Gambian band Deglulen playing in Chiswick
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Tag Archives: Events
West Africa visits the Sussex Coast
West Africa visits the Sussex Coast
Brighton Fringe Festival this May promises to be as exciting as ever and includes a number of events with an Africa theme including comedy, ballet, live music and workshops.
After last year’s stunning fringe debut, Africa Unite returns again on 11th May with a musical journey across the continent. With live sets by Bakk Lamp Fall (Senegal) and Sakama Live Showband (Tanzania) you can expect an evening of sun-soaked African beats and an unbeatable vibe.
Bakk Lamp Fall
Further highlights of the festival for me will be the West African percussion and dance workshops on 8th May (led by Ali Bangoura from Guinea Conakry) and the group harmony singing on 15th May.
For more information on these and other events at the festival please visit www.brightonfestivalfringe.org.uk
West African Drumming in Cambridge
If you have ever watched frantic dancers, leaping wildly to the polyrhythmic patterns of a Gambian drum and dance troupe and fancied trying your hand at playing the djembe yourself, here’s the perfect opportunity.
Ali Baba Bangoura will be running a West African Drumming workshop on Saturday 6th March, 2010 at Alex Wood Hall, Norfolk Terrace, Cambridge.
Visiting Cambridge for one day only! Ali Baba, formerly of Les Ballets Africaines, is now musical director for Brighton based, Batafon Arts. He has many years experience working with adults and children, in workshops, schools and at festivals.
Cost £12/13
For details and booking – contact Lucas on 07790-996845
Listen to Africa
Rebecca Sumner on the road in The Gambia. Image copyright - Listen to Africa
Listen to Africa is a brilliant project – one that utilises and pushes the blog format to its limits. It is the brainchild of Huw Williams and Rebecca Sumner, two hardy souls who have travelled extensively and, more to the point cycled extensively in various corners of the world. The Listen to Africa project is a two-year cycling expedition that will cover some 30 countries (you can see the proposed route here) with the aim of capturing various forms of footage along the way – and blogging it from the ground. Envious? Not a bit of it.
Tendaba Jetty. Image copyright - Listen to Africa
Huw and Rebecca aims for the trip are laid out on their blog: ‘a two year journey by bicycle to record some of the sounds of Africa – from oral histories and music to soundscapes and wildlife; recording and publishing sound seems an appropriate way to communicate from a continent that has so much to say and is so rarely heard outside of its own borders’. It sounds ambitious, but the fruits of it are at times astonishing – and when you see a list of their equipment, well, you can see how genuine and passionate the couple are about the project and completing it.
The scout hut at Kaira Konko. Image copyright - Listen to Africa
The site is already full of great blog entries, brilliant pictures and some genuinely fascinating audio footage. Being obviously mildly biased towards the Gambia we’ve picked out a few choice snippets from the smiling coast:
A soundscape of life in the mangrove swamps of the River Gambia.
An image gallery of the journey across The Gambia.
Festival of Tobaski 28th November, 2009
Even during breakfast at our hotel, there is an air of excitement. Many hotel staff wear their finest clothes - the ladies in beautifully embroidered dresses.
Once a year, about 70 days after the end of Ramadan, virtually the whole of The Gambia holds a barbecue!
This is the festival of Tobaski (also known as Tabaski or Eid Al Adha) when families ritually slaughter a ram in commemoration of Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his only son to God, who at the last minute exchanges Abraham’s son for a ram. It coincides with the end of the annual Hajj (pilgrimage) to Mecca, one of the pillars of Islam and very much encompasses another one of the pillars, the giving of alms.
Every married man or head of household is expected to buy a sheep (ideally a ram) or other suitable animal such as a cow, goat or even chicken if that’s all they can afford.
Tobaski is a public holiday and one of the major holidays celebrated by Muslims around the world. After open air prayers at the local mosque, families return home, kill their sheep and divide it into three portions, one to be kept aside for the family, one to be given to relatives and friends and one to be given to the needy. Indeed, the idea of sharing is the essence of the feast, bringing unity and harmony among family and neighbours and it is a day to forgive past wrongs.
In The Gambia and Senegal it is also the custom to offer food to anyone passing by and it would be disrespectful not to eat something, even if only a few mouthfulls. However, it would also be disrespectful to finish all the food as this implies that the host has not prepared enough food.
The waitresses join in the dancing to a local band
The lead up to Tobaski can be a stressful time for some, as the cost of a sheep can typically be twice a manual worker’s monthly salary. The cost raises steeply as Tobaski approaches. Everyone is expected to wear their finest clothes, preferably new. All compounds (family homes) are thoroughly “spring” cleaned.
Everyone spends the month leading up to the festival collecting coins as after the feast children are allowed to visit all their neighbours asking for Salibo (gifts). If you pass down the Kairaba Avenue at this time you’ll find it jam-packed with crowds of children around the ice-cream and cake sellers spending the “gifts” they have collected.
In the evening children are allowed to stay up late, while the adults sing, dance and chat while drinking numerous brews of ataya (green tea) and the celebrations can go on for a few days.
