The “double celebration” from this saturday 8 October will be held in the aforementioned pedestrian walkway in the heart of the capital.
A double celebration will take place this Saturday 8 October in Santiago: Sudaka Sound System will celebrate its 15 years of existence in a new edition of the event “Manifest“, which in turn celebrates one year taking place on Paseo Bandera, in the heart of the capital.
The “Manifest” It takes place on the first Saturday of each month at the aforementioned place., the old tunnel under the Alameda that became a pedestrian promenade, bringing reggae music and sound system culture for free to anyone who wants to listen.
The selectors will bring the festive day to life Bad Chiken, Crissis, Jumping and Chelektah Teflay, with guest singers Juanito Ayala, Boomer, Manfajah y Mc Dealer, besides the dancers Eimmy & Revoll y Sista Tamy, and the animation of native roots.
The history of Sudaka Sound System
In conversation with Reggae Chalice, Chelektah Teflay, founding member of Sudaka, He explained how this project came about after a trip to France in which he learned a lot about sound system culture..
“Bueno, Sudaka is born in the year 2007 after my return from almost 2 years of living in France - in Toulouse- and work with Bunny Dread, a selector that started in the mid-1990s 80 in Paris, one of the pioneers of the sound system in France. I was lucky to learn what I wanted to know., why, as I read recently, When there are no references you have to be one yourself and go out and look for them and that is what happened.In Chile there were no sound system references, What there is until now were reggae DJs or reggae clubs, but that is very different from what is done with a sound system”, Teflay relates.
“This opened a world to me with the sound system when understanding riddims, the jargon used and how a sound system works: the operator, electrical selector, the entertainer, the singers and, in our case, lucky to have dancers, because that is also something that has happened quite new in Chile.”, Add.
The sound system culture originates in Jamaica in the years 50 and it grows over the years 60, coinciding with Jamaica's independence from the United Kingdom in 1962 and with the development of ska, rocksteady and reggae. The sounds were real mobile discos, with speakers mounted on top of trucks and selectors that played the hits of the time that were installed in the streets on an itinerant basis., bringing this culture directly to the people.
“What we try to do is a Jamaican-style sound system and that just like in the years 50, 60, 70 and to this day it was always mixed and put together (…) And we began to generate an entire culture in a country like Chile, which is like the end of the world. We are a third world country that lives far from everything and even though today there is the internet and all the technology, when we started with this there were no possibilities of getting music or anything.”, Teflay asserts..
further, maintains that when analyzing “what is happening with us, with Sudaka, who opened himself to the world of the sound system and who always kept it in mind during these 15 years we've been like this, because before that we were Crazy Horse from the 2002, it's because We are the ones who have to keep this culture alive”.
“Reggae is musical avant-garde”
For the founder of Posse Sudaka, Reggae has great musical importance throughout history, considers it as “vanguard” and maintains that Jamaica in turn is a showcase observed from all over the world.
“Reggae has always been avant-garde music, from where later the pop is grabbed a lot, the most commercial music, and music has always been on the island. Jamaica is a third world country, like a tiny population, it's an island, but So much music has come from this island, more music than England, that the United States, more music than everyone and that is what we have to recognize. That's why I also fell in love with reggae music, I don't come from reggae or hiphop culture, I came more from ska music, punk and that's when I started to get interested”, express.
Likewise, highlights the connection that reggae had with social and political issues since its beginnings.
“Reggae music is not just love and peace, It also goes hand in hand with the social and the political.. Someone I met along the way told me that reggae is the most anarchist music in the world., It's pure freedom, because anyone in the world can grab the music and make their own version”, emphasizes.
“The music, the sound system is our weapon”
further, Teflay considers the sound system as a form of fight against the system, against injustice and ensures that the only thing excluded from Sudaka is fascism, so in vogue these days in Chile and in the world, with an increase in hate speech from the extreme right.
“That's why we continue with this, because it is our way of fighting, because it is the weapon that we choose to fight: music, el sound system (…) During these 15 years we have invited all the sound systems that exist in Chile to all of them and if we have not invited any of them, we will invite you in the future. Same with singers, Although we do not share the essence or the things we think with everyone, we do share the music and within that we do not exclude anyone.”, manifest.
“The only ones we could exclude would be someone who has a fascist outlook., That will never have a place in Sudaka, which is an anti-fascist Sound System, that today with everything that is happening in Chile those things are important, define ourselves and say that the things that are happening, report and that is what we also have to do as they are the system as selectors, it is our responsibility”, emphasizes.
And precisely the political and social aspects are an important part of this initiative that arises with Sudaka Sound System, says its promoter.
“That's what matters to us too, we don't just care who is talking about spirituality, peace and love, I am also interested in whether the topics they are addressing are social and political issues like those that are being discussed today., Not for nothing are we called Sudaka Sound System, It's not for nothing that our event in Bandera is called Manifest, everything has a political connotation, Taking over a public space is a political action, that's what we are doing”, highlights Teflay.
Also thanks to the store Rudeboys for the constant support of Manifest as “thanks to the society we form with them (Rudeboy) I had the idea a year ago to do it here. (the event) in Flag and It has been a wonderful year”, concludes.
