Just sitting down with a cup of coffee at Mick’s Caf’, Rocky Dawuni radiates possibility. He’s almost more evangelist than musician; nearly everything he says is imbued with the idea that he and we can be a better version of ourselves. The reggae star and Palisadian, set to headline the town’s Fourth of July fireworks concert, seeks to build cultural bridges and transform the world with his music. It seems a big mission for one man, but it’s hard not to be swept away by his optimistic worldview. Dawuni was born in Michel Camp, an army barracks located be tween Tema and Accra in the West African Republic of Ghana, and lived there until he was 12 years old. His father was an army cook, and also served as part of a U.N. peacekeeping force in both Egypt and Israel. Because the military was at the center of Ghanaian power during the 1980s, Dawuni says he was always in the midst of discussions about development and governance issues, and exposed to a diverse mix of political, cultural and religious perspectives on the base. He was the second son in a family of six boys and two girls, and even his own family offered disparate views’his father was Muslim (like much of the population of northern Ghana) and his mother Christian (like much of the south). He jokes that he and his siblings would side with his mother one week and his father the next over religion, but it’s clear that tolerance was the key message. It’s a lesson that Dawuni internalized and now hopes to spread through his music, a fusion of reggae, traditional African music and soul. ’Music is like evangelism,’ he says, in a theme he returns to again and again. ‘From the onset, I’ve always believed that the purpose of my career was to really travel within and among cultures, and I utilize that to create bridges, cultural bridges. I can distill the messages, the aspirations, the sounds, the sonics and then be able to bring it all into the musical form.’ His homeland is an eclectic mix of many tribes, speaking more than 75 different languages (though Eng lish is the official language). Da wu ni’s father, who passed away three years ago, was the chief of his tribe in Bunbon Nayili, and Dawuni’s brother is in line to be the new ruler, responsible for adjudicating the tribe’s myriad day-to-day issues. Even the jewelry Dawuni wears reflects the integration of many dif ferent beliefs and cultures. Around his neck, he has an ancient fishbone with a portion of the Shema, Ju da ism’s most important prayer, carved on it, which he acquired during a trip to Israel three years ago. (The journey deeply influenced his most recent album, ‘Hymns for a Rebel Soul.’) One ring combines a crescent, a common symbol of Islam, with the Star of David and ‘depicts the unity of all things,’ he says. Dawuni found his affinity for music early on. ‘It was just a natural thing,’ he says. ‘Whenever I heard or listened to music, it really had kind of a profound, transformative affect on me. I felt that the potential for music as a tool of social change was immense.’ Musical instruments were expensive enough to be out of reach for Dawuni’s family, but he could improvise, beatboxing with one friend serving as bass guitar and another as drummer. Not until he went to college did he have access to a real guitar. Rocky’s older, more practical brother, Bob, had convinced him that even if he intended to make a living playing music, he should attend the University of Ghana. Dawuni studied philosophy and psychology there and played in his first real band, Local Crisis. But college had an even bigger, more joyous effect on his life’it is where he met a UC Santa Cruz exchange student by the name of Cary Sullivan, now his wife, a talented professional photographer and broadcast producer who is also heavily involved in Dawuni’s career. The two moved to the U.S. for a few years, which Dawuni viewed as a chance to ‘open my mind,’ before returning to Ghana to live. (They moved back to the U.S. in the 1990s.) Now travel is a steady state for Dawuni, who spends about half the year on the road, often with Cary and their 8-year-old daughter, Safi yah. Every February, he flies to Ghana to prepare for a celebration of his home country’s independence day, March 6. His flagship festival, called Independence Splash, has drawn crowds of more than 25,000 people. From there, he typically travels throughout the continent and then, ‘I flow where the music takes me,’ says Dawuni, who just returned from Hanover, Germany. Dawuni’s music has been influenced by everything from hip-hop and rap to classic soul, and by world music like Hebrew klezmer and soca, a musical development of tra ditional Trinidadian calypso. ’I’m basically a citizen of the world,’ Dawuni says. ‘I believe in cultural engagement. People getting to know who lives on the other side of the fence. It’s very important.’ He was recently appointed as Ghana’s tourism ambassador. ‘I always promote Ghana wherever I am. Ghana is really the flagship na tion of Africa. Ghana was the first to be independent on the continent and also the one that has been able to create a very solid democratic government system, and so it’s been a big inspiration for the rest of Africa. President Obama’s first trip to the continent was to Ghana.’ Dawuni’s role as tourism ambas sador gives him access to foreign ministers and he hopes it will allow him to create links between his Ghanaian independence festival and Trinidad and Brazil, creating a big, multi-country carnival and, ultimately, more economic links among the regions. Government officials and others have long tried to reconnect Africa with populations largely created by the diaspora, in part to energize its economy. Brazil has the largest group of citizens descended from Africans displaced during the Atlantic slave trade. ’I told the politicians that we’ve got to connect the people first,’ before attempting economic integration, Dawuni says. He’s been persistently working on the idea. ‘If I knock 200 or 300 times, I will get the door to open,’ he says, laughing that in the end it may only be because the gatekeepers will be so tired of hearing from him. He hopes that the recent popular interest in Africa will eventually mean that ‘Everybody around the world sees the development and strengthening of Africa as a goal to empower humanity in general.’ But Dawuni’s message is bigger than Africa. ‘Whether black, white or whatever your background is, gender is, we all have to learn to carry each other because we are all sharing this planet together. It will be joyful when we start living for each other.’ Dawuni’s conversation is interlaced with idealistic statements like this. They seem as natural a part of him as his long dreadlocks and charismatic vibe, but he recognizes that they may sound fanciful, particularly in print. ’I know it sounds very utopian (and) everybody will say ‘Oh, it’s a dream,’ but you know, reality starts with a dream and conviction.’ He has partnered with organizations like The Carter Center and UNICEF, worked with Bono’s Proj ect RED and has established a nonprofit in Ghana that is focused on empowering young women through education, first by persuading their parents that education is a critical investment in lifting their families out of poverty. ’Ghana has made a lot of major strides . . . when it comes to wom en’s issues,’ Dawuni says. ‘We have a lot of very powerful women. It’s only a matter of time before we have our first woman president.’ This year has brought Dawuni much success, including winning Best African Artist at the 2011 International Reggae and World Mu sic Awards in Trinidad and the nomination of his new album for a NAACP Image Award. He will play at the Hollywood Bowl with Stevie Wonder and other artists on July 24, and CNN will film the performance for its show ‘African Voices.’ The Fourth of July in Pacific Pal isades offers a chance to connect his own community in a very special way. ‘As much as I call Africa home, I call the Palisades home. So I feel that we have to do something within the [Palisades] family, to recommit ourselves to our community,’ Dawuni says. ‘At the same time, just everybody coming out and seeing each other, in itself, is a powerful thing.’
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