About Senegal And Love For The Music

 About Senegal and love for the music

You know how an idea sometimes becomes real by pure coincidence?

 

This story is about that. And Senegal.

 

I don't know why I feel some sort of connection with Africa – could be

 

because of my name (which is African), or maybe heartbreaking (or 

 

heartwarming) photos of cute little children and nice people, or its 

 

wilderness, or simply my encounters with Africans around the world. 

 

Maybe also my strong sense of justice and the need to protect everyone I feel 

 

should be protected. 

 

 

 

Africa is much more than everything I wrote above and it is not, as you 

 

may wish to remind yourselves, a country, but a continent. It means that 

 

there are plenty of differences and whichever African country you choose, it 

 

will be quite unique in its own sense. 

 

 

 

I chose West Africa or, to be more precise, Senegal, Gambia and Mali. This

 

is where music took me to.  Being an eager fan of all kinds of music, I like

 

to explore music around the world. And so I came across some 

 

well-known names that most of us will have known, such as Youssou

 

N'Dour and Salif Keita. I started listening to everything they have ever 

 

produced and loved it. And the language(s), too. They led me further to

 

some great musicians such as Rokia Traore, a woman who I absolutely 

 

admire just by her looks and energy, let alone her musical talent. 

 

And then I thought how great it would be to visit those countries. Of 

 

course, it would be. But it's not like you go to your friends and say –

 

 „Look, I feel like going to Africa, I'd really like to explore the music and 

 

the culture in Senegal. Do you think you could go with me? „– and expect 

 

them to say „Yes, sure!“ immediately.

 

So I abandoned the idea. Then I saw there was a concert of Senegalese 

 

music in Zagreb and went to it. I met there Senegalese musicians who are

 

also organizing music workshops in Senegal. And this is where Commi 

 

Balde, a talented Senegalese musician from Ziguinchor, comes in. A few 

days ago I spoke to him about Senegal, putting in front of him a long list

 

of questions that I prepared.

 

 

 

 

We hope that you will enjoy this interview and maybe get interested into 

 

some of the topics mentioned, especially the workshop Commi and his 

 

friends are organizing in Senegal in December 2015. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Connected: Commi, this will be a story about you and your views about 

Senegal and everything else. We'll start with you then.  

 

Commi: I'm from Ziguinchor, a Senegalese town on the West African coast, 

and I come from a large family of musicians. Everyone from my mother's side 

was a musician. She herself is a „griot“, which is a term denoting a special 

class of people in Senegalese society –historians, storytellers, praise singers, 

poets and/or musicians. The griot is a source of oral tradition and is often

 seen as a societal leader.  

As you may know, we all come from different tribes and the most popular ones

in Senegal are the Wolof, Mandinka, Fula and Serer. Each of the tribes has

their own language, like Wolof and Mandinka, which are the most popular

languages in Senegal and everyone,  no matter which tribe they are from, will

 speak these two.  Wolof is officially recognized as „lingua franca“ in Senegal. 

My mother is a Mandinka and my father a Fula. Yet I can hardly speak or 

understand Fula. I speak Mandinka, Wolof and French. French is an official 

language taught at school, as we used to be a French colony. Portuguese is 

also spoken by some people in the south of Senegal. Apart from that, many 

people, myself included, speak English as well. 

Connected: The musicians I mentioned earlier, Youssou N'Dour, Rokia 

Traore, etc., all have a status of griots. And your mother, too – that means 

that it was inevitable that you have a strong musical influence in your family.

Commi: Yes, exactly. As I said there are a lot of musicians in my family 

playing all sorts of instruments such as drums (djembe, saouruba, sabar), 

kora, etc. I play all of those and also the guitar. I was going to school and

then said to my parents I wanted to be a musician. They weren't happy about 

it (smiles), but that's exactly what I became. I started playing all across 

Senegal and a few times also in the Gambia with my uncle . Music for me is 

all about passion. It will always be the first thing in my life. I feel I have a lot

 to give in terms of it and want to develop myself constantly. The musicians 

you mentioned are among my favorite ones, but the one I really look up to is 

Seckou Keita. He is the one from whose music I learn and inspire myself all 

the time. I can play everything, like covers, i.e. popular stuff, but my aim is to

 be performing my own music, which I write. That is exactly what I'm doing 

most of the time. Here in Croatia I have two bands: Kaira Kela, made up of

Senegalese musicians mostly, who are my friends, now also living in Europe;

and Silaba, which is a band of both Senegalese and Croatian musicians. 

