Apr 6/06
When you drop the Comoros
When I used to live in Dakar and travelled abroad I often heard, “Senegal? Where the hell is that?” or, “Senegal? Oh yeah, man, that’s in South America, right?” Yeah, right. Well, you think Senegal’s got the bad-geography bug, you should try the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros. When I think of a really well-known African country…
I admit to only having a rough idea where the Comoros are on a map until today. I knew they were somewhere off the south-east coast of Africa, but that’s about it. Well, hey. Let’s educate. The Comoros are a series of islands squished between the island of Madagascar on one side and Mozambique on the other. This is appropriate given this week’s posts.
Interestingly, Comoros is comprised of four islands but the fourth island, Mayotte, has repeatedly voted to not declare independence from France. So wait, do they use the Euro there? Can you get a good macaron? More importantly, has anyone been to Mayotte who can enlighten us? Better yet, does anyone have any music from Mayotte? Suddenly the ambiguous fourth island of the Comoros has skyrocketed to the top of my travel list!
Politically, the place is a bit of a mess. You have one island whose residents claim to be still part of France and another two, Anjouan and Mohéli, that declared their own independence in 1997. This essentially leaves one island, Grade Comoros (Ngazija) that is ruled by military strongman, Azali Assoumani, who secured authoritarian rule in the confusion following the mysterious death of elected president Mohamed Taki Abdoulkarim.
When it comes to music I’m once again amazed that a country such as Comoros, with it’s political structure and economy in tatters, can produce such amazingly cool music. The other day I picked-up Sambe-Comoros, Modern Traditions from Grande Comoros, and have been nothing short of blown-away by the music. Interesting rhythms, wonderful Arab-African fusion vocals and creative composition.
You’ll hear two tracks from Grande Comoros today. The first track, Sambe, is a twarab tune named after a popular dance in Grande Comoros. The sambe is danced on the night of a wedding, always on a Friday. The men dance in a circle, following the rhythm as it increases and decreases in speed. The women then choose their favourite dancers and give them their kanga – shawls that the men then wear on their necks as trophies. The second track is by Grande Comoros’ most successful female vocalist, Zainaba Ahmed. What a voice. Just beautiful.
Sambeco – Sambe
Zainaba – Yowa
what rad rhythm! that swings like crazy.
[...] I don’t know about you, but I was really taken by the voice of Zainaba, the female vocalist featured in my post a few days ago. I’ve had that track, Yowa, on near-repeat on my stereo for over a week. The last time I was so affected by a female African singer was when I first listened to Rasha’s Sudaniyat. [...]
You should Check
Diho
He is from Mayotte and lived in Marseille that is the biggest Comorian town in the Whole Wide World
He recorded his first CD with Maurice Poto a Parisian Congolese but some tracks are almost acoustic and quite good
here’s an article about him
http://www.africultures.com/index.asp?menu=affiche_artiste&no=2256
These times when he is doin concerts in Paris he is playing with Mikidache Who is not bad either but whose dicography I know less
Thanks
this is why the internet was invented
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