In many cases in life we often find ourselves drawn to a certain type of person or thing which, in the long run, we end up forming a relationship with. Materials ranging from teddy bears to phones become our daily companions and we find we cannot live without them. These are the spoken relationships we have, but people more often than not forget about the relationship we should have with our stars. In other parts of the world this is more pronounced. Justin Bieber walks into a store and the female population within a five mile radius is all up in arms over it. International stars find it very hard to live their daily lives, because they are living it with half the population of the world. Unfortunately, this does not happen in many countries in Africa, or should I say for stars of their own country. It’s fascinating how a star from another country within the same continent makes an appearance and everyone is ecstatic. The crowds are jumping more than they usually do. The girls are screaming louder than they usually do and the guys are more in tune with the songs than they usually are. Let an artist who resides in your own country take centre stage and it’s a sad, sad sight. Love starts right from home and so does appreciation. So who are to blame for this lack of attachment, the artist or the crowd? Let us evaluate this, many of ‘our’ international artists are what we call media creations. The camera is always flicking on them which makes them seem unreachable or fascinating in our eyes and hence we end up loving everything they do following up on every part of their life. That unfortunately is not the case in many countries in Africa. Media do not follow up on artists, in most cases we cannot identify with them and do not have the need to find out every single part of their lives. Or maybe it could be the content of their music. Why does everyone like Beyoncé or Taylor Swift? Their music must have some sort of connection between them, the words and the listener. In Africa’s defence, many songs here touch the soul as well. It could be the fact that many of ‘our own’ artists do not connect with the crowd. The fans also have a part to play in the making of a star that would spin heads even if they coughed. In our minds we are so wrapped up in the international stars our very own go unnoticed. Many iPods and other music players consist of more than enough international music than local or home grown sound. It has gotten to a point a five year old child can recite a whole Lil’ Wayne album but cannot name ten local artists. In our minds also everything that comes from elsewhere always seems better than what we have at home. There are many more factors involved here, many more that would fill a book. All that is evident here is that there is little or no love for home grown stars. In a situation like this between two people it would be very relevant to meet each other halfway. If we play our part with unconditional love for them, they will in turn come out and remind us why it is we scream for them ever so loudly at their concerts, buy their albums and ambush them when we meet them on the street. Let us fix this very dilapidating relationship for the long run. deniseangaela@yahoo.com
