What’s the obsession with running and walking? 

I asked myself this at the hike. 

Then like, on a cold Thursday night in the Artistry theatre a week later unexpectedly, I think I might have the answer! Please stay with me for this.

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I attended the launch of NLite x CamaguTv’s official music video screening and panel discussion for their new single that dropped today, Our People.  That’s where this lovely surprise and epiphany ignited. These are like, moments I appreciate – when the connection happens.

 

My question mainly came from like, what about the people who can’t walk or run? When they watch movies, hear songs, read poetry about the walking and running, do they feel seen and represented? Does the work resonate ever, at all? What do they take from those things, those narratives. Are these metaphors universal? Are they exclusionary? Does this imagery still carry meaning for everyone really?

 

If I couldn’t walk or run; what would I say? What would I take from it? 

 

The music video is by Camagu Productions’ Banele Yengeni and Dlozi* who mentioned in the panel discussion that they had previously shot many frames with the character running. And also mentioned it was just so serendipitous, the moment they shot for this particular music video for Our People.  It clicked; it linked. It somehow had a deeper meaning. They were able to connect it to something else outside of actual running and the shot. I would dare to also say thanks to the music.

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For me this was even more magical because I got to dissect that thought and question I had on the hike even further with a real case study – a real scenario. This.

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In the music video the main picture features a black man running. Symbolism – of a black man running, what would you say?  I mean well, we gotta run. We run because we must.

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Excitement. Pain. Hurt. Love. Money. Something. will move you. And you gotta take steps however towards betterment, towards life, towards yourself, the light if we are being absolutely direct in relation to the video.

 

The answer: It’s about motion.

Motion and being carried. 

Being carried? By what – yourself, people, legs, wheels, a song, family, art?

 

You know when he got to a crossroads while running and he had to choose a path; I believe that whichever way he went; he would have still found the light. Deadass. Had he taken the alternative, because he was in motion – he would have still felt and reached the sun, the light, warmth.

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Sometimes you’re carried by a community, or by hope, or by a memory, or a song. And sometimes that’s enough to keep you going.

 

Music videos aren’t made with storylines like that anymore. Or maybe I just haven’t immersed myself in enough of them if I’m wrong about the former statement. This collaboration is insane because the music carries (pun intended) the visuals as much as the visuals carry the song. It’s poetic. It’s art. It’s truth. And it’s done by young people launching in Youth Month.

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Here you go, enjoy: