“Here on Gorée
Island, people live
through culture”
football. We wave away the attention of his
fellow artists loudly hawking their paintings,
jewellery and ornate sculptures. They don’t
seem too discouraged. They’ll get us on the
way back.
“Here, people live through culture,”
Fallou tells me as we walk. “Once people
were brought here by slavery. Now people
from many different cultures pass through.
People were deported from here to America,
Haiti, Cuba, Brazil... anywhere. When they
come now, I see only humans. When I look at
you, I see myself. That’s what I try to show in
my art and in my music.”
We pass by the House of Slaves, and pause
in front of a statue depicting a woman with her
arms around a man as he breaks his chains and
raises his fists in triumph. The newly-freed
pair stands on the West African drum known
as a djembe. “This is the symbol,” points out
Fallou. “They are using their power to get
their liberty. It represents what people believe
in here on Gorée Island: that melody and
harmony will pass around the world
through communication.”HE djembe has been at the heart of West
African music for many centuries.
To learn more about the significance
of this special drum, I take a ferry back
to the mainland to visit the master
drum-maker and teacher Ibou Sene.t
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August 2019 93