Hip Hop Republicans?

Paris Dennard a Hip Hop Republican

Spoke at the 2004 Republican Convention

Kamal Lathan grew up in Jamaica, Queens, New York as an avid hip hop enthusiast and a registered Democrat. But after graduating from college and starting a small community-based business in Brooklyn, his taste in music remained, but his politics began to change.

He became frustrated by what he felt was an inordinate amount of government regulations and high taxes, which he says helped drive him out of business.

"I was employing convicts, welfare mothers, and youngsters," said the 26-year-old. "But I had to close up shop and fire the people working for me due to the high taxes that were killing my business."

This experience made him scrutinize the tax structure, and was one of the key factors that helped him make his mind up about political parties and their positions. Today he is a registered Republican, one of a growing number of "hip hop Republicans" who attended the 37th annual Republican Party Convention.

The Republican convention strove to highlight the GOP's inclusion of blacks and other minorities, featuring speeches by Gen. Colin Powell, presidential nominee George W. Bush's foreign policy advisor Condoleeza Rice, and other prominent black Republicans.

The youngest speaker to address the delegates was 17-year-old Paris Dennard of Phoenix, Arizona, an African American Republican supporter from a single-parent family who worked as a page for the Arizona delegation throughout the convention, and whose speech was greeted with thunderous applause. The presence and enthusiastic participation of Dennard and other black youths underlined the growing appeal that the Republican Party is having for some young African Americans.

These young blacks have come into the Republican Party for a number of reasons, ranging from disenchantment with the Democrats to support for the Republicans' focus on issues such as school choice, self-reliance and personal responsibility.

"The hip hop mentality is to maximize your power, but the problem with politics in the black community is that we are in one political party," said Lathan, who is co-chair of America's Black Republicans, a black GOP group. "With 85 percent of African Americans voting Democrat, we are taken for granted. And because so many of us vote Democrat, the Republicans ignore us. We're like ‘Monie in the Middle,' stuck in the middle," he added, referring to a popular rap song of the late-1980s.

Lathan, along with other black Republicans who attended the convention, believes it is time to leverage the black vote, to force both parties to respond to the interests of the black electorate. And they feel that the GOP is the party that best speaks to the concerns and the current condition of black people.

"Brothers and sisters in the hip hop culture who grew up are concerned about economic independence and full access to a quality education," said Shannon Reeves, a Republican and president of the Oakland NAACP.

"This is the message that we are fighting to deliver into the black community for the next generation, because the hip hop generation has the chance to become the first economically self-sufficient generation of our lifetime and this cannot be achieved by following Democrat government programs.

"In his latest film, Maangamizi – The Ancient One, independent Los Angeles filmmaker Ron Mulvihill and Tanzanian director Martin Mhando tackle the mysterious African spirit world, as well as the complex relationship between African Americans and Africans. Swahili for "destroyer," Maangamizi refers to a powerful ancestral spirit whose guidance binds two women from very different worlds together.

In the film, accomplished Tanzanian actress Amandina Lihamba plays Samehe, a patient at a mental institution who has not spoken for twenty years. When Dr. Asira, an African American physician played by American actress BarbaraO (Daughters of the Dust), comes to work at the hospital, she is inexplicably drawn to Samehe.

The pair embark on a spiritual journey to recovery and redemption which takes them to the top of the dormant volcano, Mt. Meru, overlooking the spectacular Kilimanjaro plains and home of Samehe's ancestor, Maangamizi, "the grandmother of all grandmothers," played by Zanzibari actress Mwanajuma Ali Hassan.

Chemi Che-Mponda, a Tanzanian journalist now living in Boston, played Nurse Malika, a staff member at the mental hospital. Although she is not an actress, Che-Mponda said she was offered the part after telling Mhando how a previous film, Mama Tumaini, could have been improved. At the director's request, she acted out some of her suggestions and was offered the role on the spot.

"My mouth dropped and I was speechless," she said. "As soon as I regained my composure, I immediately said ‘Yes'…All of us who took part in Maangamizi became emotionally involved in it. For that time we were a family. I have high hopes for Maangamizi, which is a groundbreaking movie for African filmmaking. I thank the Lord and my ancestors that I was able to play a role in it."

The film was shot in the Tanzanian town of Bagamoyo, a former slave port. In Swahili "bagamoyo" means "lay down your heart," referring to the fact that slaves would symbolically leave their hearts in Africa before being shipped away. "The locations have a lot to do with the symbolism in the film," Mulvihill said. "The story is about reclaiming your heart."

Although it is still being prepared for general theatrical release, Maangamizi was presented in video form at the Zanzibar Film Festival, where it was named the best feature film in 1998. The film has also been acclaimed by such prominent luminaries as Alice Walker.

"[It's] more than a movie," wrote the celebrated African American writer on the film. "It is a look at how we've been torn at our roots; severed from nourishment at the source...Those of us who can remember and honor who we have been over eons of time, will be able to inspire the whole world to greater heights of compassion."

The film is primarily shot in Swahili, but does feature English dialogue between doctors and officials, which Mulvihill explained is faithful to the African reality, where European languages are often used in professional or business situations.

Mulvihill said the filming of Maangamizi contained a number of ironies.

Having worked in Tanzania before, he presented the Tanzanian Film Company a number of scripts written by his wife, Queenae Taylor-Mulvihill. Although most of the scripts featured African or African American-oriented themes, the film company picked the only script with no apparent connection to Africa whatsoever: They chose a story based on the life of the Greek goddess Hekate, a role Taylor-Mulvihill had originally written for Betty Davis. The film company told Mulvihill that all he had to do to was make the goddess African and he would have a totally African story.

It has been six years since they started shooting, and Mulvihill has raised almost the entire $1 million to prepare Maangamizi for release. Prominent Hollywood director Jonathan Demme, whose work includes Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia, and Beloved, has contributed considerably and is the film's executive producer.