Youssou N’Dour: Return to Gorée (Retour à Gorée)

 

Director Pierre-Yves Borgeaud

YOUSSOU N’DOUR:  RETURN TO GORÉE (Retour à Gorée)       A-                                Switzerland  Luxembourg  Senegal  (110 mi)  2007  d: Pierre-Yves Borgeaud        

The horrible reality about slavery was that it was a condition of commerce, buying and selling human beings.  To that end, for over 300 years somewhere between 10 to 20 million of among the best and brightest blacks in Africa were transported across the globe where 20% (or nearly 2 million) died either in the Middle Passage transport on the slave ships or in their initial transport and confinement to their ultimate destination, often separated from their families and sent to different countries, like Brazil, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, and several other countries in the Americas.  Is it any wonder that today Africa continues to suffer from a perception of backwardness?  This question could just as easily be asked of blacks in America today, wondering why other immigrant groups seem to advance economically ahead of blacks who historically lag behind.  This question and this inter-continental connection lie at the heart of this film, made by Swiss filmmaker Pierre-Yves Borgeaud, yet it’s a surprisingly tender road documentary accentuating music that traces links to the African diaspora.  Grammy-winning Senegalese singer Youssou N’Dour, perhaps best known in America for singing in his native Wolof language at the end of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes,” Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes - YouTube (5:31), or touring with Bruce Springsteen in his Human Rights Now! Tour, noticed the connection between the percussive music played at the docks of Dakar, his hometown in Senegal, and Mardi Gras music in New Orleans, or a spiritual connection about slavery that perhaps only American gospel singers could capture, but more importantly realized that jazz is a product of slavery, that African descendants in America invented an improvisational form of music that he traces back to his own African roots, claiming African music similarly defies form and relies heavily on an improvisational component.  An idea spawned at the Cully Jazz Festival in 1999, he decided to re-arrange some of his own songs giving them greater vulnerability and emotional expanse through jazz, blues, and gospel, traveling from Bordeaux and Luxembourg to Atlanta and New Orleans, and from New York to Dakar in search of the roots of African-American music.  To that end, his arranger extraordinaire, blind Tunisian-born Swiss pianist Moncef Genoud, wrote some arrangements for what they called “the project, the Return to Gorée,” recalling the history of The Transatlantic Slave Trade through music, eventually performing a live concert on Gorée Island where it all began in the “Maison des esclaves” or slave houses from the slave era days, a symbol of their last breath of freedom before they walked through the “Door of No Return” and were shipped across the ocean on slave ships, Return to Goree - Youssou N'Dour - YouTube (6:00).  While not a concert film, this has a more relaxed, almost conversational style that instead focuses on time spent during the rehearsal sessions.    

