It’s the little things I love about this city…
Yesterday evening I witnessed the sun setting over Jaffa city, absorbed the dynamic vibe of Tel Aviv just from a stroll along the beach and rediscovering the drummers beach where percussionists and lovers of music gather together celebrating the sounds from the African drum… I was in my element – for a few blissful hours at least!
But what about the bigger picture?
This 20 year tradition of gathering drummers together to beat the African drum is a stem of globalisation. The white man beating the instruments whose roots are from Africa… Shouldn’t this mean that the African is treated with as much love and admiration as the instruments from his own continent? Realistically, this is hardly ever the case.
If like myself you’re simply passing through Israel on your travels, there are somethings you will be immune to noticing. Since building a relationship with my tweeter account (now that I can finally remember my password), I can’t innocently pretend to be politically unaware of the injustices that takes place in any country I visit. And Israel is no exception.
I haven’t personally had much of an opportunity to interact with any Africans, besides an Ethiopian girl I stopped to ask to recommend some r’n’b clubs after a disappointing night of hearing just electronic music, and the drunken African man who got violently shoved out of the drummers circle by a female percussionist yesterday (he was too drunk to question about his experience living in Israel after he murmured to me something along the lines of “hey wassap babi”).
The sweet sounds of the African drums I experienced yesterday, sadly don’t correlate to the bitter tweets I have seen regarding how Africans are treated the Holy Land. And here are just a few of those tweets.
Please share your experiences and opinions!
Related articles
- ‘South Tel Aviv is South Sudan now’ (timesofisrael.com)
- South Tel Aviv Residents Protest, to Taunts by African Infiltrators and Leftists Enablers (jewishpress.com)
- Racist ringleaders 2013: Israel’s war on Africans intensifies (therebel.org)
- For the love of drumming (blogs.abc.net.au)
Travelmaker Kai 
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