would be lying if I said the taste of this loss was not still bitter on my tongue; my senses dulled by the doused hopes and quelled elation of a match lost a heartbeat from history.  I came home directly after the game to find my cell, SMS & Twitter exploding.  I couldn't answer any of them.  I laid down & slept a fitful sleep of disbelief.

And then I awoke.  My heart is still heavy but I can't escape another tide of emotion rising within me.  My ears still ring with the thunderous shouts, cheers & vuvuzela blasts of the crowd that joined me at a local pub here in LA to watch the match.  Of the seething mass of people in the room I could only see one other person who was clearly Ghanaian, and yet the room erupted with explosions of sonic support every time the Black Stars appeared poised to make history.

As I rose this evening post-pout (almost), it occurred to me that in fact they have.  I have never been in a room full of Americans of every stripe, shouting so loud and so proud for anything African in my life.  The closest I can imagine is at the closing of shows I've played, or at the end of Broadway's brilliant production of "Fela! The Musical."  But this was different.  It was not only the love of African artistry or culture that permeated that room.  It was an altogether new feeling.  A hope, a heaving spirit hewing for the success of Africa herself.  There was not a hint of charity in that room, nor a modicum of pity.  But flowing freely & fiercely was a palpable, pulsating and perhaps unprecedented sense of PRIDE.

If you're from Africa, if you've been to the continent, you know that when we speak of African pride, the measure of what we speak far outweighs the constant dismal portrayals of the continent.  A few years ago I created this video in homage to that sense of African Pride - an ode to we who would never give up on our Sweet Mother:

We who know Africa hold her dear to our hearts, in dogged defiance at her constant dismissal as a lost cause by those who would rather judge than acknowledge the ongoing progress that is happening on the continent.  Indeed in this day, even the mainstream engines of media & opinion are beginning to declare the new day that is dawning there.

Years ago I decided that I would use my artistry in service of the world and that I would seek to tell the other sides of the African story, so that others could feel the sense of wonder, love and commitment I feel to the people of Africa.  Today I felt that love come crashing back over me in waves.  I've said for a long time, that there is profound hope for the future of our Sweet Mother Afrika.  Today, through the courageous play of the Ghanaian national team - the literal embodiment of the Pride of Africa in World Cup 2010 - I felt that hope in the hearts of my fellow Americans.  And for that Black Stars, I thank you.

You came.  You played.  And indeed...you conquered.

Black Stars Forever