Diggers and Authors
Created by Ornella Muntoni with help from Boom Shakalaka
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ornellamutoni
Introduce yourself!
I'm Ornella, I work in TV as an Assistant Producer, I also have a radio show on the side and my jam is really everything documentary. I love story telling but I also love a good boogie, so bringing my love for docs and music in a podcast form was something I had to do.
Give us the elevator pitch for your piece
Diggers and Authors is a podcast exploring reissue culture surrounding African music and who is reaping the benefits of this! This podcast looks to uncover whether there are better ways of sharing the music from the continent so that profits and ownership remain in the continent.
Why did you want to make this piece?
As non-western music becomes more popular globally, the popularity of African artists has grown but their stories are often forgotten. This podcast looks to uncover the stories of their success, the external climate in which they made the music that can help us understand the root of the music they made. The podcast will seek to highlight how the music is celebrated locally but also look to understand who are the winners of the growing popularity of this music. Being African, I hope this podcast can help document a cultural pride for the continent I’m from, that is often negatively portrayed and homogenised in the media. I wanted to make this podcast to help the audience consume this music more consciously, as issues are still present with the Western labels gaining more capital than the producers of the music.
Describe how you made your piece
I largely made the podcast from my bedroom. The interviews were done over zoom in 2020 when I was living in Naarm/Melbourne and the edit happened in my bedroom in London when I moved back in the spring of 2021.
What's the most interesting thing you learned as part of this?
That there are ways this music could and should be shared so that profits remain with the artists whilst still gaining international recognition.