M.I.

A, when pop music fnds a message

Free thinker, strong-headed with a taste for polemics, Mathangi Arulpragasam
had all the qualities necessary in order to become active in the political feld.
An art school along with a particular ear for music would eventually lead M..A
to shout her anger through the microphone that serves her as a megaphone. A
wrath that reveals her being both as enigmatic as emblematic, even though
she doesn!t consider herself as a musician but an activist in a globali"ed world
where victims aren!t equal in front of their fate.
Memoirs of a Tamil refugee
#ri-$anka. %he civil war is in full swing. &hile the territory passes successively
into the hands of three colonial empires, a rivalry takes place between the
#inhalese and %amil peoples. %his bitterness is aggravated in '()*, when the
#ri $anka acquires its independence with +reat ,ritain. %he same year, the
government still under ,ritish in-uence, passes a law denying the nationality to
the citi"ens of ndian origin. A decree which aims directly at the %amil
population.
n a pattern similar to the #outh African Apartheid, the #ri $anka becomes an
authoritarian state and does not represent anyone but the #inhalese
community. Minorities, among whom the %amils who represent a little more
than './ of the population, are marginali"ed, alienated. n '(0., the import of
products related to the %amil culture is banned. ,ooks, maga"ines, movies and
newspapers are then considered contraband and may lead to heavy troubles.
An a1ront perceived by the %amils as the will to ban little by little their people.
2People dont really feel like immigrants or refugees contribute to
culture in any way. That theyre just leeches that suck from
whatever.3
Far from this inhospitable environment, Mathangi sees the light of the day in
the suburbs of $ondon. #he is nevertheless forced to go to #ri $anka in '(04,
while she is only si5 months old. At the %amil convent of 6a1na, she develops
her frst relationship with painting and art in general. %he art aswell to avoid
bullets that the soldiers of the regime en7oy shooting through the windows of
classrooms.
8We were trained to dive under the table or run next door to English schools
that wouldnt get shot. !t was a bullying exploitation8 tells the artist numerous
years later.
t is for these precise reasons that the Arulpragasam family migrates to ndia.
%o avoid the military repression was a duty for the mother of Mathangi, decided
to protect her three children of the reprisals that their father!s resistant
activities may have engendered. 9ften away from the family home but very
close to %amil %igers of liberation, Arul :ragasam will be presented to his
children as the uncle of the family. A necessary security measure so that the
children do not raise suspicision about their father unintendedly.
&hen the family returns to 6a1na, the con-ict radicali"ed. %he primary school
where was registered Mathangi literally collapsed due to a bombardment. t is
these memories that she will pack with her when her family will obtain
refugee!s status in $ondon, a few days before her eleven years.
Missing in Action
,reathing a culture underestimated and unknown in the &est, she never got
really over this refugee!s mentality. ;er frst days at the <nglish school are an
ordeal. ,etween di=cult integration and vestiges of a con-ict that will mark her
all her life, she hardly succeeds in fnding her place. &orse, she can!t even
chose her place> because Mathangi is an unusual name in the area, she will
eventually be advised to let her teachers call her Maya in order to facilitate
conversations.
t is at the end of a tempestuous childhood rocked by the creations of a
needlewoman mother that Maya decides to register to a school of cinema.
&ithout any lack of ambition, the teenager applies to the prestigious #aint
Martin university of $ondon. ?ears later, she remembers having harassed the
school for an interview. An interview where she landed some hard-hitting words
when the principal asked her what would she do if they did not let her take
classes at #aint Martin.
2!ll go to "ings #ross and !ll go through the motions of being a
hooker or going to jail or being a drug addict or becoming a smart
criminal.3
#he is not even @A years old and yet she already seems very determined. ,ut
provocation is far from being one of the concerns of Maya, out of step with her
environment, as if she had a mission to take care of. A role that her past would
have attributed to her, her who wishes her classmates would raise radical
sub7ects in the style of #pike 6on"e or ;armony Borine. All too much occupied
with abstract theories that have no sense for average people.
%he karmic faith imply that nothing arrives accidentally, and Mathangi has
more surprises up her sleeve. &hen Maya fnally obtains her diploma of
cinema, she also receives a phone call announcing her the state of brain death
of her cousin. ,orn the same day as him and having spent her childhood by his
side, she considered him as her twin. %he comparison is horrifying when she
becomes aware of the fact that she has 7ust obtained a diploma in a prestigious
school whereas her twin died in one of the numerous hopeless fghts of the
%amil %igers.
t is to pay the last tribute to her cousin that Maya goes for the frst time since
her departure to #ri $anka. 9ver there, the government passed a decree
encouraging the prevention of terrorist acts. :urely and solely, anyone is free to
shoot at anyone else, as long as he suspects him to be a terrorist. Clearly, %amil
resistants would not last long there.
Maya gathers more than si5ty hours of testimonies of what!s left of the %amil
youth before returning in <ngland. Do"ens of young adults telling what they
lived during ffteen years of genocide. 9f these heart-rending images, she
would produce an entitled documentary 8M..A8 coming from the e5pression
8$issing !n %ction8, a term used by the army to indicate the soldiers whose
bodies we do not fnd after a fght.