Connected: About Croatia, you've been here for quite some time now.

Commi: Yes,this is my second time in Croatia and this time I've been here for

almost two years now. I have a lot of projects here. Together with my friend 

Abdoulaye I have a dance school where we teach African dance and we have 

numerous workshops where we teach playing African instruments, such as 

djembe, etc. We make our own instruments and I can tell you that these 

workshops have been extremely popular with Croatians. Most of them are in 

Zagreb, but we've had workshops all over Croatia, from north to south. We are

just preparing a workshop on the island of Vis, which will take place in July. 

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kaira-Kela/1436805993295633?fref=ts

Connected: Can you tell our readers something about the workshop you are organizing in Senegal and which will take place from December 20 to January 7 or 9, 2016?

Commi: Yes, that is the one you are interested in. We will go from Zagreb to

Dakar and then to Ziguinchor. After that we are going to Kafountine, a small 

island on the West coast, where we will have a two-week workshop of African 

music and dance. Me and Abdoulaye will be organizing the whole trip and act 

as your guides during all that time. This is the website that we've set up for 

that purpose: 

http://ismailabalde.wix.com/senegal2016

 

I hope more of you will get interested in it and experience Africa as it is in its

entire culture. 

Connected: Looking at the itinerary and talking to you, I can say you are very organized. I have to say, I didn't expect that kind of attention to details in this context.

Commi: Well, I'm always like that. I want to make things right, especially 

when it comes to things that I live from. However, I don't want to perform on

my own, I have my bands. Kaira Kela, for instance, has 8 musicians and we look for venues where we can all perform together.

Connected: You said you write your own music. What about other musicians in your two bands?

Commi: Yes, I do, but when I finish something, I want each member of the 

band to add their own touch to it so that we can have a piece of music that 

contains something from all of us.

Connected: Let's talk about your country now. Tell us something about its cultural traits. The first thing that crosses my mind is that most people in Senegal are Muslim. How does that influence your culture?

Commi: Yes, most people are. I was also born into a Muslim family. 

Regardless of the tribes we have, which are part of African tradition, most 

people in Senegal are Muslim. This means certain traditions that we respect. 

For instance, this is the month of Ramadan or time for us to fast. It means we

don't eat anything from dawn to dusk. We also abstain from all wrongdoings, 

such as swearing, etc. Politically speaking, Senegal is a democratic country. 

We are liberal in terms that young generations are similar to young 

people anywhere else in the world. 

Connected: And that is also reflected in the status of women in your society?

Commi: Well, yes. Not all of them wear traditional clothes, like hijab. 

However, there are some villages where circumcision of women is still 

performed. But that is something that we fight a hard battle against to

eradicate completely.

 

On the other hand, we are a very friendly country, which, just like our 

Gambian neighbours, lives from tourism. We like people and talking to „toubabs“ („white persons“). 

Connected: Tell us some phrases in Wolof, the most popular language in Senegal.

Commi: 

„Na nga def?“ – „How are you?“, „Hello“

„Jaam rek“ – „I'm fine“ , reply to „Hello“ („peace only“)

„Na nga tudd?“ – „What's your name?“

„Maa ngi tudd“ – „My name is....“

„Ba beneen“ – „Goodbye“

„Jai rruh-jef“ –„Thank you“

„Namm naa laa“ – „I miss you“.

„Baal ma“ – „Sorry“

„Deg nga English?“ –„Do you speak English?“

It's not difficult to pronounce, because we write the same as we speak.

 (All photos are property of Ismaila Commi Balde and his website about the workshop in Senegal).

Connected: And your food?

Commi: Rice with anything. We take rice very seriously (smiles). You will find 

a lot of dishes with rice and fish and rice and chicken. We don't eat too many

sweets as for us that is „little food“. In Senegal we have three large meals: 

breakfast, lunch and dinner. And they have their exact time when you should

take them. At those times we eat hearty portions but in between there are no

nibbles like here. Here, or in Europe, everyone can eat all the time. We don't 

do that.

Connected: What are your plans for the future?

