Bring Peace Now!

Bring Peace Now! podcast presents: Filmmakers Taale Laafi Rosellini and Jerry Weissman rap about two exciting films they made about Alpha Blondy, the International African Reggae Superstar. Taale and Jerry have a dynamic conversation focusing on the making of two landmark documentaries.  Alpha Blondy—Prophet in the New World, a riveting 33-minute film, had a surprise broadcast via Ivory Coast TV and "went viral" worldwide via video. That was the first documentary film made about Alpha Blondy. ALPHA!—a two-hour feature documentary on Alpha Blondy, the singer and his message of peace and harmony, is on the home stretch, and almost ready to be released! Film Producer Taale Rosellini kept working on the feature project over a span of 30 more years—and the film will now include interviews with Alpha Blondy speaking to the world public in Jula, French and English, and interviews with sixteen of the most renowned African and Reggae singers on the planet—all speaking about the message of African and Reggae music: Pato Banton of the United Kingdom. Frederick "Toots" Hibbert of Toots and the Maytals. Mutabaruka, the dub poet of Jamaica. Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal and Ishmael Lô of Senegal. Manu DiBango of Cameroon. Thomas "The Lion of Zimbabwe" Mapfumo.  Oliver "Tuku" Mtukudzi of Zimbabwe. Lucky Dube of South Africa. Majek Fashek and Baaba Tunde Olatunji of Nigeria. Habib Koité, Apfel Bocoum, Oumou Sangare and Salif Keita of Mali. 

Reginald “Reggie” Petty Founder, East Saint Louis Historical Society in conversation with Taale Laafi Rosellini Filmmaker/Director, African Family Film Foundation 2021-07-09 Reggie's purpose: “To improve human rights for everybody!” Reginald Petty, Peace Corps Director to four African nations. Activist, colleague and friend of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr, Stokely Carmichael and Angela Davis. Musician drummer. President of the African American Heritage Association, Chicago. Founder of the East Saint Louis Historical Society. Reginald Petty raps with filmmaker Taale Laafi Rosellini about: As President of the African American Heritage Association in Chicago: leading with cutting-edge, positive and enlightening information about Africa and African America. Activism in the Civil Rights movement, being jailed for registering African American citizens to vote in Mississippi. Filmed interview of Reggie in Birth of the Cool—the new feature documentary on Reggie’s friend—Miles Davis, world-renowned trumpeter. Meeting with Kwame Nkrumah, Fidel Castro, Patrice Lumumba & Thomas Sankara. President Sankara realizing his dream projects of, by and for the people. Working with the African National Congress in Swaziland, educating youth in Africa and the USA about Apartheid in South Africa. Meeting and working with Winnie Mandela and Nelson Mandela. African knowledge of climate, history, astronomy, UFOs and extra-terrestrials, and the amazing Dogon people of Mali. As Founder of the East Saint Louis Historical Society: enlightening the public about the history of many citizens of East Saint Louis, Illinois who have made a remarkable and beneficial impact on humanity. The power of salt, Vitamin C, oxygen, water purification and ozone: inexpensive health alternatives that are saving lives in Africa and around the world! How children learn valuable, critical information from their parents and elders in Africa, as exemplified in Zam Zam! —the coming African Family Film Foundation feature documentary about a renowned dancer, farmer, family man & healer who teaches his 5-year-old son herbal medicine in rural Burkina Faso, West Africa.

