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| The Nile Project |
The Nile
project made an interesting debut on the Ugandan World Music live scene. The
collective of artistes from different countries of the River Nile basin were
performing on the second show of their premiere African musical tour that had
kicked off two days earlier in Jinja.
Fans (majorly white) who paid Ushs15,000 and 5000 could not resist to
dance and tag along on catchy words of
some of the group’s songs.
In January last year, the Nile Project held its first Nile Gathering in Aswan, Egypt. The
gathering didn’t only sell out but also inspired the group’s first project
album, Aswan.
A master piece that was named one of the five must hear international
albums of the fall by NPR
Music, that however was not all, it was also selected for song lines’ Top of the World annual
collection.
With such achievements, their second gathering and concert at the
National Theatre last week was a must attend.
The concert kicked off at 8pm as scheduled with a welcome song performed
by Sophie Nzayisenga, a prolific vocalist and currently credited as the first
and only female Inanga player in Rwanda. At the age of six, the songstress was
honored and awarded by the French Cultural center for her work, thus, her
opener had the feel and energy needed to set the pace for the do.
That performance was followed by a befitting one by Steven Sogo from
Burundi; he serenaded crowds with a soulful yet very catchy Kwan Yogo Kuru, armed with an Ikembe, he made his voice and
instrument do staff you don’t expect them to do. He sings in Kirundi, Swahilli
and French, the languages very few people understood but still danced to
whatever he fed us.
Other performers included charismatic Vocalist Alsarah from Sudan, her
soulful Manara had many of us think
about the worst situations we’ve been through, it’s a song where she talks
about building a light house to keep all her secrets and fears - just emotional
and touching, then Egyptian Dina El Widedi’s Fi Belad El Agayib, Nader El Shaer’s Kawala performance of the Wonder Trip was simply sensational; a
Kawala is a flute like Egyptian instrument that’s played and handled the same
way the flute or ndere is.
They are instruments like this that prompt Sogo to say that the Nile
Basin countries have a lot in common and thus need to unite than divide, but
unlucky for the group, unity among the eleven countries may still be a long
shot.
As they continue the tour to other ten Nile basin countries, some
members have been denied Visas to some countries because of their nationality.
There were no Ugandan languages performed since the two locally based
members of the Nile project are both instrumentalists, but that doesn’t mean
the banana republic wasn’t represented, the duo of Lawrence Okello and Micheal
Bazibu; both percussionists, Adungu and Endongo players ceased the moment when
they took us on an intensive Kiganda rhapsody that lasted close to fifteen
minutes, what missed on this collabo was a dancer to graduate it to a thrilling
action packed. The performance was met by ululations from both the crowd and
fellow performers.
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| Lawrence Okello |
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| Michael Bazibu |
On songs like Ambassel, Ethiopia’s
Endris Hassan was joined by other instrumentalists to unleash the magic of
African art; only traditional instruments but sounding like a fully equipped
classical quartet meeting Rock and Roll, meeting Afro-fusion and somewhere
colliding with DJ Shiru.
When the collective played, at least all the artistes on stage could
play an instrument, something that challenges our local artistes that can’t
play any, dance and yet their singing too is still questionable.
The Nile project was founded in 2011 in Egypt at the peak of the
revolution that ousted Mubarak, the founder, Mina Girgis had returned to join
the revolutionists, but later developed a desire to create something bigger
than the revolution to bring all the Nile basin countries. The objective was to
address the Nile cultural and environmental challenges. Using education and
innovation programmes, the project inspires, informs and empowers university
students to work together to foster sustainability of the region’s eco system.
This was through a two weeks, Nile workshops at both Kyambogo and
International University of East Africa, according to Mina, they are aimed at
helping students Nile related development challenges in a more systematic way.
“We want to allow students to reflect on their understanding of their
river’s environmental and cultural challenges,” he says.
The project curates collaborations among musicians from the eleven Nile
countries to expose audiences to the cultures of their river neighbors.
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| Part of the fans that turned up for the concert |
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