translated from Spanish: Musicians from Africa and Latin America gather in Ecuador to unite the South

Quito.- Musicians from seven countries in Africa and Latin America will meet next October in Ecuador, in the second annual edition of the Festival “Madambé: sonorities of the world”, which seeks the reunion of the two continents and the unity of the peoples of the south. Musicians from Mali, Ivory Coast, Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba and Ecuador will join the whole month, with countless activities that includes a cycle of concerts at the Teatro Nacional “Sucre”, the most important in Quito, between October 24 and 26, with a repertoire based on the fusion of rhythms from the two continents separated by the South Atlantic.
It is a fusion of rhythms and cultures that “have more than usual than is believed”, assured Efe Rubén Jurado, general producer of the Festival and the concert that will also be presented on October 19 at the Teatro “Carlos Cueva Tamariz” in the Andean city of Cuenca , in the south of Ecuador.Madambé is a word that the organizers created based on the Mambara language, of Mali, with the voice “Ma”, meaning mother, and “Dambé”, travel or root. For this reason, the Madambé Festival represents “that journey to our root. A kind of African Mama Pacha (Mother Earth, quichua), he added, after insisting that among Africans and Andeans “we have more in common than we think.” Also in the musical relationship, since on both sides “nature is respected, the water, the warrior, the woman”, although they are also evident “the differences between the two” worlds that have long been separated, the promoter of the festival added.” The Meeting is tremendous, because it seems that the two cultures are known, but they also sound different,” said Jurado, for whom the African root in Latin America is “direct and profound”.

Jury. / EFE.

Attempts, he said, to “weave these ties” between the two sides, in a “south-south connection, between southern continents,” to generate “a space of peace” and to “strengthen the bridge of art between Latin America and Africa.” The rich agenda of the invited musicians will begin on October 1and and conclude on the 30th of the same month, because the Festival represents an “experiential experience” for the artists, who will visit cultural sites representative of Ecuador, said Jurado.The musicians they will go to indigenous, mestizas, Afro-descendants and Creoles communities from six Ecuadorian provinces (Imbabura, Pichincha, Azuay, Cañar, Guayas and Esmeraldas), to “soak up national culture,” he added.

Jury. / EFE.

He explained that the performers will experience “a process of artistic residence, of collective creation”, through a ten-day “lockdown” at the Centro de Arte Contemporáneo de Quito, where they will elaborate the works that will make up the repertoire of the concerts Programmed. This activity will involve artists from the invited countries and some 35 national musicians, which will provide a special creative atmosphere for cultural representatives from the two continents, he added. It is sought, he said, to produce some 30 melodies that will be presented at the concerts in Quito and Cuenca, which will also be recorded, Jurado added.

Jury. / EFE.

Among the guest artists are the Colombian ensemble “Gaitas y tambores de San Jacinto”, the Brazilian composer Guilherme Kastrup, while of the two African countries Ahmed Fofana, Sadio Sidibe and Oumar Kouyate, among others. The Madambé festival, she explained, seeks to generate this “necessary dialogue to preserve memory, share knowledge and open paths of integration between peoples who resist through creation”. 



Original source in Spanish