Skip to main content

You are here

The electronics of the Ghanaian OY and the street sound of the Tanzanians Jagwa win Casa África's Zanzibar 'Vis-a-Vis'

17/02/2014

Two African groups who are still unknown in Spain and who represent the new musical trends of the continent will tour several Spanish festivals next July. The avant garde electronics of the Ghanaian OY and the mchiriku of Jagwa Music, a testimony of the street sounds of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), were the winners of the fifth edition of Casa África's Vis a Vis project, held this weekend on the island of Zanzibar (Tanzania) as part of the Sauti Za Busara Festival.

A group of promoters and directors of various festivals, including contests such as Etnosur (Alcala La Real, Jaen), Pirineos Sur (Huesca) or the International Festival Canarias Jazz & Más, have attended a festival presenting thirty African proposals, most of them from groups of Tanzania and East Africa, which are still unknown in our country.

The decision of the programmers attending was taken unanimously on Sunday, after the final day of the festival. The first group chosen was the OY project, led by the Ghanaian Joy Frempong (vocals, electronics) and accompanied by the Swiss Lleluja-Ha on drums. OY surprised the programmers in submitting an avant garde electronic proposal whose particular universe of sounds is complemented by a strong African load of stories, voices and samplers that are created live.

From Tanzania, the second group that will travel to Spain in summer is Jagwa Music, the band led by the Tanzanian rapper Kazimoto and who has put on the map the new sounds of Africa with mchiriku, a style that combines the rap stories of young people from the streets of Dar Es Salaam with the intense and repetitive sound of a small Casio organ and techno rhythmic pounding of several youngsters using home-made drums created from old paint cans. For the promoters who travelled to Zanzibar, Jagwa's proposal will allow the music that young people make and who live on the streets of Tanzania to be discovered, this has strong social messages and a sound that experts describe as 'handmade techno'.

Two proposals for electronic overtones that are completely separate from each other, according to what the programmers highlighted, allow new music from Africa to be showcased, far from the usual stereotype and symbol of curiosity found in young people, with very different manners, new ways of expressing themselves and telling us about things.

The fifth edition of Vis a Vis was carried out with the collaboration of Sauti Za Busara Festival and the Embassy of Spain in Tanzania, and gained widespread media coverage throughout East Africa.

Nile Project
Besides choosing the two winners of the Festival, the programmers attending from the three festivals (Etnosur, Pirineos Sur and Canarias Jazz & Más) made ​​the decision to completely commit, when programming their 2015 edition (musical project, exhibition and workshops), to The Nile Project, a project that brings together musicians from 11 countries of the Nile basin in East Africa and that was considered, also unanimously, as the best of the concerts at Sauti Za Busara.

The proposal is a perfect portrait of diversity yet with a common root of the East African countries scattered around the Nile basin and its tributaries. A powerful pan-African message carried through music but reinforced with an extensive educational and cultural work is having a strong impact on the countries of the region.