'Black' Metal

I just got back from a great week with the family in Barbados (thank you benevolent father-in-law!). I can't say I had a terribly deep exposure to Bajan culture but all the local music I heard was reggae, soca or calypso. No rock at all. Looking in the CD shop at the airport only confirmed this.

Since getting back I've been thinking about the complete invisibility of Metal in the black Caribbean and black Africa (as opposed to South Africa, Morocco, Puerto Rico, Cuba etc).  I simply have never heard any mention within the global Metal scene of bands or even fans from these areas.  I did some digging around on the net and only found one black Caribbean act of any significance - Orange Sky from Trinidad who have apparently toured with Yngwe Malmsteem. I also found a homemade video from a Barbados Death Metal band called Zenobite (pasted at the end of this post).  As I wrote on this blog before,  Botswana does appear to have a black-dominated scene and it has produced at least one globally-connected band called Wrust.

Am I missing something? Are there other scenes in these places? The absence of Metal from black Africa and the black diaspora is something I have never adequately explained. I've resisted doing so partially out of a fear of resorting to racial stereotyping; partially because of a fear that there is more going on that I know about.

Anyway, here's the video:

Comments

[sulfugor]

I've also often wondered about the total absence of metal on the black continent.

A country like nigeria is huge and there are quite a few nigerians who have access to western music , etc.

I think that what's happening is something like this : USA pop music in general is what dominates. It so happens that USA pop music has featured a very significant black element for the last 40 or so years. So those black people who encounter western music have something to naturally latch onto : popular north american black music. Nonblack people will not feel obligated to latch onto the black music. They will do so if that's their preference , only .

Basically, black africans into metal would be most likely to be found among people who know western music but don't feel a special connection to black americans. Botswanans are a special case in africa : they're a monolithic country and their culture seems very strong still. I'm guessing that botswanans don't feel that they have to conform to black american norms to feel authentic. Being tswana is real enough to them . They probably don't have an adversarial relationship with whites, contrary to most black people around the world, really . Another context in which one would find black people into metal is a society in which blacks form a minority and where the culture is eurocentric. South america is mostly like this. Modern black music doesnt have much pull there, i think , leaving a lot of room for rock/metal etc .