Simply put, N’Dour, who was briefly a Minister of Tourism in his home country, chooses some great musicians, as they are among the best in the world, but more importantly, each is attuned to the righteousness of their mission which is as much a spiritual journey, elevating the quality of the music heard throughout the film, as N’Dour travels to America with Genoud to seek them out, heading first to Atlanta to work with the Harmony Harmoneers gospel singing Turner brothers, a bare bones gospel group with no piano, no drums, just a capella voices.  Rehearsing together, while the intricate voices sound superb, immediately they discover a cultural rift, as N’Dour is a Muslim entering a Christian church for the first time, so when they start singing about Jesus, it doesn’t fit the song “My Hope Is in You,” My Hope Is In You - YouTube (4:24), where “you” refers to the next generation.  The Turners are a bit stunned when they’re asked to stop using Jesus, something they don’t take lightly, but in the interest of “the project,” there’s a higher purpose than one’s own feelings.  In New Orleans, we meet one of the originators, Idris Muhammad, who calls himself one of 8 percussionists growing up in his family which accounted for developing his own style early on, who at the age of 15 played on the 1956 Fats Domino smash hit “Blueberry Hill,” fats domino - blueberry hill - YouTube (2:21), later converting to Islam in the 1960’s.  He does an exquisite job describing the origins of the music of Mardi Gras and its multiple jazz rhythms, where the hypnotic percussive beat drives the second liners, Second Line Blues: A Brief History of New Orleans Brass, a traditional dance style in New Orleans that traces its origins to the infamous Buddy Bolden and the spirited processions that accompanied festive music that played during weddings and funerals.  In New York they pick up perhaps the most surprising choice, Pyeng Threadgill, the daughter of A.A.C.M. jazz composer Henry Threadgill and choreographer Christina Jones.  Known for advocating diverse vocal styles, she is perhaps the most subtle addition as she supplements N’Dour’s own vocal lead and is genuinely amazed at his superb improvisational vocal technique.  In New York, they also pick up bassist James Cammack, who along with Muhammad both currently work with Ahmad Jamal, a pianist long admired by Miles Davis for his use of space and texture, precisely what N’Dour is looking for.  More importantly, in a flashback to the 60’s, they briefly add the fiery poetry of New Jersey poet laureate Amira Baraka, who invites them all to his home.  N’Dour treats this invitation as an honor, as if being invited into the home of an African chief, viewing Baraka and his intellectual curiosity and interest in Africa since the 1960’s as an integral part of “the project.”  The jam session with Baraka is one of the dramatic high points of the film, as his words are spot on, nearly shouted at first:  “At the bottom of the Atlantic ocean there is a railroad made of human bones, black ivory, black ivory,” following the path all the way back to their origins using words that are finally whispered:  “Africa, Africa.”   

When they travel to Europe, they pick up Austrian guitar phenom Wolfgang Muthspiel, Luxembourg trumpeter Ernie Hammes, and French harmonica player Grégoire Maret, all of whom add musicianship, brilliant technique, and multiple layers of texture.  When this entire group rehearses together, adding bits and pieces of N’Dour’s sweet voice, the result is nothing less than phenomenal.  The final leg on their tour is Dakar, where N’Dour is in his element.  Rather than feature the dance-like Senegalese rhythms of N’Dour’s pop songs which endear him to the local population (Mbalax in Senegal), this is a softer, much more contemplative style that might aptly be described as hushed, where every sound is meticulously crafted, Youssou N'Dour at Gorée Island | By The Rhythm Space YouTube (26:30).  If CD’s were selling outside the theater, they would no doubt sell out, as there is a singularly distinguished, heartfelt tenderness to this music filled with eloquent, impressionistic colors so quietly underplayed, so by the time N’Dour’s voice soars above it all with intricate, soulful riffs, it’s nothing less than inspiring.  The focus on Muhammad in the film is always rewarding as he’s a lion of a man, whether joining the drumming of the local djembe players in Dakar, offering a prayer afterwards, or buying a barracuda for dinner during a seaside visit next to rows of empty fishing canoes that line the beaches at night, where the man who actually caught his fish is pointed out.  The film is surprisingly moving and powerful on so many different levels, most of it amazingly personal, though it doesn't address the controversy raised about the truth or fiction of that Door of No Return which many still believe is more symbolic than historical, as there are still historians who remain convinced the shore is too rocky for ships and that the majority of the slave traffic flowed through the Senegal and Gambia Rivers, suggesting the story is a myth fabricated by Joseph Ndiaye, a Gorée Island slave house curator who was given a position of prominence in the film, elevated to the level of a griot, an all-knowing grandfatherly historian who reveals the ugly details of what happened here, where six million died in the Middle Passage from Senegal alone, though it’s hard to imagine the personalized inner reactions of the visiting black Americans who are themselves descendants of slaves.  Especially poignant is the scene where the Harmony Harmoneers gospel singers break out into song right there on the spot at the Door of No Return, singing “Return to Glory,” where it’s as if time stops and death is put on hold until they’re finished.  It’s a miraculous moment catching everyone by surprise, as it appears completely spontaneous and utterly appropriate.  But Joseph Ndiaye will go on spending the rest of his life revealing the history of the slave trade, publicly denouncing it in multiple languages, as if bringing the wrath of God upon us all, while Youssou N’Dour offers angelic whispers of hope as light as moonbeams that gently guide us into a more harmonious future. 

