Africa With the Masters Festival brings healing through music, song, story, and dance
The free monthlong celebration offers daily online programming that delves into diverse African cultures
Founded by Jacky Essombe, Africa With the Masters Festival is a month-long daily celebration of African arts and cultures.
The African Friendship Society presents Africa With the Masters Festival online for free to October 24.
IN JACKY ESSOMBE’S native Cameroon, music, song, rhythm, story, and dance are more than a part of everyday life; they’re also a form of healing. When the Vancouver-based artistic and executive director of the African Friendship Society was planning this year’s Africa with the Masters Festival—at a time when stress, anxiety, and isolation associated with the pandemic are wearing people down and systemic racism is ever-present—the theme of healing seemed especially apt.
“Our first healers and spiritual leaders were dancers and musicians,” Essombe says in a phone interview with Stir. “Music, dancing, and singing are a form of spiritual practice. Singing is healing; it’s something we do every single day. It’s such an integral part of our culture. You don’t need to be take voice lessons to sing; when women are walking together or cooking together in the village, somebody is going to break into a song at some point and they’ll all sing together. The sound will die down then it starts again.
“The arts for us in not just entertainment,” says Essombe, who also goes by the surname Yenga, from her mother’s Maka tribe. “It’s also way to heal, and we’re all in need of healing, especially this year. Our music is meant to heal and our songs our meant to heal, to bring people together.”
Connecting people is at the heart of the fifth annual Africa With the Masters Festival, taking place online to October 24 to coincide with Culture Days, with unique programming every single day. The daily presentations, performances, and activities are facilitated by African elders, knowledge keepers, and professional African artists living in Canada.
Each week features a different region of Africa: during the week of October 4 to 10, it’s Central Africa; October 11 to 17 features Eastern Africa; and Southern Africa takes the spotlight October 18 to 24. (West Africa was highlighted the week of September 27.) Everything is free, and several of the activities will be bilingual, in English and French.
“The mandate of the African Friendship Society is ‘empower, educate, entertain’,” Essombe says. “That’s really what I want with this festival. There’s always an educational component in what I do. People will often say ‘African culture’ but that’s not true at all. Africa is a continent with the most diversity with a bunch of different cultures.”
Zimbabwe-born musician and singer Kurai Mubaiw. Photo by David Markwei
Here’s how the weekly programming unfolds: Monday from 6:30 to 8 pm is an introduction to the history and artistic and cultural diversity of the featured region. Tuesday is an interactive performance by an African artist, who also shares cultural education (6:30 to 8 pm). On Wednesday. look for African Bedtime Stories for children in English, French, and Swahili from 7 to 7:45 pm. (It’s “for kids aged 0 to 99; designed for ages seven to 12”.) Thursday is Rhythm Day (Chanting and Dance), where participants learn a simple traditional dance routine and get lyrics to sing along, from 6:30 to 8 pm. Friday night is game night from 6:30 pm-8 pm (“This is for everyone, families, couples, or single folks. We are each other’s family,” Essombe says.)
Saturday is altogether different. A Day in the Village—Live From Africa is a virtual visit to give people here a chance to experience real village life and talk to villagers. The day of “friendship and community connection, in rhythm” happens from 9 am to 4 pm. “This is for people to have a sense of how life is in a village,” Essombe says. “When people think of an African village where poor people live with less than two dollars a day, they’re missing the point. We’ll follow a group of villagers, see how they work when and we’ll see them cooking and see kids play—everything that happens in the context of a village. There will be interaction time so that it’s not just an image from far away.”
Finally, Sunday features Village Talks under the Baobab Tree with Griots, Elders and Knowledge Keepers from 5 to 6:30 pm. Griots are West African troubadour-historian-storytellers; topics of discussion include traditional knowledge, spirituality, and ancestral values.
“In Africa, when you go and sit under a tree or any kind of shelter, it’s a signal to everybody that you’re open for socializing,” Essombe says. “People will come and sit down and have a conversation with you. A group of people will come, and you can start a party like this. Under the baobab tree is the place where we come together and we have conversations. We don’t have psychologists; we have elders and healers, and we always have someone to talk to in the village.
“Sundays are a chance to know about the stories, spirituality, and ancestral values that are important for us to not only maintain but transmit to younger generations,” she adds. “This is designed to create harmony; you cannot have a village without the elders sharing their wisdom or without the knowledge keepers sharing what they know.”
Among the participating artists are Jean Pierre Makosso, Zal Sissoko, Djely Tapa, Basile Tene, Jacky Yenga, Fana Soro, Comfort Ero, Kurai Mubaiwa, Etienne Cakpo, and more. Their home countries include Cameroon, Benin, Guinea, and Zimbabwe.
It all wraps up on October 24 with a healing session by a traditional shaman.
“Through our dances, music, stories, and games, we can get to know each other, heal, and connect, regardless of who we are or where we come from or where we live in Canada,” Essombe says.
For more information, see https://africawiththemasters.ca/online/.
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