alna niking!project

1. Malo Sonko

Malo Sonko was born in the village of Abéné in Senegal, in the region of Casamance. Following in his musician father’s and grandfather’s footsteps he first played the seourouba, the Mandinka drum, at festivals, religious ceremonies, weddings and baptisms. He underwent traditional initiation in the djembe with Guinean and Malian masters and started performing from the age of 10. Playing a wide range of traditional percussion instruments: seourouba, djembe, bougarabou, dun dun and talking drum, he also performs on acoustic instruments: kora, bongo and balafon.

Malo has performed and taught music throughout Senegal and Gambia as well as in Germany, UK, France, Portugal, Bulgaria, Spain, Switzerland and Greece. He has led workshops in local community centres, festivals and schools, and promoted his cultural heritage through performances for corporate, private and public events.

However he has always kept close ties with his native village, where he now teaches children and young African musicians as well as foreign students.

Malo teaches with great accuracy, which he draws from extensive experience with adults and children, and creates a relaxed atmosphere. He is also a fantastic performer whose charisma attracts all types of audiences and enthusiasts. Malo is a model of seriousness and reliability who shows great determination not to compromise his traditional roots. He remains faithful to the traditions and customs he has inherited from his family and his percussion masters.

In Abéné he has gained respect among young as well as dedicated artists who consider him a master who inspires them.

2. Laurie Sonko-Marie

Laurie Sonko-Marie promotes West African arts through her social and artistic enterprise which is called alnaniking uk.

She started organising traditional West African events in Year 2000, working hard to further develop workshops and performances to educate a diverse range of audiences in the richness of West African arts, primarily focusing on music and dance. Over twenty-five workshops have been developed for schools, summer schools and festivals in the first two years.

Drawing upon the richness and cultural diversity of West African arts, coupled with her own passion for them, alnaniking uk has gone from strength to strength within 5 years. Laurie has managed to widen her audience base through introducing workshops in new places, specifically where people might not have previously experienced West African arts.

Laurie first came to Abéné on a drum and dance holiday in 1999 and realised very quickly that a special relationship between the village and herself existed and had to be developed.

Since then, she has discovered more about the village and its inhabitants who have always been very welcoming and have since adopted her as a full resident. Laurie soon realised that Abéné is a place dedicated to the Arts, such as traditional percussion, dance, song and theatre or crafts such as traditional batik painting and woodcarving. The village reaches its climax when Abéné Festivalo, the annual festival of traditional arts, takes place in the winter and Laurie has contributed to its international promotion since 2001 through the website she has created www.alnaniking.co.uk.

3. Education in the UK

After working in different environments in the UK, on his own and with the group he founded with various African musicians, Malo realised there was a real need in the community to better understand his traditional cultural heritage.

Laurie decided to set up alnaniking uk, a not-for-profit arts organisation, in order to improve the understanding of West African culture and promote the social benefits of learning different art forms from various ethnic groups from the West African diaspora.

This seemed to be the right step towards encouraging people to cross national boundaries. In cosmopolitan Britain, this often enables children to find out more about their own identity or to simply open their minds to arts and cultures of various origins.

4. Abéné

Abéné is a peaceful village situated on the West Coast of Africa which has kept its traditional customs. Its artistic vitality is renowned and percussionists and dancers from around the world travel there all year long to learn, improve or perfect their art in the traditional way.

In winter the village wakes up from the rainy season with Abéné Festivalo. This annual festival started over a decade ago and celebrates the beginning of the harvesting period in Casamance. It has been promoting the ethnic diversity of the West African coast by gathering the best artists of the region who perform traditional music and arts from different parts of Senegal and neighbouring countries.

Mandinka, Diola, Serere, Karoninke, Balante, Foula and artists from other ethnic groups bring a fantastic variety of sounds and colours to the village which are drawn from their own specific traditions. The festival attracts a large audience which comes both from Africa and the Western World, including France, Holland, Germany, England, Spain, Belgium, Israel and Australia to name but a few.

5. Our project

Combining the teaching skills Malo has already developed in Abéné and the experience he has acquired in working with children and adults of all backgrounds and abilities in schools and community centres in the UK, he would like to resume all the activities he used to run with school children and young people in Abéné.

We have already asked for some help from the cultural section of the government but they wish us to submit a budget as well as being able to contribute financially ourselves.

We would like to set up an arts school in Abéné because we are sad to see young people who have no financial resources to study music. We wish to teach these young people.

School children would also benefit from learning music but the school does not have the resources to purchase instruments or pay for the teaching staff.

Other young people have already left school and although very skilled in music do not have the opportunity to learn further as they need to work to earn their family’s living, sometimes at a very early age.  Others have had the chance to join one of the local bands and rehearse and perform with them on a regular basis.

During the school holiday the children remain inactive although their natural artistic creativity is very developed, thanks to the constant exposure to traditional music and dance events happening in the village during family events, ceremonies and religious festivals.  However, the lack of resources means that they do not have the opportunity to take part in arts workshops in the village. Indeed most of the workshops are organised for Western visitors and the rates are often unaffordable for the local people.

Malo has contacted the school arts officer who is very keen for him to start teaching from the next school year.  He has also submitted the idea of offering workshops to local children during the festival period (which is a public school holiday) to the festival committee.

6. Summary

Our enthusiasm with this project means that we have tried to give you as much information as possible.  In short, we would like to organise and offer the following:

1.            Regular teaching of music at the local school

2.            Workshops for children during the public holiday

3.            Teaching of talented young people outside the school curriculum

Music and dance will be prioritised in the first instance. Contact will then be made with other artists so as to expand teaching to other art forms.

7. What we need

Ideally we would like to expand the project to other arts forms such as mask making and woodcarving in association with the local craft village as well as painting, drawing, jewellery making and textile dyeing in collaboration with local artists.

However, we have decided to start with music and dance and the following list is what we would need to be able to start teaching.  Some young people are interested in learning traditional instruments; others would like to learn Western music too.

Malo and his brother Apai, a professional dancer and percussionist, are already training a few children and young people within their band Dimbaya, which performs in Senegal and in Gambia throughout the year.

Items needed:

5 djembes

5 dun dun

5 balafons

1 set of bougarabous

2 sets of seouroubas

2 guitars

2 bass guitars

5 koras

1 set of drum kit

5 talking drums

The generous donations that have previously been given have allowed us to purchase and repair a few drums.

The teaching would primarily take place in our compound, alna niking!, which we hope will become a local arts school, and in the local primary school.

Personal donation: Any contribution is welcome be it £1 or any equipment that can help.  We would then keep you updated with what your contribution has helped to buy and we would also inform you of the progress we make with the school(s) and the local children.

School twinning: We would also like to work in conjunction with one or several British school(s) that wish to help this project and in so doing build relationships between British children and the children of Abéné.

Possible sponsorship: We have been offered to sponsor a child or young person for a year long training. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you would be interested in this scheme.

alna niking!* project