Enfortunately, bad luck is not done playing with the fate of Maya. &hile she
comes back from her 7ournalistic trip, &orld %rade Center twin towers have 7ust
collapsed. ;er documentary, considered as terrorist propaganda, would
therefore never see the light of the day.
Karmic Equilibrium
f the activism of Maya is beyond the shadow of doubt, her artistic position is
nevertheless still a little bit vague. <ndowed for dancing, having learnt the
sewing with her mother, studied painting and cinema, she shows a rare
versatility. 9ver-owing with creativity, she does not succeed in fnding a
support to e5press herself and communicate concrete ideas. ,ut it is once
again by means of fate that the interest of Mathangi settled on music.
&hen Maya arrives to the Enited Bingdom, her family is installed in the suburbs
of $ondon, in :hipps ,ridge. Down here, :hipps ,ridge is what we call a
8council estate8> a stock of social housing dedicated to people whom english
government cannot place somewhere else. t is after the burglary of her house
and the theft of her radio that Maya discovers the hip-hop in the streets of
$ondon. ts down to earth side that groups as &ondon Posse and Public Enemy
embody in their rhymes moves her particularly. %his raw music and strongly in
touch with e5ile will mark her for life.
And so she takes the images of her report in the heart of the #ri $ancan con-ict
and transform them into symbolic pictures which she reinvents by using gra=ti
cans. ;er gra=ti will be the ob7ect of an e5hibition and will attract Fick
;ackworth!s eye, writer within the art service of the maga"ine Da"ed and
Confused, which will award her the 2Alternative %urner3 pri"e as well as a
laudatory column in its pages. ;er work will eventually hold attention of 6ustine
Frischmann, singer of the group <lastica, who will suggest her to flm the tour
of the group.
2! preferred to be at home slitting my wrists over the troubles of the
world' ! could never imagine performing and stu(.2
Maya gets interested in the composition after having strummed repeatedly on
Frischmann!s +roovebo5. Guickly, she takes the nickname of 8M..A8, acronym
of 8Missing n Acton8, in homage to her cousin and in reference to the district of
$ondon Acton where she also stayed. t is always beside 6ustine Frischmann
that M..A writes her frst single 8)alang8. f the rhythm is ennivrant, the words,
them, are rather direct. %he story tells about a young smoker of weed -eeing
from the police through the city of $ondon, in an atmosphere marked by (H''.
%he song comes out in @..A and is used as promotion for her frst album that
she will entitle %rular in homage to her father, whose she pursues the slightest
sign of life. An initiative which appears to be fruitful because he manages to
contact her a short time later to e5press his pride for her work. A frst victory
for M..A, who did not very feel at ease at the idea of singing on stage while her
cousins took part in spite of them in what was going to become the last hours
of the #ri $ancan con-ict.
%hrough music, Mathangi seems to have found her way. ;er own platform of
e5pression and also a way of opening the debate around problems on which
the world decided to close eyes. ;er universe will be tinted forever with the
horrors that her children!s eyes saw during a youth trailed round throughout
the planet.
Connected to oogle, connected to the go!ernment
M..A will pull all her strength from this anti-establishment posture. As french
people say, Mathangi has always both feet in the dish, even if it means being
splashed at the same time. ;er resilient character will play tricks on her and
her reputation will pay the price for it. ;er who complains to be associated with
the searches on terrorism within the results of +oogle carry on her shoulders
many years! weight of sidelining.
n the course of her career, she will multiply arguments, not always in a clever
way. Frank and direct, her impertinent attitude will lead her to multiple 7udicial
proceedings. ;er last glorious bangI Fothing less than a middle-fnger in front
of an audience of more than hundred million people. A gesture that she will
hide skillfully under the symbol of Matangi, goddess of the music in ;induism.
,oth her passion for the digital technology and atctivism will move her closer
to her to 6ulien Assange. &idely inspired by the &ikileaks a1air, M..A surfaces
again in @.'. and upload a mi5tape called *icki $eek5 from %hailand.
Enfortunately, all the elements were combined to deliver a provocative
message but it is rather a hymn to the dance--oor which ensues from it.
Fonetheless, she stills delivers bombs like > 2your shoes could feed a village'
you should think about that2 through her lyrics.
2+ou wanna be successful , -tand for nothing and promote
consumerism.3
During the o=cial reception of %ime '.. Most n-uential Jeception, M..A,
nominated for the occasion, met 9prah &infrey, considered as one of the most
powerful women in the world. <ven though M..A and a group of %amil activists
will have no respite to talk to her about the #ri $ancan situation, 9prah will
never linger over the question. ;er conclusionI %his society life is defnitively
not for her.
8.rightened8 to have arrived 8at the top of the mainstream culture8, Maya does
not feel comfortable with the glitter of the showbi". &orse, her capacity to
create commercial successes such as 2Paper Planes8 or 2/ad )irls8
automatically awarded her the status of the goose that lays the golden eggs in
the eyes of record companies. %his way, after multiple quarrels with her label
nterscope, she decided to leave it on Few ?ear!s <ve.
;ow to campaign for a 7ust cause while making popular musicI 9nly Mathangi
Arulpragasam has the answer.
Arnaud #ommie