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Sunjata’s story
Manding Jata’s cultural exchange
BY JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ

The European view of Africa as a wild and "uncivilized" continent has led to irreparable and tragic repercussions — most infamously, the slave trade. In addition, the colonization of African peoples all but wiped out their own histories and cultural legacies. But among many clans or tribal groups, who became nations, kingdoms and empires, there were oral historians, griots or jalas, who carried stories, music, dance, and visual arts through the generations.

It was those jalas whom Vancouver-based musician and producer Rex Chequer set out to find when he organized the performance troupe Manding Jata in 1996. What he found were musicians, dancers, and actors from the various countries of French West Africa (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and Mali) who had, indeed, held onto the traditions of their ancestors, many of whom had been part of the far-reaching medieval empire of Manding. Five of those performers will present the epic story of the emperor Sunjata at Providence’s Youth First Festival this weekend.

Chequer’s interest in the culture of the Manding (sometimes called Mali) Empire and the Mande-speaking peoples came through his own musicianship. Playing piano professionally since he was in his teens, Chequer was first interested in the African-American genres of blues, gospel, and R&B. Later he moved into Latin jazz, both Afro-Cuban and Brazilian, and in searching for the roots to those rhythms, he discovered the Yoruba and Ewe-fon cultures and from there the Manding.

"Once I got into that, I became totally enamored," Chequer recalled during a phone conversation from his home in British Columbia. "The initial contact point for me was kora music, one of the primary instruments of Manding culture."

The kora is a 21-stringed instrument that has a high, light sound, in contrast to the deeper tones of the balaphon, a mellifluous xylophone with rosewood keys atop hollow gourds. Added to this in Manding’s musical ensemble are the sounds of many different drums — including the djembé and dundunba — and other percussive possibilities, such as bells and the shekeré, a large gourd strung with beads.

The performers coming to Providence have impressive credentials. Jaliba Alhaji Papa Susso began learning the kora at age five and, after a career in the Gambian civil service, became the chief kora player for the Gambia National Cultural Troupe. He has performed at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and with the New York Philharmonic, and now teaches ethnomusicology at the University of California. Jali Bala Kuyate was a member of the Mali National Cultural Troupe; he plays the balafon, dundunba, and dozo ngoni, a bow-like instrument akin to a musical saw. Choreographer/dancer/gymnast "Money" has appeared in The Lion King and on Letterman, Leno, and Oprah. Liberian drummer/dancer Gbaryu has been featured in the Liberian National Cultural Troupe and is a master djembéfola, packing a wallop into that goblet-shaped drum. And dancer Béché Ako, from the Ivory Coast, plays flute anf performs a masquerade to the story of Sunjata.

The story goes that Sunjata, the twelfth son of the ruler of the Mali Kingdom, in the late 12th century, was born so disabled that he could neither walk nor speak. After the death of his father, he and his mother were plotted against by the king’s first wife and her son, and they escaped to a neighboring kingdom. By this time, Sunjata had leg braces, made by Mali’s skilled blacksmiths, and he taught himself to use a bow and arrow. He spent many years in exile before leading an army, in 1235, to defeat the dark warrior-sorcerer who now ruled Mali.

Sunjata consolidated several kingdoms and city-states of the Upper Niger into the Manding Empire (the size of modern-day Europe), and cities sprang up along the trade routes between North Africa and the sub-Saharan regions, most significantly the fabled Timbuktu. The wealth from that trade kept Sunjata’s Keita clan in power for almost 200 years, during which time Timbuktu had three universities and a library with 50,000 manuscripts. After the French colonization in the 19th century, however, most information about the Manding Empire was lost to the English-speaking world.

"That’s part of our mandate," explained Chequer. "I have a passion for the culture of African-American people, and I want them to know that this is their heritage. That story of Kunte Kente — he was from the headwaters of the Niger River, he’s Mande."

"We know about Attila the Hun, Alexander the Great, the Chinese dynasties, but we know nothing about this," he continued. "This is an amazing, incredible story that is still largely unknown."

Through the hour-long Manding Jata performance, however, that story comes alive. The kora songs stem directly from the epic tale of Sunjata, and they are interspersed with narrative and mime, drum interludes, and breathtaking sequences of dance and gymnastics.

"After everything is said and done, it’s ultimately an engaging culture experience," emphasized Chequer. "It’s not learning as much as experiencing the living legacy of Manding."

The Youth First InternationalArts Festival will take place Friday and Saturday, June 11 and 12 in downtown Providence. See "Events" listings elsewhere in this section for complete details. Call (401) 421-4278, or go to www.firstworksri.com.


Issue Date: June 11 - 17, 2004
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