Free your mind and your ass will follow

Last weekend I made my way to London to attend the sixth edition of Cross The Tracks: a music festival curated for Funk, Soul, Hip-hop, and Afrobeat lovers — and hands down, one of the best festivals I’ve ever been to. While Ezra Collective and Michael Kiwanuka were by far the highlights of the day, there was one show in particular that stayed with me: Seun Kuti and Egypt 80. Here’s why... unexpected as it was.

As Bell Hooks and Kelley, R., D., G., kindly remind us, music is often political — particularly good music, Black music. And the Cross The Tracks festival, set in Brockwell Park at the heart of Brixton — one of London’s Afro-Caribbean neighborhoods — was no exception. Throughout the festival, banners and messages of freedom and liberation were easily spotted, especially those condemning the genocide taking place against the Palestinian people. In fact, most of the acts I saw on Sunday referenced it — but Seun Kuti took it one step further. He spoke truth to power... so simple, and yet so layered.

It wasn’t my first time dancing to the beats of Kuti & Egypt 80. I’d previously seen him perform alongside Akala — the UK’s very own craftmaster of the political and the poetic: a musician, an intellectual, and a freedom fighter. (And since I have you here, if that’s your thing, I strongly recommend you listen to listen/read Aja Monet — a force of nature fighting for the politics of love.)

Anyway, if you’ve ever seen Kuti live, you know he puts on a memorable show. As expected, halfway through the gig, Kuti took off his shirt and launched into one of those epic moments of dancing madness, chanting, and heavy jumping that define his performances. But at the peak of it all, he suddenly brought everything to a halt — silencing the band to address the crowd. He shouted:

“Free Palestine!” To which most of us chanted back after him. Free Palestine, indeed.

After his shout for Palestinian liberation, he continued:

“Free Palestine, Free Congo, free Sudan!” And to be completely honest with you... he totally lost me there. You know that cringey, nails-on-a-chalkboard feeling you get when something makes you deeply uncomfortable? That’s what I feel when I hear those chants.

Allow me to explain.

While I understand and deeply empathize with the revolutionary spirit these chants invoke — what they ultimately mean — over the past two years, shouting “Free Congo,” “Free Palestine,” and “Free Sudan” has become a catchphrase. So much so, and with so little intentionality behind it, that it risks being emptied of meaning, kind of like wearing a Che Guevara T-shirt.

There’s something that just feels off about those cries...is like they somehow manage to colonise decolonisation- Little knowdlege, little action.

While the cases of Palestine and Ukraine — though not withouth nuances and particularities — may be easier to understand, categorise and draw lines such as good and evil, victim and perpetrator. As someone who dedicates their work to understanding regions marked by protracted armed conflict (or at least attempts to), when it comes to Congo (the Democratic Republic of the congo by the way) and Sudan, those chants — turned into mob cries — mean very little. They’re loud, but largely non-performative. A quiet gesture of solidarity, at best.

Free who, exactly? From whom? And how?

These chants overlook the immense complexity of local and global dynamics — the web of actors and factors underpinning not only the conflicts themselves but the injustices sustaining them. It’s like shouting: “Free the universe,” or “Save the turtles.” When was the last time you did something for the turtles? Or tried to understand the physics of the universe? Same rules apply.

So yes — I was deeply disappointed with Kuti’s chant. It truly killed the moment for me.

But then Kuti went on:

“Yes — free Palestine, free Sudan, free Congo. But most importantly: Free the UK.”“

If you free the UK, you will have freed Palestine. So: Free the UK, Free the UK, Free the UK.”

Goosebumps. That, folks, is the message that needs to be heard. And while I think it speaks for itself — let me outline it for you:

We will help free the people of Palestine, Congo, Sudan — and beyond — once we start dismantling global colonial capitalism. Once we begin fighting our own privilege with action. Once we choose to treat the root causes, rather than just the symptoms, So yes — Free Spain, Free France, Free the US, Free Israel, Free Russia... Let us be equal — and then we will see who really needs help and freeing.

As George Clinton, leader of Funkadelic, likes to say: “Free your mind, and your ass will follow.”

Decolonise the UK, and peace will follow. The fight for global social justice starts at home.

We know that, right?