By Nils Jacobson
4. Ingoma: Music, Dance, and Healing
AAJ: I'm curious to hear how you felt playing at Mandela's inauguration, leading the drummers. What did that mean for you?
ZN: What I saw there was the possibility of creating a new orchestra. And we know where to go to create that more. Recently I visited East Africa. I came across orchestras--large orchestras--using all these old instruments in Zanzibar. They come out of a very interesting tradition. The confrontation between Egyptians, Persia, India. And what came out of that is amazing, with the African sensibility that has been retained. It's very unique. So that inauguration thing we did with Mandela has allowed me to see things in a much broader perspective. I was not only seeing a new South Africa, I'm seeing an orchestra of the continent.
If you look at the title on the Zimphonic Suites called "Ingoma Ya Kwantu," that's what it means: the music of the continent. But again that goes beyond the issue of the language. We emphasize the language. Kwantu comes from Ubuntu ("humanity"), you know. Umtu means "creation." We are trying to bring back that concept.
The challenges that are facing the country as well as the continent... renaming this country and this entire continent so it can really revelate in a positive way within its inhabitants. Because, again, language is like music. If you use certain sounds, certain pitches and nuances to evoke certain things, you may get a negative or positive result, depending on the intention behind the one who invokes all of these things. So again, careful usage of language carried by sound is necessary. We have a long way to go.
I think the issues that artists should address are how can we contribute to the political. I know they are stuck, they are struggling, trying to find ways to bring about a certain identity. But we also do know that the tendency of the political end is not to consult the artists. I say again on the album that artists are never really entertainers--they are creative thinkers! You see? And I said in terms of old and new, but they always had musicians there to inspire them, to guide the activities. But modern society does not respect that any more. I think we have ways through sound to understand just this continent, what it means.
You should backtrack and go to the album called Ingoma. You know that the whole continent understands music as Ingoma? And even understands certain instruments, and certain dances, as Ingoma? The whole concept of Ingoma means healing. And that is the true purpose of music. So we are looking forward to this celebration, so that we can quickly bring these concepts into place so that they can be implemented, and they can all become relevant within this change... where we are together with politicians, and everybody is interested in working with people who are creative. In the sense of understanding who they are, and wish to share with others. And that is the role of the true artist.
AAJ: That's a level of purity. Some artists believe that they are entertainers. And that is part of it.
ZN: [laughs] Business, you know.
AAJ: But I think there's an African concept of music that relates to the drum, and dance, and community, and ritual.
ZN: Yes, all of that is highly integrated.
AAJ: Americans don't always appreciate that. The idea of dance, for example, is not the same. The other thing is that Americans view Africa as one continent, and one people. I know that was the idea you were trying to bring out with Ingoma... but at the same time, there's a lot of differences between places in Africa, with culture and music and people.
ZN: Actually I have seen more similarities than differences, in many ways. And as I say this can be achieved in no time, if it is supported. But that's why we should create that kind of space for these things to be discussed and be demonstrated. Coltrane did it. Coltrane did it for us. I'm so honored... I'm going to Vienna in April to share a bill with Pharoah Sanders. You see, again, if our people were so hip to these things, they would invite people like Pharoah--who was a disciple of Coltrane--to carry on that tradition. I want to go there and benefit for myself, but I have no forum to share that with people. Can you see?
I can tell you, a lot of people don't even know who Pharoah is! An opportunity for me to be on the same bill with Pharoah should inspire everybody around us to come and see what mileage can we get out of that. In terms of what Pharoah stands for, as a Coltrane disciple. Pharoah has that ability to complete what Trane started, because he has shared that with him. But we need creative people to see that, and to think about how can we bring the music home? And again: how can we sustain that which has been started in the US?
On to Part 5-7...
