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Momodou
Denmark
11517 Posts |
 Posted - 13 Apr 2012 : 18:52:27
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Digging The Truth Behind The Kora
By Ebrima Bah
Friday, April 13, 2012
Kora musicians across Africa are due to converge in Banjul to maximise the kora popularity later this month. Their meeting has been arranged by Mr. Oko Drammeh, Gambia International Festival organiser in staging the first ever-International Kora Festival in The Gambia from April 28 to 5 May 2012.
The Ministry of Tourism and Culture and the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) have adopted the solo effort of the festival organiser with a view to compel UNESCO to accept the Kora as a World Cultural Heritage instrument.
The Kora is an indigenous Gambian musical instrument which has proliferated to several countries in West Africa and beyond. It is described as one of the most iconic instrument to define traditional African Music.
The Kora has been used to empower and exercise energy and facilitate traditional value so many years ago, but critics say praise singing of names of high profile personalities such as leaders and business tycoons has been a major factor keeping the Kora instrument alive.
Speaking to journalists ahead of the festival last week, Mr Oko Drammeh explained that those praised by the kora singers are the patrons who sustain their livelihoods.”
“So the praise singing is a hand-wash-hand situation whereby the kora player can keep up his life and the welfare of his family through praise singing as a complementary to the patrons of the art of kora,” he added.
The event is expected to re-echo the “undisputable” claim of The Gambia being the birthplace of the Kora instrument. And this will go a long way in the call to introduce a vibrant Kora industry, which would propel education of both the kora instrument and production of Kora music geared towards digging the truth of our culture than selfish participation of the musicians.
The Ministry of Tourism and Culture believe the art of plying the kora and the production of kora is becoming rare, which pose challenges to the survival of this vital instrument that finds succinct expression in the socio-cultural heritage of The Gambia.
The Ministry therefore sees it as a matter of urgency to leave “no stone unturned to preserve, and nurture talents in this performing art tradition that is deeply embedded in our country’s heritage.”
The Kora Festival “is a priority for the National Centre for Art and Culture” because “it will sell our cultural heritage in which The Gambia will be represented by the Kora instrument,” says Sheik Omar Jallow, Director for Literature, Performing and Fine Art at the NCAC.
Most importantly, he observed, despite all efforts that Gambians are doing in the music industry, they are yet to define what Gambian music is, noting that most of the music done in The Gambia is not a representation of our traditional music due to the absence of the kora language in it.
Source: Daily News
Related Topic:
- Gambia’s first International Kora Festival gathers pace 2012
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