Commi:

 

I like Croatia, I have here a lot of friends who are very welcoming.

However, it is not easy to make a living. I work hard, but I guess it's like 
that anywhere else. 

Connected: Begg naa Senegal, thank you, Commi!

Bits And Pieces From My Trip To Brazil : Preparation (Part I)

It’s been a little more than a year since I returned from my trip to Brazil. I was waiting to write something special and remarkable to pay tribute to the trip that so far has been a major undertaking in my travel history. Yet, by now I’ve realized I will never be able to write such special text and decided to just write something.

So here’s something about my preparations for the trip to Brazil first.

I felt that the time had come to go to Brazil. I had already been like 5 times to Portugal but being a Portuguese student one inevitably ends up yearning for Brazil. However, just a thought of going there was so vague. In my mind the first obstacle was the money. Come on, it’s so expensive that it’s not really worth thinking about it – that was the most common sentence I’d say to myself.

And then, looking back to it now, everything was a big jigsaw puzzle whose pieces started falling into place. First many of my Portuguese speaking friends from Croatia went to Brazil and that allowed me to gather a lot of information about the whole idea. Then I started meeting people. One summer in Lisbon I was sharing a flat with a guy and a girl from Sao Paulo who became my dear friends and my first Brazilian hosts. Then another summer in Berlin I walked into a guy while I was doing some sightseeing. Can you guess? He was from Brazil, too. And my second Brazilian host from Salvador.

However, one does not just invite you to Brazil and off you go. Money was still a problem, just like at the beginning. But thanks to my Brazilian friends, I started making fixed plans about how to save for my trip.

About a year before the trip I set myself a travel date which was end of March following year. That meant that within a year I was to save money for the flight and my stay there. Every month I’d set some money aside, which I jokingly called “putting it away in a sock” (something we’d say in Croatia). I had no credit cards, just cash which was, like I said, saved for the sunny day in Brazil (no pun intended ;). 

 

 

Yet living in Croatia and saving money are two different things. One doesn’t go with another, I’m afraid. Unless you work hard, like really hard, like doing more than two jobs at a time. That’s exactly what I did. At that time I was teaching at school, before and after that I’d have private lessons, Saturdays and Sundays I also had private lessons – in fact I couldn’t remember the time without private lessons back then. And somewhere in between (yes, there was still time left), I’d work on different projects that luckily came down my way. All that made my sock with money fatter and fatter and in December I was ready to book a flight for March following year, all according to my plan.

Everyone was celebrating Christmas and I was sitting in front of my computer shaking a bit, thinking ok, you’re really going there now, all on your own. I paid my money from the sock into my card and booked my roundtrip from Zagreb – Munich – Sao Paulo. Most of my friends knew about it but my family didn’t know a thing. Well, my brother only. I decided to spare my grandmother and father the shock up until shortly before my trip.

Then, the final obstacle was to be solved: my fear. I had never been afraid of traveling abroad, it’s such a pleasure. But then again, I had never been further than Europe. So where did my fear come from? Well, I started reading on the Internet, doing my own research of Brazil – looking for tips I needed. And everywhere I checked was the same saddening fact – a high rate of crime – danger of being robbed, mugged and all that you can possibly imagine. Of course I talked to my Brazilian friends a lot and they said there is a lot of that but if you’re wise enough, nothing ever happens to you. But it took time for their words to sink in. And when they did, I started taking precautions such as planning what clothes and stuff to take with me to blend in and be able to enjoy my trip.

And the final step of my preparations was deciding which cities to actually visit. Ok, Sao Paulo and Salvador were on the list, but how to go to Brazil and not visit Rio de Janeiro? And then I started thinking – who do I know there? (It’s an advantage of living in a global village that you can just “find” someone living in Rio). And I found them. It was my German colleague who I met online on German teachers’ forum. Conveniently enough for my trip, he was living with his family in Rio de Janeiro. So what happened was I wrote an email to a person I hadn’t spoken for years and only met online to ask them if they could be my host in Rio de Janeiro. And they said yes. In my further texts on Brazil I will write more about Brazilian hospitality, but this was the first bigger sign that it’s second to none.

 

To conclude, I booked my domestic flights in Brazil: Sao Paulo – Rio de Janeiro – Salvador and back to Sao Paulo and then it really was “off I go” :)