Trial By Trailer: Here is a deep cut documentary.
Read this crazy sentence: “In 1961, American singer Nina Simone was dispatched to Nigeria by the American Society for African Culture, unaware that it was a front for the CIA.” A surreal quote from The Mighty Wurlitzer by Hugh Wilford a 2008 book (page 260).
The book’s subtitle is How The CIA Played America.
Wow. American Society of African Culture is a CIA front.
Wait.
The Eisenhower administration, feared losing access to one of the world’s biggest supplies of Uranium (a mineral vital for the creation of atomic bombs.).
And that supply is in places like The Congo. So they shipped Louis Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie to African nations to distract the people while the CIA set up as needed: killing leaders, getting the people they want “elected” etc. so they could get the Uranium because America was not gonna lose The Cold War.
And…meanwhile the Black artists like Nina Simone felt uncomfortable because they didn’t want to represent America. This is 1960…61. Civil Rights, yeah?
You can’t be a proud American when America treats you badly.
The Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat trailer so you can see what I am trying to say:
In America Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat is streaming (for free) on Kanopy.
The TV Guide description reads:
“United Nations, 1960: the Global South ignites a political earthquake, jazz musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach crash the Security Council, Nikita Khrushchev bangs his shoe, and the U.S. State Department swings into action, sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup.
Director Johan Grimonprez captures the moment when African politics and American jazz collided in this magnificent essay film, a riveting historical rollercoaster that illuminates the political machinations behind the 1961 assassination of Congo’s leader Patrice Lumumba.
Richly illustrated by eyewitness accounts, official government memos, testimonies from mercenaries and CIA operatives, speeches from Lumumba himself, and a veritable canon of jazz icons, Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat interrogates colonial history to tell an urgent and timely story of precedent that resonates more than ever in today’s geopolitical climate.”
Here in Canada Soundtrack to a Coup d’Etat opens on January 17th at select cinemas including the TIFF Lightbox in downtown Toronto. This doc is so #PantsWorthy.
Sammy Verdict: You should be jazzed to check out this compelling documentary. Honestly, is there ever gonna be a time when the CIA finally faces the music?
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
