The Hamilton College Performing Arts will present WOFA!, Percussion and Drums from Guinea, West Africa, on Friday, Feb. 16, at 8 p.m. at Wellin Hall in the Schambach Center for Music and the Performing Arts. WOFA! combines the traditional with the contemporary in a drum and dance spectacular. WOFA! will also present a free African drum and dance demonstration at 12 noon on Friday, February 16 in the Fillius Events Barn. This demonstration is co-sponsored by the Black and Latin Student Union.
WOFA!, which in the Sousou dialect means "let's go," "come together," or "come along," is a group of 10 young musicians and dancers from the Soussou clan in Guinea. Belonging to one of the most liberal groups in Western Africa without social hierarchy, they live on the lower coast of French-speaking Guinea, and have been working together since 1933, under the artistic leadership of master drummer François Kokelaere from France. WOFA! stands apart from other African performing arts groups by linking past and present. In a continent that is undergoing a deep change, WOFA! combines traditional culture that is still very much alive on the Lower Coast with the contemporary presentation characteristics of the present.
With a desire of moving away from the exotic commonplace of caricatured Africa, WOFA! circumvents the imagery associated with African dancing and drumming without distorting its content or erasing its strength. The traditional rhythms of percussion remain the primary material, rearranged in a more contemporary way with the contribution of acting nuances. The musicians perform on several traditional instruments from the Lower Coast: the kryin (wooden drum in the shape of a tree trunk, played with sticks), the djembe (drum carved from a solid block of wood with a goatskin top and small metallic cattle-bells, played with the full hand), the balafon (or xylophone), and the wassakhoumba (used in initiation ceremonies, a set of small calabash discs in ever-decreasing diameters, strung onto a piece of carved wood, which when shaken produce a high pitched sound).
Today, WOFA! is one of the most promising independent companies of Western Africa. Indeed, WOFA! was invited to participate at the MASA 95 African Festival in Ivory Coast. Following their participation in Paris at the 200th Anniversary Bastille Day Celebration, they have toured several times all over Europe, including at Weimar, Cultural Capital of Europe 99, as well as in Australia and Southeast Asia as part of Africa Oye. During 1998, they conducted a two-week residency in the French Caribbean, and have since then toured in more than 20 communities throughout the USA and Canada.
Tickets for the evening performance are $15 adult, $10 senior and $5 student. All seating is general admission. For reservations or for more information, call the Hamilton College Performing Arts ticket office at (315) 859-4331.
