Culture
Tambacounda is famous for its rich djembe and dance culture and heritage. Some of the greatest djembe masters from Segu, Mali came to Tambacounda in the mid 1900's, bringing with them their history, knowledge, and secrets of the djembe. Its official language is French, but Wolof is more widely spoken in Sénégal.
Much knowledge of djembe history was transmitted directly to djembe master Abdoulaye Diakite by his master teacher Suncaru Jara. Suncaru Jara's teacher was Chebleni Traore, whose teacher was Numuni Traore, the first djembe master to bring the djembe out of Bamana secrecy, thus igniting the diaspora of the djembe.
The diaspora of the djembe also took place because there were too many djembe masters in Tambacounda at that time, pressuring some to move on to different towns or countries. Abdoulaye Diakite significantly influenced the diaspora of the djembe, first by touring worldwide with the National Ballet of Senegal for 18 years as their lead soloist, in addition to his later work in the 1990s running the Tambacounda West African Drum and Dance Camp.
In light of its rich cultural heritage and location, Tambacounda is today known as djembe "proving ground", since one never knows who might be passing through town. This has had the effect of keeping the local djembe players on their toes, by playing exactly as tradition dictates. Even in the face of globalization, the djembe playing has remained remarkably traditional in Tambacounda.
Read more about this topic: Tambacounda Region
Famous quotes containing the word culture:
“As the traveler who has once been from home is wiser than he who has never left his own doorstep, so a knowledge of one other culture should sharpen our ability to scrutinize more steadily, to appreciate more lovingly, our own.”
—Margaret Mead (1901–1978)
“I’ve finally figured out why soap operas are, and logically should be, so popular with generations of housebound women. They are the only place in our culture where grown-up men take seriously all the things that grown-up women have to deal with all day long.”
—Gloria Steinem (b. 1934)
“We do not need to minimize the poverty of the ghetto or the suffering inflicted by whites on blacks in order to see that the increasingly dangerous and unpredictable conditions of middle- class life have given rise to similar strategies for survival. Indeed the attraction of black culture for disaffected whites suggests that black culture now speaks to a general condition.”
—Christopher Lasch (b. 1932)