connected: 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?