These photos are from a 10 day journey I made to Guinée where I chaperoned for and participated in an Aquinas College cultural exchange trip.
In between Senegal, Sierra Leon, Liberia and Mali, Guinée is a country the size of Oregon on the west coast of Africa and is in the top ten of the world’s “poorest.” The people live their daily lives without running water, stable electricity, garbage service, basic health care, and there is no highway. If you can imagine…there is an estimated 5 million people in the capital city of Conakry that live in these conditions.
A woman from the Peace Corps who we coordinated with named Hilary Braseth has been trying to set up a garbage/recycling program in Dalaba, a town in the interior of Guinée where she lives and works. She says that any kind of policy is so difficult to implement in Guinée. This is a place without any kind of public records and without a census system.
The purpose of our trip was to learn about Guinée through dance, drum, and song classes, and to give a cultural exchange concert. Our host Sarah Lee Parker coordinates camps to Guinée and made our trip possible through her business One World Drum and Dance based in Seattle. Sarah Lee is an amazing host and organizer who does real justice work for the people of Guinée. She structures her camps so that tuition can provide year round housing, food, and health care for the family, musicians, and dancers who host the participants–a sustainable system hard to come by anywhere in the world let alone in Guinée!
Sarah Lee arranged for us to stay at the Mansare home, a compound 45 minutes outside of the capital city of Conakry. With us was the entire Mansare family plus a “house band” of drummers and dancers who go by Bandanjou, a troupe name in honor of Guinée’s iconic huge trees that are the civic centers of villages.
I took flute lessons for a week with Mamady Mansare, who is head of the household and compound where we stayed. He is in a long line of African tambin (flute) players dating back to the 13th century! My lessons were all done by rote and I found a deep satisfaction learning the melodies, breaks, and improv of the repertoire. The process gave me a lot of confidence in my musicianship as it combined my training as a composer, performer, and improviser in a new way. I also did some serious stepping up of my poly-rhythmic chops in the drum classes and learned to shake out of my North American body as I opened up some major shoulder and pelvis movement.
You will see in these pictures the incredible richness, work ethic, hospitality, and beauty of the Guinean people. Back in Michigan now…I’m still thinking about the heat, the high impact dancing, the food, the non-stop singing, the in-house seamstresses who sewed us all African style outfits on a treadle sewing machine; the sharing of Muslim and Christian prayers side by side at some of our meals; the neighborhood baby naming ceremony; the super squished van rides, the countryside, and of course the fruit!
