Recent Ramblings

This month I had the opportunity to meet up with some PC volunteers from Benin to do some traveling in Mali and Senegal. Here are some snapshots and highlights.

Segou Music Festival

This year the Malian town of Segou held it's 6th annual Festival Sur le Niger, which is probably the single most important event for showcasing Mali's rich music culture and world-class artists. The festival took place over almost an entire week, each day ending with a headlining concert whose stage was actually a float on the Niger river. (For those of you from Chatty, it kind of reminded me of Riverbend.)

Dakar, Senegal

After Segou and a short sejour in Bamako we headed to Senegal. It's capital, Dakar, blew me away with its urban development, tall builings, cliffside seascapes, and great restaurants. Dakar has an interesting culture all its own: worldly and sophisticated residents, an African language (Woloff) quite unlike others I've heard before, lively sub-cultures, and the capital West Africa's longest-standing democracy (modern Senegal has never seen a coup d'etat), to point out a few facets of this city.

Goree Island, Senegal

Goree Island is just off Dakar, and was one of the main slave ports in the 17th and 18th centuries. Today the island is filled with Malian artisans, museums, and winding paths that take you past old colonial buildings, baobab trees, and friendly residents.

Saint Louis, Senegal

Saint Louis is all the way up the Senegal coastline, just shy of the Mauratanian border. Historically it was the French administrative center for all of Francophone West Africa, and the island part of the town contains block after block of interesting architecture.

Toubab Dialo, Senegal

Senegal has some nice beaches--somehow much more picturesque and swimmer-friendly than the kind you'd find on the underside of West Africa in Gulf of Benin.Toubob Dialo was one of these "beach towns." Yes, that's me sweeping the beach.

All my photos from these trips are posted on my Picassa Account Enjoy.

A Primer on West African Music

Unlike the U.S.’s melting-pot culture and our music scene’s incessant search for new sounds and styles, West Africans seem comfortable reserving only a handful of music categories to which they typically listen. (A Virgin Mega store would probably be a very intimidating place for your average Beninese.) On a recent bus ride I decided to try creating a taxonomy of all the sounds I’ve heard. This wasn’t too arduous a mental activity, but I am also no sophisticated connoisseur or technician of music. In any case I came up with 5 main categories of music that is commonly “locally” produced in West Africa:

- Traditional music. Yeah, Duh. West Africa’s traditional music can vary quite a bit depending on what region you’re in—each has its own personality, language, and canon of instruments. In my opinion there are certain regions that put out more beautiful and skillful music than others, but I won’t say which.

- Rumba sort of type stuff. Not a very technical term, but there you have it. I think this originates from the Congo, at least all the major artists seem to be there. Some of it sounds quite Latino.

- Cote d’Ivoirien Beat Music. This thrives all along coastal West Africa and is characteristically identified by a very overt electric drum-beat driving each song. Often there’s some trumpet involved. A lot of West African musicians seem to come from this stock— and it takes a lot for such an artist to sound original.è

- I want to add a sub-category to this one. I say sub-category because to me its just a more mellow version to the just-mentioned. But it probably (and as I am told) actually warrants its own category. It’s called, Zouk: a style actually originating from the Caribbean, and featuring slower beats.

- Reggae. Cote d’Ivoire is again the bastion of this school, but there is more variety and often more depth within. This music’s lyrics thrive get a lot of their inspiration from social issues.

- Hip-hop. Not sure if West-African hip hop has its roots in any particular place in the region, but many successful artists of this genre seem to come Senegal, perhaps because it is most one of the region’s countries most connected to Western culture whence rap comes. In any case, hip-hip is being attempted enough all over the subcontinent to warrant being its own category.

Here are some of my favorite albums. Some of them are produced in Africa so I’m not sure how widely availably they are, but I’ve tried to include links where possible:

- Habib Kioté: Malien singer. Exemplifies the best of acoustic traditional music. Hear samples here.

- Tiken Jah Fakoly – Noveau Albume. Probably my favorite reggae artist. Amazing lyrics and original sounds. He’s from Cote d’Ivoire but lives in France. A music video from this record.

- Magic System. I’m usually not a fan of the common-stock Cote d’Ivoirien stuff, but these guys are pretty good-O, good-O, good-O. Their website.

- Petite Miguelito. I had to throw at least one Beninese artist into the mix. I’ve seen Petite, and he really is small. But his songs are fun. Hard to find him one the internet but heres a picture at least to prove he's a little guy. Scroll up.

- Rokia Traoré. Beautiful, haunting voice. A rare example of the softer, more melancholic music that’s rather rare. Her website.

Expat Survival Gear

What does one take to Africa for survival, entertainment, comfort? A daunting question, but which must be answered, and soon. Here are some of the more important items constituting my 80-pounds of rations thus far:

• Italian Espresso Maker and French Press. Relaxants and relationship-builders.
• Cumin and Cilantro (Lots - I plan to be the first to pioneer Tex-Mex in West Africa...if things work out the way I plan, I may be doing some Chipotle small business development in the distant future).
• Top Gun Soundtrack. "Danger Zone" will be the anthem of choice when its time to put on the aviators and ride back-seat on a moped taxi down the main strip of Porto Novo.
• Big Bass Pro Shop mesh hat. For protection from the Equatorial sun but mostly in honor of the South and Andy Clark.
• Books. Walking With the Poor by Bryant Myers. Mythology by Edith Hamilton - not so much for becoming better-versed in mythology as much as for recalling the joy that these stories bring to Cassel. Brothers Karamazov by Dostoevsky - I MUST finish this book. Puritan Prayers for finding words more beautiful than my own. Some C.S. Lewis.
• Scrabble, Travel Edition. So that I don't forget how to speak English.
• Radio Shack Dynamo hand crank short wave radio. For catching the BBC World Service and other voices from the West. And so I don't forget how to speak English.

I'm open to further suggestions...