‘Red, white & black - African waves under the Dutch flag’. On the reception and mediation of African musics in The Netherlands. The Arnold Bake Society presents the first ARNOLD BAKE Lecture – 1 May 2021 – 14.00-15.30 h by Stan Rijven. On Zoom and afterwards on YouTube plus the website of the Arnold Bake Society.

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Arnold Bake Lecture


Living in a country called the Nether-/ Lowlands also means ‘trying to catch the wind’. Analogous to windmill-vanes, music blew in from all directions & vice versa, due to the Netherlands’ maritime past and its altering attitude towards migrating musics. For instance, the Dutch played a role in the development of urban styles such as kroncong (Djakarta, Indonesia), Malay music (Cape Town, South Africa), Sarnami geet and kaseko (Paramaribo, Surinam), Antillian waltz (Curaçao, Dutch Antilles), Indorock (The Hague) and Jordaan-lied (Amsterdam).

But what about the other black & blues in Holland’s national colours? An African community already existed in 17th century Amsterdam, illustrated by Rembrandt and other painters. From the late 19th century, Afro-American musicians showed up. The Fisk Jubilee Singers performed at the courts of both English queen Victoria and Dutch king William III. During the 1920s, ragtime and ‘all that jazz’ became popular – although contested – in the Netherlands. Ever since, its jazz scene has been strongly influenced by colonial links with the Dutch Antilles, Indonesia and Surinam. Still, what happened to ‘the real thing’ concerning musics from sub-Saharan Africa arriving in the Netherlands?

The presentation will start in the mid-20th century while following several crossing songlines, marked by 4 x M. The M of Music (artists, styles), Media (print, radio/ TV), Mediators (labels, managers) and Meetings (festivals, venues).

Highlighting the 1980s when ‘world music’ became paramount. Venues such as RASA (Utrecht), De Melkweg & Paradiso (Amsterdam); and festivals such as Music Meeting (Nijmegen) and Afrika Festival (Hertme) offered a welcoming haven for the rising African waves under a Dutch flag. In between, labels such as ‘Morabeza Records’ and the magazine ‘Afrika’ sowed fertile grounds. Thus, it will be a talk on the reception and mediation of African musics in the Netherlands.

* CV Stan Rijven (The Hague-NL, 1949) is a popular music archivist, -broadcaster, -critic and party-deejay. Founder of IASPM-Benelux (1984), PAN- Pop Archive Netherlands (1989) and World Music Forum NL (2006). Pioneered in the world music scene with magazines (AfrikaBeyond), radio (VPRO, RVU, 40UP, Concertzender) and TV (AVRO, NPO). Since 2006 Rijven has hosted the World Blend Cafes, and from 2017 the concert series ‘Old Roots, New Routes’.

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