Malima Koné, African Reggae Rising Star Today we are honored to have a wonderful surprise: a brief introduction to Malima Koné—a bright rising star artist who brings together the ancient music and oral traditions of West Africa, in fusion with Reggae and World music. Malima Koné, African Reggae singer-songwriter, guitarist, master jembe drummer and master bala xylophonist, has recently returned to the country of his birth to create a new band in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in the heart of West Africa. Malima sings in five languages: Bwamu, Jula, Mòoré, English & French. In 1986 filmmaker Taale Laafi Rosellini filmed Malima when he was breaking out on a jembe drum and a mini bala xylophone—at two years of age, with his brother Youssou! Those scenes are captured forever in the award-winning feature documentary on the Koné family, Great Great Great Grandparents' Music—filmed over a span of two decades in West Africa. The DVD of the film is available through the African Family Film Foundation at http://www.africanfamily.org/films/grandparents/ Now at 36, Malima is becoming quite the sensation, performing in California, Japan and now again in West Africa. On July 31, 2021 Malima is releasing his new single "Somebody".  Malima's Father, Dougoutigi Koné, and Taale met in Africa in 1968 when Dougoutigi and his two brothers Bakary and Jeri—all phenomenal musicians—had left their village in Mali to begin a new life in Ouagadougou, the capital city of Burkina Faso. The previous year was the beginning of the 7-year drought that devastated the Sahelian region of Africa, severely impacting millions of Africans. The Koné brothers fired up the community with their drumming and bala xylophone performances. The Kone family are born into the tradition of jeli, also known as griot. The jeli are the carriers of the oral tradition and history of the peoples of West Africa. The Koné family soon became legendary. And the legend continues, now with Dougoutigi's multi-talented children breaking out all across the planet!

Mandjou—singer, dancer, jembe drummer, bala xylophonist—growing up in a jeli family in West Africa—from the celebration of her birth to a magical event that transformed her into a renowned singer-master jembe drummer!  Overview Filmmaker Taale Laafi Rosellini filmed Mandjou Kone, her siblings, her family and extended family as she was growing up in Burkina Faso, West Africa. Here, Taale interviews multi-talented artist Mandjou Kone about her childhood.  Mandjou reflects on what it was like, her challenges, her dreams, the every-day struggle for survival and magical moments captured on film, real heart-warming scenes of her childhood, from the award-winning documentary film Great Great Great Grandparents’ Music—filmed over a span of two decades and produced by African Family Film Foundation. Order the DVD of Great Great Great Grandparents’ Music, 104 minutes, with 84 chapters, available on African Family Film Foundation website: www.africanfamily.org/films This is Part 1 of a series of podcasts on Mandjou Kone, and her renowned jeli family of singers, musicians and carriers of the cultural history of West Africa. Reviews of Great Great Great Grandparents’ Music and African Family Films: “This is the most compelling and instructive documentary filmmaking I have seen in many years…a monumental accomplishment…invites the viewer into a magical world of colors, sounds, music and utter joy. Great Great Great Grandparents’ Music beautifully portrays the relationship between elders and children and the transmission of cultural knowledge. Through a child’s eyes, it presents an insightful picture of an African family which takes pride in their music, oral history and personal adornment and it’s infectious!”—Leasa Farrar Fortune, Education Specialist, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of African Art. “Great Great Great Grandparents’ Music is clearly one of the best documentaries ever done on Africa…thoughtful, sensitive and beautifully captured. I have watched the film perhaps ten times now and not only does it continue to hold my interest, but it gets better each time.” —Doran H. Ross, Director, Fowler Museum of Cultural History, University of California, Los Angeles. “The film focuses on an African family, emphasizing the education of motivated and perceptive children who learn through the example of their parents. This family directs itself toward dynamic sociocultural activities in preserving traditional values of its society.” —Sembene Ousmane, internationally acclaimed author and filmmaker. Films: Mandabi, Emitai, Xala, Ceddo, Faat Kine. “I believe Great Great Great Grandparents’ Music has educational and sociological lessons for the world, and will lead to a greater understanding of and appreciation for the peoples of West Africa.”—David Yohn, Filmmaker and Professor of Theater Arts, San Jose State University. "...an interdisciplinary approach in film where art, music, culture and daily life meet and are not separated...a departure from traditional anthropological documentaries which too often...lose the element of warm human interaction." —Dr. Manthia Diawara, Director of Africana Studies, New York University.  “I believe that the ultimate contribution of the film will be its contribution to humanity.”—Kamari Clarke, Anthropologist, University of California, Santa Cruz.