Marley

Door of No Return

sugar cane cutters

 

Bob and Rita

Bob and Rita

I-Threes

Bunny Wailer

Cindy Breakspeare

Bob and Cindy

Cindy Breakspeare

Rita Marley

Ziggy Marley

Cedella Marley

Allan “Skill” Cole

Director Kevin Macdonald

MARLEY             B+                                                                                                                Great Britain  USA  (145 mi)  2012  d: Kevin Macdonald

I think what’s great about the film is though there have been a lot of things done on Bob, I think this one will give people a more emotional connection to Bob’s life as a man – not just as a reggae legend or a mythical figure, but his life as a man.

—Ziggy Marley

Maker of superb documentaries that include Academy Award winner ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER (1999), the extraordinary TOUCHING THE VOID (2003), the equally compelling Whitney (2018), and also the Idi Amin historical drama LAST KING OF SCOTLAND (2006), this documentary was made with the full co-operation of the Marley family, told in chronological order, filling in the void of his relatively unknown early life, where the director was surprised to discover there’s not a single piece of footage from the first ten years of his performing career from 1962 to 1972, and only a handful of photographs, despite having five of the top 10 singles on the Jamaican charts early in his career with the Wailers, as no one really took them seriously.  Nonetheless, film and music buffs looking for an immersive portrait of all things associated with Bob Marley will be satiated by this sprawling documentary offering an expansive, richly layered collage of music, vintage archives, partly unpublished material, including rare recordings of Marley songs and live performances, and numerous interviews old and new, feeling like a definitive portrait of the reggae legend.  One of the driving forces behind this film is to uncover the mystery surrounding the enduring appeal of Bob Marley, a rare Third World superstar who remains as popular as ever some forty years after his death, where royalties alone account for $25 to $30 million dollars per year for his family, where there are currently more than 12 million streams monthly on Spotify alone (Bob Marley Would Be Highest Earning Music Legend On ...), with over 6 million followers on his Instagram account, and more than 33 million fans on Facebook and Twitter, so he’s a greater, weightier presence today than he ever was when alive, an enigma that is never fully explained.  While the religious and political impact of his life have too often been overlooked, there’s a surprisingly small amount of concert footage, and few if any songs play in their entirety.  Executive Producers on the film include Marley’s son Ziggy and Island Records founder and record producer Chris Blackwell, both of whom appear in the film, though the majority of the input comes from step-brother Bunny Wailer (aka Neville Livingston), describing Marley’s early childhood, as both were raised in the green hills of Nine Mile in Saint Ann Parish with no electricity, living under the same roof at one point in Kingston, Neville Garrick, the artistic director, graphic designer, and friend of Bob Marley who created the sleeve artwork for many of his albums, including Exodus, and also Cindy Breakspeare, Marley’s primary girlfriend since the mid 70’s when she was crowned Miss World 1976, who was all but omitted in Reinaldo Marcus Green’s recent release Bob Marley: One Love (2024).  These figures are onscreen more than the others, offering their own personal insight, expounding on what they know, suggesting they may have known him best.  Rita Marley, Bob’s Cuban-born wife, and Judy Mowatt, two of the I-Threes, the background vocalists for Marley onstage, and daughter Cedella Marley are also prominent figures, though Rita refuses to dwell on any of her husband’s personal transgressions, preferring to honor his eternal optimism, and instead inhabits the earth mother role of guardian angel holding everyone together, providing the necessary stability through fractured times.    

