The Rainforest World Music Festival has
always been a favourite of festival and music lovers for bringing the enchanting
music from Africa that has all these years mesmerize thousands of weekend
revelers.
This year, the festival will parade the
uniqueness of the group calling themselves Ndima which represents the people of
the Aka Pygmies from Congo Brazzaville.
Ndima, representing the native African
tribe, will present their traditional African music allowing audience to have
an insight into their unique endangered culture. This nomadic tribe which lives
in the forests of Africa between the Atlantic Ocean and the big Lakes,
particularly in Baka, Bambuti, Batwa, Babongo, Efé and other regions, can be easily
recognised by their physical stature.
Their language is called the Aka
language and their life is consistently altered due to the increasing influence
of the modernization within their natural habitat in the forest which are being
continuously destroyed by farmers and foresters.
As the life of the Aka people centered
on the natural surroundings, the tribe takes great care of their environment for
their daily source for food and medicinal purposes.
Apart from their surrounding influences,
music plays an important role in the life of the Aka Pygmies with song dedicated
to the spirits of the forest and events associated with their surroundings. The
characteristics of Aka Pygmy music are complex and the interspersed with the “jodel”,
which is describes as the change between the “voice of head and of the breast”.
The varied rhythmic formulae supported
by traditional Pygmy dances is also an evidence of their rich culture of the
endangered tribe.
Joining Ndima taking
the stage is Sona Jobarteh from Gambia bringing with her traditional “Kora”
virtuoso. Sona is considered to be a modern
pioneer rebelling against the male-dominated hereditary tradition between
father and son playing an instrument which is exclusively designated to men. The “Kora” is a 21-stringed African harp
which is one of the main musical instruments of the Manding peoples of Gambia,
Senegal, Mali, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau.
It can only be played by male members of
West Africa family, thus making Sona an exception for being the first woman in
her family to break the ancestral line of playing the sacred musical instrument.
The music style of Sona Jobarteh differs
from other West African music genres due to her innovative stance singing about
social issues, cultural identity, gender, love and respect that roots herself
in her traditional cultural heritage of her people.
Sona’s ability to captivate audiences
around the world with her expressive voice, catchy melodies and strong rhythms that
allows her to represent her African culture and tradition.
The artist developed her singing ability
when she featured her vocals in the Hollywood blockbuster movie “Mandela: Long
Walk to Freedom” which was released in 2014.
On top of that Sona is the composer of
the film score to the Multi-Award winning documentary film “The Motherland”, and
released her latest album “Fasiya” in 2011.
To join the festival, you can now book
your entrance tickets online and for more information on the festival, please
log on to its website at http://rwmf.net/.
Event-presale Tickets are priced at RM
110.00 for single adult and child is
priced at RM 50.00 while the three-day entrance is priced at RM 300.00 for
adult and RM 130.00 for a child.
Family package of two adults and two
children entrance is also on sale at RM 220.00.
See you at the RWMF 2015!!
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