Bidla

The traditional music from the Mediterranean island of Malta known as “ghana” was originally performed by women on rooftops to communicate to their neighbors. Contemporary ghana is now performed almost exclusively by men, and consists of ballads and “completive arguments” sung by at least two men and accompanied by guitar. But there’s also an underground hip-hop community on the island that’s combining ghana with rap to create an entirely new sound. Amanda Eke’s documentary Bidla explores the fusion of ghana and hip-hop through the lens of hip-hop artists and cultural anthropologists.