May 9, 2009
Center House

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Watch while the traditions of six West African countries come to life through exhibits, live music, dance performances and storytelling. Explore the African roots of hip-hop, jazz and rock with live performances by top local and touring artists from Ghana, Senegal, Benin, Nigeria, Gambia and Guinea. Festival-goers may take part in ritual and celebratory African drum and dance workshops, learn how a drum talks and witness the healing drums of West African drum masters trained since birth to serve their communities.

Did you know?

Baaba Maal, born in 1953 in northeast Senegal on the edge of the Sahara desert to a non-griot family of fishermen of the Pulaar minority, followed his own path to become a musician and performer, transforming the traditional West African music into a rootsy danceable brew with international flavor that has won him acclaim around the world. Maal studied music at the university in Dakar before leaving for postgraduate studies on a scholarship at Beaux-Arts in Paris. A talented singer, he is equally at home with an acoustic guitar playing traditional folk or the hottest international dance music. From a non-musical family, Maal wasn’t encouraged to become a performer, but instead studied law; and has spent much of his life learning his heritage.

Thanks to our Spirit of West Africa sponsors