The State We're In, 16 April 2011. How an exiled reggae artist from Ivory Coast has been protesting the dictatorship of Lauren Gbagbo through music, how an Australian composer turned grief into a requiem after the tragic loss of his son, and how a Senegalese hip-hop artist returns to her home village to break the taboos about female genital mutilation... and succeeds.

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Reggae and revolution
Reggae singer Tiken Jah Fakoly (pictured above) is from Ivory Coast, and has a huge following throughout Africa. He sings about social and political change and gotten in the face of "strongmen" throughout the continent. His message seems to be working. But he’s received death threats, been banned from Senegal and now lives in exile from his native Ivory Coast.
Video: Tiken Jah Fakoly - Quitte le Pouvoir (or "Leave Power")
 

 
Requiem for Eli
Australian composer Nigel Westlake has produced musical scores for movie hits like Babe and Miss Potter. But when his son Eli was killed by a drunk driver, he completely lost the will to make music. Yet loss eventually turned to inspiration when Eli became his muse and he composed a requiem for his son.
Link - to find out more about the Smugglers of Light Foundation and its support for indigenous hip-hop artists and filmmakers, visit the Smugglers of Light website
 
Sister Fa
In parts of Africa, female genital mutilation remains common practice, yet shrouded in secrecy. But one woman from Senegal is using her hip-hop music to break the taboos over the practice... in her home village. Presenting: Sister Fa; artist, activist and mother.
Links - Sister Fa's website. More about the documentary film Sarabah.
 
Ape opus
Susan Cheyne makes her "office" in the muddy forests of Kalimantan, Indonesia. The Scottish primatologist studies gibbons and their sensational songs. The male-female duets are for her a symbol of domestic harmony, and make the forest feel like home to her.
Link - The Orangutan Tropical Peatland Research Project
 
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