Hip Deep In Madagascar: 21st Century Tana

On this Hip Deep edition, we visit nightclubs, cultural centers, radio stations, and the homes of prominent musicians to take the pulse of Madagascar’s lively highland capital, Antananarivo (Tana). Long the seat of power on the island, Tana is now home to spectacular artists from all the country’s ethnic regions. We’ll hear from rappers, traditional musicians, guitar innovators, veterans like Sammy, Hanitra, and Rossy, and lots of newcomers--also a dance band playing the latest club craze—a footloose dance style known as kilalaky. The program is rich with live recordings and acoustic performances created especially for Afropop Worldwide. With insights from Johns Hopkins historian Pier Larson and Duke University anthropologist Margaret Lou Brown, we also reflect on Madagascar’s complex history, politics and troubled governance in recent years.