Vipi Africa: Using Music to Conserve Mountain Gorillas

Vipi Africa: Using Music to Conserve Mountain Gorillas

Voice of America's documentary filmmaker Paul Ndiho interviews Samba about his new song "Les Gorilles des Montagnes" recorded in partnership with the World Wildlife Fund to raise awareness of their mission to protect the endangered Mountain Gorillas of Virunga National Park in Congo. The song is available as a free download at http://drop.io/GorillaSong, or http://myspace.com/SambaMapangala
 

Last dance in Nairobi

The main event was called "Benga Blast 2009" and featured an afternoon of performances at the Nyayo soccer stadium by a selection of the Kenyan bands that are reviving the benga style that we in the West began hearing back in the early days of the African music boom in the '80s -- D.O. Misiani and Shirati Jazz for example. It has a rootsy "countrified" sound to my ears, without the gloss of soukous (what they call lingala music or rumba in Kenya), sung in Luo or Kikuyu, and if producers like Tabu Osusa keep up the good work it could be the next big thing in the world music world. Samba was warmly welcomed as befit his legendary status and long popularity in Kenya, and ran through a selection of his best-loved hits for the crowd. Here are some links to local press coverage of the festival: here and again from Daily Nation,
On Monday we bid farewell to Nairobi and set forth before dawn on our first leg of the journey home.

Nairobi night

All of a sudden our time in Kenya is drawing to an end. We are still hectically racing (or crawling through gridlock) to radio interviews, a tv taping for "Churchill Live" (a widely watched talk/comedy show a la Oprah) at the famous Carnivore Restaurant, and band rehearsals. On Friday, Feb. 27 Virunga performs at Club Afrique, with the core tour band augmented by Pepe Ibrahim, ex Virunga singer and now leader of his own band called Ngoma Afrika, and a guest appearance by Bikassy, who led the group Saka Saka in which Samba began his migration out of Zaire and into East Africa in the '70s. The show was a lot of fun. They played for hours, and did all the great Virunga hits. (I was dancing so hard to my favorite song, "Malako" that I hurt my leg and had to stop!)
Photos: Komba Bellow in the dressing room, dancers Mami Watah and Carolyne, and on stage from left: Bikassy, Teddy, Pepe Ibrahim, Syran and Samba.

The road to Zanzibar

Actually, we flew. Here's some of the band members en route at Nairobi airport. Aside from some unpleasantness having to do with yellow fever vaccination certificates, my lost debit card and the confiscation of some of our luggage and one of our dancers, the trip was uneventful.