Singing to show how the west can be one
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Ajak Kwai: musical life less ordinary.
Photo: Rodger Cummins
Global reach defines the Big West festival and this African singer, writes Jonathan Alley.
AJAK KWAI started singing aged four, in the small Sudanese town of Bor, close to the banks of the Upper Nile. By the age of six, she was leading the children who gathered to sing for their parents under a luminous desert moon in the early evenings.
"We didn't have toys or anything" she says, "it was like entertainment for ourselves, to play under the moon!"
Fast forward to 2007 and Kwai is performing to a gathered community, albeit in vastly different circumstances, after a journey that's taken her to exile in Cairo for eight years (from 1992 to 1999) to settlement in Tasmania, and now Melbourne. Since forming the band Wahida (Arabic for "unity") in 2001, Kwai has performed regularly in Australia, singing in her native Dinka language, English and Arabic.
This Saturday, she will perform her trademark Afro-Dinka blues at Immersion Two: African Time as part of the Big West Festival. Although Kwai's sound is soulful and contemporary — the musical arrangements on her album Why not Peace and Love? showcasing a delicate, deft maturity — she says it's also shaped by time in Cairo.
"We shared a culture with Egypt for a long time, so I was influenced from different paths; we have a little bit of a connection there."
Kwai's spirited marriage of the contemporary and traditional, and her engagement with the cultural influences she encounters, made her a perfect choice for Big West. "When I perform I do my traditional songs, but I also love to mix contemporary, modern music with the culture," she says "And, I explain what the songs mean."
Festival director Karen Hadfield says the reaction to Kwai's appearance at the Big West media launch surprised her, making her reconsider the event's impact. "I was amazed by the amount of people at that launch — a very savvy audience — who had never seen an African singer live. It shocked me. When I get those comments, I think it's very important."
Kwai's performance — and that of fellow Sudanese performers Sudan Azza, who also play African Time — comes in the aftermath of outgoing immigration minister Kevin Andrews' widely reported comments that "Some groups don't seem to be settling and adjusting into the Australian way of life," made when justifying a 5% reduction in Australia's refugee intake from the stricken African nation.
Hadfield says that although the African component of the festival was firmly set when the controversy erupted, the reaction from artists was immediate. "When we first approached them saying, 'We're doing a festival, it'll be great fun,' they were enthusiastic, but since those comments they've all said, 'It's really important.' "
Kwai concurs, saying the theme of disenfranchisement is part of a wider African story.
"It was pretty hard. You can't say the whole community is bad. The Sudanese are very good people, but if kids grow up in a camp, they don't necessarily know the Sudanese culture. It's not just about today. It's the whole story of coming from a poor country. We seem to live in a different world. We're not depressed. We should be, because we saw a lot of terrible things. Where you were born, makes you as a person."
Kwai, who describes music as "another way to know people" has enthusiastically engaged with all manner of audiences, participating in Kultour in 2006 in the Northern Territory.
She has another album of self-penned songs for release next year. "I love Australia, I want to share my music, because music is a universal language. We are meant to be together in the world. The world is not just for particular people. It's for everybody."
Ajak Kwai performs at Immersion Two/African Time on Saturday, 2pm-9.30pm, Footscray Community Arts Centre, 45 Moreland Street. Free entry.
This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2007/11/28/1196036976165.html