What Social Entrepreneurs can Learn from Global Musicians

by Nathaniel Whittemore

Published December 08, 2008 @ 10:08AM PT

All social justice work must, at the end of the day, revel in the promise of human capacity rather than toil depressed in the face of adversity. One of the things that constantly reminds me of the opportunities of our historical moment is the incredible fusion of musical and artistic styles that permeates the global indie and electronic music scene and is increasingly bubbling to the surface of pop, as well.

The last couple years have been amazing for this cross-cultural blending. The internet has opened up new collaborative possibilities and is obliterating the "world" music tag as groups like the Malian Amadou & Miriam gain international pop stardom and artists like M.I.A. where their culturally-diverse roots on their sleeve while refusing to be constrained by any one label.

In what has to be the release of the year for explosively creative global music, Malawian Esau Mwamwaya has teamed up with London DJ Radioclit to produce "The Very Best" - a mixtape that totally explodes any ability to pin it down into one cultural category. See as an example, their remix of M.I.A.'s Boyz or see the video below.

The Very Best perform "Tengazako"

I believe that musical collaboration has a lot to teach the rest of society and social entrepreneurs in particular. Music is fundamentally iterative; you take a slow beat from an old funk song, layer some Columbia-schooled indy-kids' melody on top of it, and then add a Malawian chorus. That mix then becomes remixed and modified by a hundred different kids on their computers in little bedrooms around the world. In the process people are sharing, exchanging, adding their inputs, and creating.

Social change is not the same as musical production, but the ability to recognize and respect the contributions of others while taking and modifying your own best ideas is a powerful countervailing approach to ownership. As a new generation of social innovators competes for dollars based on the strength of their ideas for chaning the world, it'd be good to at least remember that iterative approach.

One great social entrepreneurship venture I want to highlight here is Modiba Productions, a "social-activist "global music" record label and production company." Their social mission is both to bring African and global culture and music to the American mainstream, and to use that exchange to raise awareness and money for important causes. Their first big project was the Afrobeat Sudan Aid Project which has raised almost $150,000 for Darfur relief.

Update: Check out this great article about Modiba from the Huffington Post.