While this is the most comprehensive presentation of Bob Marley’s life that we have ever seen onscreen, taking us on a tour from Jamaica to America to London and on to Japan, Gabon, Zimbabwe, and Germany, what this film excels at is providing a thorough examination of Marley’s childhood and formative years, even finding his first music teacher, discovering he was bullied for being mixed race, as he had an older white father, Norval Marley, who was a British colonial officer who never recognized him as his son.  That family refusal obviously pained him as a kid, angrily writing a song about it, where the lyric “The stone that the builders refused will always be the head cornerstone” is adapted from The Book of Psalms, 118:22, as Macdonald can be seen playing it for the “white” Marley family, Bob Marley - Corner Stone - YouTube (2:25), who are themselves a bit flummoxed about the rising celebrity of a black cousin they never knew.  Dropping out of school to become a musician, spending all of his time in pursuit of that goal, Marley moved to the Trenchtown neighborhood of Kingston, where some of the introductory music he recorded in the early 60’s is simply not well known, including his first recorded song, released on the eve of independence, Bob Marley - Judge Not [1962] - YouTube (2:27) which made him realize going solo was much more difficult, instead forming a group with Bunny Wailer and Peter Tosh called the Teenagers, which evolved into the Wailing Rudeboys, the Wailing Wailers and finally just the Wailers, a throwback to the doo-wop American groups, where the intricate harmony is sophisticated, emulating the sound of the Drifters, the Platters, the Impressionists, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, or Dion & the Belmonts singing NEW * A Teenager In Love - Dion & The Belmonts {Stereo} YouTube (2:39).  They were encouraged by Joe Higgs, a popular artist and influential figure in Jamaica for four decades who produced a countless amount of Jamaican artists over the years, a man who was instrumental in the foundation of modern Jamaican music, also known as the Father or Grandfather of reggae who encouraged young talent, working with Jimmy Cliff, acting as his bandleader, even writing songs for him, while also performing for the Wailers during their American tour when Bunny Wailer dropped out.  Island record producer Chris Blackwell wanted the Wailers to tour freak clubs in the United States for no money, only exposure, with Wailer leaving the band for spiritual reasons, claiming it was against his Rastafari principles.  It’s perhaps telling that Marley chose to follow the traditional music business pathways to fame and stardom, hard touring, selling his songs to other performers, letting the record company have their way even while his original Wailer cohorts, Peter Tosh (who seems to want nothing to do with this film, derogatorily describing Blackwell as Chris Whitewell) and Bunny Wailer, rejected this “sell-out” trajectory of exploitive commercialism, with Chris Blackwell acknowledging Marley’s early recordings were “pasteurized” for easier consumption.  Staying true to their roots, according to Higgs, it was out of the poverty and violence in Kingston’s shantytowns such as Trenchtown and Johnstown that reggae music was born.

Music is a matter of struggle.  It’s not good that it’s known you’re from Trenchtown.  Reggae is a confrontation of sound.  Reggae has to have that basic vibrant sound that is to be heard in the ghetto.  It’s like playing the drum and bass very loud.  Those are the basic sounds.  A classical reggae should be accepted in any part of the world.  Freedom, that’s what it's asking for, acceptance, that’s what it needs, and understanding, that’s what reggae’s saying.  You have a certain love come from hard struggle, long suffering.  Through pain you guard yourself with that hope of freedom, not to give up.   

