TESTIMONIALS ABOUT VAUGHN BENJAMIN DOCUMENTARY The celebration of African genius

🔔 “We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.” Marcus Garvey

The documentary « TESTIMONIALS ABOUT VAUGHN BENJAMIN » is made by images chosen from Fred Uni T. personal archives. These are images of Midnite band and Akae Beka taken between 2014 et 2018 and between Paris , Amsterdam ,Spain and London.

For Fred Uni T, this group is a revelation in the world of reggae music since Bob Marley ( mostly singer and frontman Vaughn Benjamin) and she decides to pay full attention to it.

Her commitment is such that at the announcement of Vaughn Benjamin’s death , she decides to pay him tribute by using his literary work « Koll Pekude ».

December 6, 2019 , Fred Uni T was invited to a Vaughn Benjamin « AKAE BEKA » tribute event , she offers a musical reading of « ONE LOTA » taken from Vaughn Benjamin’s poetry book « Koll Pekude » adapted in French.

After the event , she decides to make her own tribute with many poems from the same book , but this time accompanied by original music.

Above all, she imagines a musical concept which superimposes Afrobeat and reggae that calls « Afrobeat Meet Reggae » and this after having attended a show in la Villette Paris by Nigerian Afrobeat-Jazz musician Tony Allen in August 2019. The goal being that Vaughn Benjamin’s work be widely propagated to all Kamites.

For this reason she decided to use several Kamite languages, in addition to the original language of the poems. This work is done with the collective she founded and which the name is : The Fred Uni T. Collective.

The idea of the documentary came to her for Vaughn Benjamin’s birth day celebration on August 13, 2019. As the event could not take place in a closed venue because of the sanitary conditions of covid19, there were two possibilities: either a live event online or an rebroadcast filmed event. She chooses the second possibility which became a documentary film.

« Koll Pekude » is a work of research , of thought, writing and metaphorical reflection of words, meaning of words, puns , and their impact on consciousness.

This episode of the documentary is based on the testimonies of people who have followed him from near or far: singers, journalists, rappers, Touba coffee vendors in concert venues, passionate , promoters and dj selectors... All over the world. Cameroon, Ethiopia , Saint Lucia, Martinique, Saint Croix, Eritrea, Congo, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Cape Verde, Gwadelupe.

In order to preserve the authenticity of the comments, she choose not to subtitle the film. Most of the participants speak their first language. You will hear testimonies in Wolof , Amharic, Duala, Kreol , Kongo also in French and English.

Enjoy the film...

We remember Vaughn Benjamin every day, we honoring him through his poems from his book "Koll Pekude" fusionned to afrobeat from Fela& Toni Allen a additional meeting between africans.

BROADCAST LINKS with us :
👉🏿- https://heavy.com/entertainment/2019/... (USA)
Vaughn Benjamin Dead: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
👉🏿- ZEMA ROOTS SHOW (end of the video): https://www.mixcloud.com/zemamusic/ze... (from Sueden & London)
👉🏿- BLACK CHARIOT - 26th April 2020 - Musical Medication - RootsYardd Dub (from TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO) :
   • Black Chariot - 26th April 2020 - Mus...  
👉🏿- Mat Blackvoices DJ- CONFÉRENCIER MUSICAL- ANIMATEUR RADIO
(France BESANÇON) 2021
https://www.mixcloud.com/blackvoicesr...

The Fred Uni T Collective:
   / fred uni. t collective - topic