The Ukrainian Hall in Strathcona hosted VanAfrica: A Celebration of Africa in Vancouver featuring a wide range of African music from across Ghana, Guinea, Côte d’Ivoire, Zimbabwe and Cuba. Organized by the Time Will Tell Arts Society, a not-for-profit performing arts society run by UBC alum Dr. Curtis Andrews, the production featured specifically local artists, with one guest coming in from Seattle. Andrews organized an earlier iteration of VanAfrica in 2017 and said that he sees VanAfrica as an opportunity to “bring together artists that rarely get the chance to perform together, … showcase diversity and support local artists.”
Representing Afro-Cuban music, percussionist and singer Israel “Toto” Berriel and dancer Yula opened their set with a performance depicting the ocean. Animated by Berriel’s drumming and vocals, Yula’s movements — emphasized by her ultramarine-blue dress — embodied the ripples of the open sea, conveying its unpredictability from subtle and quiet to powerful and raging. Taking up Toto’s chorus, Andrews and Shona artist Kurai Mubaiwa joined the pair, taking up claves and maracas as the audience joined in, clapping to the rhythm.
Mubaiwa’s set followed, highlighting music from Zimbabwe and featuring the mbira, a traditional Shona instrument which Mubaiwa said is nicknamed “the magic pumpkin.” Mubaiwa, who is descended from a long line of mbira players, explained to the audience how, growing up, he was encouraged to disown playing African instruments, but he always preferred playing the drum and singing to going to church.
He followed this story with a song whose title translates to “Walk With Pride,” a heartwarming polyphonic piece that included a vocal part for the audience. Joined throughout by his long-time friend, Andrew — who also played the mbira — and by Berriel on a drum, the set finished off with a unique Afro-Cuban-Zimbabwean fusion.
Kocassale Dioubate from Guinea closed the first section of the event on the kora, a West African instrument with features of both the harp and the lute. Similarly to the performers before him, Dioubate accompanied his performances with stories to explain the significance of songs like “My Love.”
After these more intimate performances, the second part of the show moved on to performances of drumming and dancing, featuring Adanu Habobo, Vancouver’s Ghanaian drum ensemble founded in 2012 by Andrews and Dr. Kofi Gbolonyo, director of UBC’s African Music and Dance Ensemble.
Ghanaian dancers Awal Alhassan and Sheimawu Abubakari started their performance with a singing call from off-stage, building anticipation among the audience as they made their approach. The energy was electric as they appeared onstage, moved by the drums’ crescendo. Their clothing emphasized the dance, creating smaller movement as the dancers swayed their wrists, hips and feet. The beat was marked by the clangs of metal bells attached to their ankles. The dancers’ moves were impressive, defying gravity and becoming feats of acrobatics.
The dance segment was led in turns by Alhassan, Abubakari and Kesseke Yeo, a dancer from Côte d’Ivoire who showcased impressively quick footsteps and leg shuffles. His second performance saw him taking the stage with a mask covering his face for the dance of the panther or leopard, depending on the translation of the original title.
The last section of the event was animated by the complete lineup of artists coming to the stage to play collaboratively, shifting focus within songs to highlight a specific dancer or drum. This fusion was the true star of the show, giving each musician the opportunity to interact with the other musical styles and forms on display, as per Andrews’ vision.
Among the final songs, which increasingly pushed the audience to their feet or onstage, was Fume Fume, a neo-traditional Ghanaian piece which gained popularity in the 1960s. In these final collective moments, the complete coordination was impressive, with all musicians ending the songs on the same final hit of the drum or agogô.
With this event, Andrews wanted to show the Vancouver audience the “diversity of the musical, dance and expressive arts forms that exist” within “the traditional music of Africa [which], at times, people might have a monolithic view of.”
Andrews wanted to emphasize the talent of these local performers, who are as deserving of support as visiting guests. A percussionist, drummer and self-described long-time lover of traditional African music, Andrews has been visiting Ghana since the ‘90s, learning traditional Ghanaian and particularly Ewe music. He received a PhD in Ethnomusicology from UBC in 2019.
Another particularly interesting project of Andrews’s is the African Chamber Music Ensemble, a unique initiative bringing together traditional African musicians — including some featured in VanAfrica — with strings players from across BC. The ensemble challenges the role of the Western string quartet by bringing in traditional rhythms and dance-driven styles. For Gbonoloyo, this initiative is particularly important as it “educates people to know that Africans also have contemplative music” as well as the energetic dance-oriented music that non-Africans might already associate with the continent.
Gbolonyo teaches ethnomusicology at UBC alongside his work directing the African Music and Dance Ensemble. He sees “performance, teaching [and] education in music as one and the same thing, because that is how it is conceptualized in [his] culture and training [as an ethnomusicologist].” To him, bringing in elements of education and scholarly knowledge is essential for the audience to understand the songs’ meanings.
“You are singing a song on stage in Vancouver to an audience [where] 95 per cent of them have never even stepped in Africa … you try to let them know [about] the music they are listening to. Yes, it's for entertainment. But beyond the entertainment is often the byproduct of the piece.” This byproduct, Gbolonyo said, is the transmission of Indigenous knowledge through the medium of music.
Gbolonyo reflects on himself as a bridge, growing up with the dual influences of traditional music and Christianity, and ultimately being forced to embrace Western music at an early age. Beyond showing Ghanaian music to the world through his scholarly and musical work, Gbolonyo also founded Nunya Academy, a school in Dzodze, Ghana, to bring the music of the world to his local village through education and professional development. Nunya Academy has 333 local students who learn all kinds of music — Ghanaian and international.
Through their musical and scholarly work, Gbolonyo and Andrews want to showcase the highly diverse musical traditions of Africa. VanAfrica was a showcase made to feature both unity, by bringing together these artists on one same stage, and diversity across the continent.
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