Opening with ‘A Tuff Gong Production,’ the name of Marley’s record label, the film actually begins in Africa on Gorée Island off the coast of Senegal, the last moment on African soil during the Atlantic slave trade, passing through the “Door of No Return” where an estimated 10 to 20 million African slaves were shipped across the ocean on slave ships, the subject of Pierre-Yves Borgeaud’s Youssou N’Dour: Return to Gorée (Retour à Gorée) (2007) and this posted essay by Language Professor Dalla Malé Fofana, Senegal, the African Slave Trade, and the Door of No Return.  The slave trade in Jamaica was abolished in 1807 with the Slave Trade Act of 1807, but by then almost 2 million slaves were traded to Jamaica to run the sugar plantations, with tens of thousands dying on slave ships in the brutal middle passage between West Africa and the Caribbean.  After almost 250 years of rebellion and resistance, slavery itself was finally abolished in 1834 after the passage of The Slavery Abolition Act of 1833.  This aspect of Jamaican history is interlinked with the history of reggae, where the roots of oppression are embedded in the music, with the director repeatedly referring to this “origin” of Bob Marley’s identity, as his biography cannot be separated from the colonial history of his homeland.  Marley is an artist aware of divine grace in his life, bringing a prophetic musical message of rebellion and redemption, who relentlessly synthesized the contradictions of perceived wisdom from his life experiences into potent lyrics that combine the utopian vision of Rastafari with recurrent themes of rejection and abandonment.  With songs like Bob Marley & The Wailers ‎- 400 Years - YouTube (2:33) and Concrete Jungle (Live at The Old Grey Whistle, 1973) - YouTube (4:11), little is left in doubt about the history that spawned such angry indignation in the provocative lyrics, Slave Driver (1973) - Bob Marley & The Wailers – YouTube (2:54).

Every time I hear the crack of
a whip
my blood runs cold
I remember on the slave ship
how they brutalize our very
souls
Today they say that we are free
only to be chained here
in poverty….

Macdonald, the Scottish-born director who is also the grandson of legendary Hungarian-British director Emeric Pressburger, tells the story of Marley’s life using different people he had met and worked with along the way, including interviews with Marley himself, much of it subtitled to help decipher the thick Jamaican patois, though the film never really captures the essence of his personality or his mischievous sense of humor, instead there’s a constant stream of music playing throughout, exposing the journey from his young life with his family, how his parents met, to his teenage origins in the music industry, his romance with Rita Marley, who described him as extremely shy, to his Rastafarian connections with spiritual advisor Mortimer Planno and the influence of Haile Salassie, who was mobbed by an adoring crowd on a 1966 visit to the island, much like Marley was after his death in 1981 when his body was returned to Jamaica.  No longer seeing himself as half-white and half-black, suffering the rejection of the people around him who viewed him as an outcast, he was simply embraced and accepted into the Rastafarian community, until he eventually became a major star, told with a sense of calm and restraint, where the man and his music are the message, with no political overkill.  But his progression included Jamaican hits like THE WAILERS - Bend Down Low [1966] - YouTube (2:32) which were extremely popular on the island, played constantly in dance halls, but never on radio stations that routinely rejected Rasta music.  The back story is told by his tour manager, Jamaican soccer legend Allan “Skill” Cole (both sharing a common love for football), where the group was forced to bring physically imposing gangsters with them carrying baseball bats into the radio studio, literally intimidating them to play his music, which initially led them to renowned record producer Clement "Coxsone" Dodd, with Bunny Wailer breaking out into song to describe the elation, Marley #1 Movie CLIP - Bob Marley (2012) HD - YouTube (2:28).  Eventually they found an innovative new producer in Lee “Scratch” Perry, something of an eccentric who used to work for Coxsone before starting up an independent business, but his energy and excitement in a music studio was infectious, eagerly dancing to what he heard, jumping on the tables, flailing his arms around in approval, where his early recordings of the Wailers had a profound influence on Marley’s career, as he was not afraid of experimentation, adding a spiritual element to his music, with the drum and the bass, viewed as the heartbeat and backbone, coming from two brothers, Carlton and Aston “Family Man” Barrett, providing the rhythmic foundation with a mix of funk, rhythm & blues, and soul, expressed in a jazzy way, Bob Marley, Peter Tosh & Bunny Wailer - Stir It Up (Live) 1973, YouTube (3:53).

