Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations share The Intolerable Suffering Of (The) Other chapter from upcoming album

After announcing I Came From Love with the first chapter You Survived So I Might Live in November last year, Dave Okumu & The 7 Generations have shared The Intolerable Suffering Of (The) Other, the second chapter of the album that features four additional tracks and contributions from Wesley Joseph, Kwabs, Anthony Joseph and ESKA.

Okumu says of the new chapter, "Chapter 2 from my album continues to explore aspects of the Black experience from different perspectives. It contains a vital recitation by the poet Anthony Joseph of an extract from Aime Cesaire’s glorious poem Return To My Native Land ("My Negritude"), a rumination on the price of minority survival ("The Cost") featuring Madinkra aka Kwabs, a stunning performance from Cesa Empress aka Wesley Joseph ("Prison") and the central track, "Black Firework", with contributions from Magic Woman aka Eska, Madinkra and Cesa Empress. The genesis of this song is attributed to my five-year-old son, Django who claimed to see black fireworks whilst watching a display. This became a vivid metaphor for a feeling I hold around the valuation of Black culture, something which is in magnificent repetitious ascendancy but is rarely engaged with in its full radiance. Two of the four tracks feature the sublime drumming of Tom Skinner (The Smile/Sons of Kemet), as well as contributions from Aviram Barath (Wesley Joseph and Loyle Carner’s MD) and Nick Ramm (The Cinematic Orchestra) on keyboards. This music is an invitation to see the unseen."

He adds of the album, "The narrative of this record emerged in tandem with the origin of its musical journey, through a rumination on survival, ancestry and heritage. The account of the young west African girl who was transported to South Carolina in 1756 and sold to the slave owner Elias Ball and the subsequent unearthing and presentation of her story to her descendants became an emblematic framework for these songs, opening doors to many aspects of the diasporic experience. The music stands in loving defiance of any forces that would seek to disconnect us from our collective history. As I consciously stand before my ancestors through the medium of this sound world, I proclaim that ‘You survived so I might live’."