Platoon releases “African Lullabies Part 2”, featuring Ayra Starr, Teni, Suli Breaks and more
album cover art. Source: Platoon
The babies born into the African diaspora of today will benefit from a portrayal of their heritage that is much kinder than the portrayal that previous generations endured. One of today’s buzzwords, “representation”, has instructed so much of what we want our children to see and feel when they interact with the world outside, as well as when tune into the media channels at home. As such there’s been a positive upturn in touchpoints that are inclusive of them. We now have access to dark-skinned dolls and play figures and children’s stories that feature black and brown characters as central to their plot. All of this is part of the mission to instil into our infants a pride in the beauty of their skin and their culture.
To that end, a further thing we can do for our babies is to provide them with songs that work towards this same aim. Label and music and artist service company, Platoon, have done just that with the second instalment of their African Lullabies series (released May 9th). The compilation is 12 songs long and features acts from across the continent (Ayra Starr, TRESOR and Teni to name a few). Most of the songs are original compositions by the artists, drawing from their experiences in parenthood, African folklore, while others are interpretations of previously released material arranged and re-recorded as lullabies. Each song is as soothing as the last, it’s a body of work totally fit for purpose.
The artists that contributed were asked to speak on what it meant to feature on the project. Arya Starr encompassed the spirit of the compilation in her answer:
“My aunt is my world and she just gave birth three months ago and made the song just before she gave birth, so it was kind of like making a song for my niece. Growing up we made up songs ourselves as children, at school we used to make up our own lullabies because we didn’t want to have to sing “Twinkle, twinkle, little star.” When I started making the song I wanted to make something that my younger self would be so proud of. It’s important for more African lullabies to be made because African children need more representation, we didn’t see a lot of that growing up, there weren’t a lot of black dolls and I didn’t get to see a lot of that growing up. I think that African lullabies will inspire children in different ways.”
So what will be the eventual result of the African Lullabies series? Perhaps it will be a formative entry in a new canon of African lullabies and nursery rhymes that will rival “Twinkle Twinkle” in our homes and make “Bah Bah Black Sheep”, with it’s racist undertones, redundant. Maybe that canon produces a closeness to our heritage that breeds an inherent pride, as said before. Whether or not the effects are this profound, one thing is certain: this project should be the go-to when putting our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, and our little siblings to sleep.