"A Panafrican Batuku Group, an union of women storytellers, place of frendship and safety, an art of the people for the people" So is the self proclamed Batukaderas Bandeirinhas Panafrikanista´s identity. This group was one of the main highlights of this year´s Clarão Festival, in Sintra. For those of you who have never heard about this genre of music, Batuque, or Batuko, is original from the Cape Verde Islands, off the African coast. It has obvious roots in this continent and yet it has its own strong tradition. You can see the group dynamics in these images, together with the beautiful music itself, but what you can´t really see here perhaps is the extent to which this performance accomplishes all the best things Music as an art form has to offer. Throughout the show, Ilda, the main singer, would use the (needed) breaks between songs to talk to the public and for the non creole speakers these were moments of revelation to a inner mystery everyone in the audience was feeling. "You can´t understand it, but you can feel it! can´t you?" she asks us at some point. And everyone nods. In fact this particular Creole and the Portuguese language share some similarities, so we could more than feel it, but its something else when you are actually cleared of your doubts. To know that these songs are very personal to these women. They sing of their fight for their rights as humans and as African descent, of their love of their natural beauty as women, of their appreciation for the overwhelming power and size of the Universe, and their humility towards it, of their love for their work, for their loved ones, for their culture and for Batuko. And what really brings tears to your eyes at some point, if you actually paying attention, is that they really mean what they are singing about. Ilda explains at some point, that most of them work in maintenance jobs, hard jobs. She speaks of the different hardships they go through, but she doesn´t want your pity, she just wants to get You into the act. They are not trying to be anyone else but themselves. They are playing just as much for you as for themselves and they know it and will tell you directly. As Carla, the main dancer, says to us at some point when stealing Ilda´s microphone for a heated moment, Its their therapy, and "its the best therapy". Its their way to cope with their own struggles, but most importantly, its their way to make something beautiful and joyful out of them. To dance and drum until they can´t anymore, not just for a quick groove state, but to remind themselves of who they are and what they stand for. Its us in the audience that were feeling lucky to be witnessing this event, taking notes, and probably wondering to ourselves when was it that we lost our habit to drum, dance and sing together of what really matters to us. For me personally it was an unforgettable experience, and a clear reminder of what any artistic expression ought to be.
Music and band: @bandeirinhas_panafrikanista
My IG @hugo.fem
Organization IG @claraboia.sintra
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Graded in Lightroom and Davinci Resolve using Cineprint16 and Dehancer for Film Emulation
Musica cabo verde batuque batuko ao vivo
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