Daktaris

040 Daktaris – Soul Explosion – Musicawa Silt
041 Daktaris – Soul Explosion – Musicawa Silt Part 2

Old dictator Mengistu of Ethiopia has been condemned in absentia for genocide today by the supreme court of Ethiopia. Chance that he will be prosecuted is rather small, since he’s living in exile in Zimbabwe after the fall of his regime back in 1991. But one never knows.
As a way of commemorating this fact of justice, some music from the heyday of Ethiopian popmusic, the early 70’s, just before Mengistu liberated Ethiopia from that other tiran, Haile Selassie.

Musicawa Silt was originally written as Muziqawi Silt by The Wallias Band, but I recently found a nice cover version by The Daktaris on their album Soul Explosion. The original version, you can find on the compilation album Ethiopian Groove which is part 13 in the amazing ongoing series of Ethiopiques. I have an older version of that compilation which was released by Munich Records under the same name and almost the same list of songs.
The Wallias Band was founded by Mulatu Astatke and is led by Johannes Tokola. They have backed many of Ethiopia's leading stars and still perform in the Addis Ababa Hilton today.
The Daktaris are formed by members of the Afrobeat Aficionados Antibalas. Their version is in 2 parts whereas the original has only one part. So two for the price of one. Fair Deal.
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