Working to present the Transatlantic pilgrimage

This episode is about a presentation to multiple different audiences about a research trip taken by musical scholars from the Centre for Sound Communities to Guinea. I am a research assistant and I share what my role was in these presentations as well as my personal connections towards the films. These presentations were spread across the month of February to schools, libraries and community halls all around Cape Breton island. The music, the instruments, the lyrics, the journey all of which were presented were so captivating. I still hear the songs in my head and I only heard them during those sessions, but the rhythms were so catchy they have stuck with me.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
This is Sound Stories, a Centre for Sound Communities podcast.

(00:18):
Hello everyone, welcome, my name is Tugi Ngochi and welcome back to Sound Stories, a Centre
for Sound Communities podcast where we talk about the amazing work we do here as research
assistance and the people we work with. In this episode we are going to be talking about
the Transatlantic Pilgrimage which I personally helped showcase in February 2024 and

(00:44):
it's in fact the event that brought me on board with the Centre for Sound Community and
our role is going to be helping with the drums and setting them up and setting up the entire
events and we had about seven different events across Nova Scotia that were welcome to the
entire public to showcase our findings as the Centre for Sound Communities and showcase

(01:10):
the music that was created, the musical instruments that were brought from Guinea and just all
of its richness. So I'd like to break down first of all what this entire story was, there was an
incredible doctor named Dr. Afua. She is originally from Guinea and that it's her descent but she has

(01:31):
never been back home up until this opportunity presented itself and she went back home and got to
meet some of her family, she went back with her daughter, she was reunited with family that her
and her daughter have never met before hence the title Transatlantic Pilgrimage because she was able
to go back home and plug into her roots which I found such an amazing story to see and as they went

(01:58):
there they partnered with a local musician who taught them his music, he taught them how to make
a xylophone and organized with them trips to see the different places where different instruments
are made and specifically the xylophone is made from like three different trees and its

(02:25):
trees are found in different parts because summer grown by the river, summer grown in the middle
of the forest and he organized for them the entire journey to see how this instrument comes to be
and she also went with Dr. Marcia on the trip to Guinea and Dr. Marcia's son was playing

(02:46):
that instrument and he learned how to play so the video that they took shows that so the video
showcases the entire progress of that which I found really cool and we're able to just see how
that comes to be, she is a poet herself and she wrote two different pieces and they were accompanied

(03:08):
with a xylophone player's, balafon, sorry I've been saying wrong this entire time, ballaphone players
right behind her and they sounded amazing she was even dancing and enjoying herself, they did
demonstrate how the jambas played and they had a bunch of djembe players and what was really cool

(03:31):
is that I learned how to play the djembe through a Kenyan musician that came in who plays the
Djembe as well and he taught that and I personally can you say it was really nice to learn from my fellow
canyon and we I ain't locked in you skill I locked that I could actually draw which is really cool

(03:54):
because I mean I never thought about it never considered it I love music but I don't know I
just wasn't I don't know wasn't too Kenyan on drumming, I guess and I am very passionate about drumming
now because I find it I find it so much fun like it's actually so enjoyable and I'm so grateful

(04:16):
that through that experience I was able to learn how to drum I have a bunch of drums at the center
for sound a bunch of djembes and I remember one of the workshops we had because you were teaching a
bunch of beat the auto corner is more of a high-peached beat and then the deep center is more of a bass

(04:38):
we got to play with other arrays were very talented there actually met so many cool people that drum
and are talented and for musical and I learned so much during that time place we went to was the
Menelik Hall which isn't Whitney Pier and I got to meet an amazing person named Michael and he's

(05:03):
now one of my very good friends it was a really amazing opportunity for like an amazing bubble
and like a tour that we were going on because we went to libraries we went to schools we went to
yeah we went to a French school and we went so many places in the island and just getting to

(05:24):
teach people this amazing thing it was really really really cool so if you're ever curious
on where to find a jambadrom that you have been dying to try out the center of sounds is your place
and there's a bunch of teachers I have become a teacher now and we're now working on different

(05:48):
workshops to teach CBU students on a regular, we're starting one in April of 2025 and it's going
to be me and Selena and Peter he's a former student and yeah it's just very exciting so thanks
for listening to this episode of Sound Stories as Center for Sound Communities Podcast this show

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is hosted by research assistants of the Centre for Sound Communities a social innovation lab at
Cape Bretton University be sure to tune in into our next episode to hear our classmates discuss
another amazing story concerning the Center for Sound Communities project tune in next time thanks bye

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[Music]