Produced with Lindsay Sample and Shayla Harris.
Vicky Brown can forge even the wonky issue of community forestry into a potent rallying cry that packs dance floors. His songs support the Baka peoples— indigenous to the Congo basin forests—who lack equal access to education, land ownership, and the justice system within Cameroon. Because the Baka use music to pass messages between communities, Brown worked with village leaders and musicians to craft songs voicing these common concerns. The political demands— translated into beats and rhymes in French and English that also connect with Cameroon’s urban population—are uniting the Baka and putting pressure on the country’s elites to respond.
Eleven music videos that Brown filmed in Baka villages can be viewed at this Youtube playlist, also embedded below.
Part of my work for CUT – Global Costs of Illegal Logging an international reporting project with the UBC Global Reporting Program and the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, Canada–exposing the $30 billion trade in illegal wood. Our work won a 2013 Canadian Online Publishing Award for video and multimedia reporting and won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, from the Radio, Television and Digital News Association
Vicky Brown can forge even the wonky issue of community forestry into a potent rallying cry that packs dance floors. His songs support the Baka peoples— indigenous to the Congo basin forests—who lack equal access to education, land ownership, and the justice system within Cameroon. Because the Baka use music to pass messages between communities, Brown worked with village leaders and musicians to craft songs voicing these common concerns. The political demands— translated into beats and rhymes in French and English that also connect with Cameroon’s urban population—are uniting the Baka and putting pressure on the country’s elites to respond.
Eleven music videos that Brown filmed in Baka villages can be viewed at this Youtube playlist, also embedded below.
Part of my work for CUT – Global Costs of Illegal Logging an international reporting project with the UBC Global Reporting Program and the Centre for Digital Media in Vancouver, Canada–exposing the $30 billion trade in illegal wood. Our work won a 2013 Canadian Online Publishing Award for video and multimedia reporting and won a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award, from the Radio, Television and Digital News Association