One of the most profoundly affecting moments in the film comes from Constance Marley, a black half-sister accidentally discovered by Rita Marley, who also had a non-existent relationship with their same father, yet her reaction to hearing the same song played for the “white Marleys,” as she calls them, is much more impactful and emotional, completely identifying with how he must have felt being rejected by his father, placing a dramatic emphasis on how Bob Marley has finally assumed his rightful place in the family that excluded him, becoming the most significant Marley, replacing those others who have retreated into the background.  According to Judy Mowatt, she believes that rejection transformed him into the man he became, which is why he is so relatable and so easily identifiable to the rest of the world, as many people are rejected and hurting in similar ways, where his message of change and transformation is what defines his musical legacy.  With the camera gliding just above the Blue Mountains of eastern Jamaica, we hear the sounds of such an earthy and gospel-style rendition of perhaps his most famous ballad, a love-lullaby reminiscing about life in the “government yards” (housing projects) of Kingston, which just sends chills right through you to hear it, Bob Marley No Woman No Cry featuring Peter Tosh on piano (Marley Movie 2012) YouTube (1:44).   

No woman, no cry
No woman, no cry

‘Cause I remember when we used to sit
In the government yard in Trenchtown
Observing the hypocrites
Mingle with the good people we meet
Good friends we have, oh, good friends we’ve lost
Along the way,
In this great future, you can’t forget your past
So dry your tears, I say

Everything’s gonna be alright
Everything’s gonna be alright…

Marley’s early success allowed him to buy his rehearsal studio and giant complex known as the Island House from Chris Blackwell, renamed the Tuff Gong Studios, current residence of The Bob Marley Museum | Tour Bob Marleys Life of Music in ..., and while Rastas weren’t allowed to move uptown in the prestigious wealthy district, there were no dreadlocks there up until then, as this is the same neighborhood as the governor and prime minister who lived just a few doors down, with Marley proclaiming “I bring the ghetto uptown,” Marley - 'Clip 4' - YouTube (1:56).  The film adequately covers the same deeply divided period plunging headfirst into civil war during the mid-70’s accentuated in Bob Marley: One Love (2024), including the assassination attempt, his exile in England, Marley Movie CLIP #2 (2012) Bob Marley Movie HD - YouTube (2:38), and the bookend peace concerts that attempted to heal the political divisions, though it adds the perspective of Diane Jobson, his female lawyer, who wryly comments, “What more do Jamaicans love than a man who’s just survived a gunfight?,” yet Marley’s dealings with Kingston gangs, Rastafarians, prime minister candidates, and African causes reveal a musician transcending the studio and stage, MARLEY Exclusive Clip - YouTube (2:18).  He was always perplexed that American blacks never fully embraced his music, as his concerts were mostly filled by white audiences, as that’s how he was marketed early on by Chris Blackwell (the cause of the breakup of the original Wailers), though by the end of his life his music gained an enduring power and global reach.  His death from cancer is given even greater scrutiny here, finding himself with few options, cutting his American tour short due to his failing health, yet somehow he was able to power through each concert, offering the full display of his showmanship despite flagging morale all around him.  Chemotherapy treatment caused him to lose his hair, but the cancer progressed throughout his body, given just weeks to live, so he stopped all medical treatment and instead sought holistic treatment from Dr. Josef Issels in the frigid wintry conditions of the snow-capped Bavarian forests of Rottach-Egern, Germany, where they even found Waltraud Ullrich, a nurse that treated him at the facility, who remembered his kindness and endless patience.   Perhaps the most haunting memory comes along a winding road as we hear his voice echoing through an empty forest covered in layers of snow, sounding like Bob Dylan accompanying himself on acoustic guitar in the 60’s, with Marley singing a song of freedom in his Redemption Song, Bob Marley - Redemption Song (Acoustic Version) YouTube (3:10), expressing the need for emancipation, yet it thoroughly embodies the spirit of the Rastas.

Old pirates, yes, they rob I
Sold I to the merchant ships
Minutes after they took I
from the bottomless pit
But my hand was made strong
by the hand of the Almighty.                                                                                        We forward in this generation                                                                                     Triumphantly.

Won’t you help to sing                                                                                               These songs of freedom?                                                                                          ‘Cause all I ever have                                                                                               Redemption songs                                                                                           Redemption songs.