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Sudan |
CULTURE
A group of young Sudanese artistes
make their presence felt in the international artistic scene«Kwoto» is a word coming from the Toposa ethnic group of Southern Sudan. The Toposa live in Kapoeta, a semi-arid land surrounded by mountains and are predominantly cattle breeders, although they do cultivate a few crops for their own needs. The word «Kwoto», according to the Toposa, is the name of a sacred stone, which was brought by the ancestors and placed near the Lovoro River.
This stone serves as a covenant, a binding and unifying force, believed to have inherent spiritual powers. Any Toposa who passes near this stone must throw a piece of stone towards the Kwoto stone in order to avoid something bad happening. The action is also a sign of respect and loyalty to the ancestors. This Kwoto Stone has kept all Toposa clans united in purpose and in spirit. Indeed, they are one people.
Geographically, the Toposa occupy the area bordering Kenya and Uganda. During the «scramble for Africa» in the 19th century, national boundaries were drawn in such a way that they cut across tribal areas. As a result, some of the Toposa are in the Kapoeta area of Sudan. The remainder are either in Kenya’s Turkana area or in the Karamoja area of Uganda. However, they all speak the same language apart from having different accents.
Why a Kwoto Cultural Troupe?
The Kwoto Cultural Troupe came into existence in February 1994 because many Sudanese were extremely concerned about the loss of their traditional cultural practices, intercultural bigotry, questions of identity, and lack of cohesion. Today, the Troupe is more than a group of people. It has become a cultural centre, based in the heart of Sudan’s capital, Khartoum.
Kwoto as a concept and ideal represents a quest for unity, a quest for originality. It is a return to one’s roots, visiting the past in order to bring back the rich African heritage through art, drama, music, dance, and oratory. Kwoto aims to reveal the beauty, the aesthetics of the Sudanese people, which was lost through the long years of struggle for power. It achieves this through artistic performances.
Kwoto had humble beginnings and its artistes are still mainly students, both male and female from southern Sudan and the Nuba Mountains. Today, the Troupe plays and sings traditional dance and music from over twenty ethnic groups in a non-stop sequence — a living message that unity in diversity is possible — that diversity is not divisive if it is properly managed.
Archbishop Gabriel Zubeir Wakoof of Khartoum was the only mentor who gave serious attention to the group, providing it with facilities and a small store for keeping their simple costumes, drums and other accoutrements. Gradually, the Archdiocese of Khartoum’s Liturgical Committee began to involve Kwoto in liturgical celebrations as part of the inculturation process. The Troupe took part in the Great Jubilee celebrations at diocesan level and participated at the beatification and canonization of St. Josephine Bakhita, and the beatification of Bishop Daniel Comboni, both in Rome.
International exposure
Kwoto’s most recent trip abroad was to take part in the Mundial Festival in the Netherlands. The Festival concluded with a two-day show in Tlburg Park from 14-15 June 2003. Here’s what Kwoto’s Managing Director, Derik Uya Alfred, and its Art Director, Mr. Stephen Affear had to say about this experience.
Derik Uya Alfred: «Festival Mundial has existed for over a decade. It usually brings together artistes from over thirty-five countries around the world to learn, share, experience and familiarize Dutch society with different world cultures. We are living in a world of different cultures. Therefore, we need to share experiences by looking for chances of working together in different places. During the Mundial Festival, we ate various kinds of Dutch food. That was quite interesting! During this year’s Festival Mundial, we went out with fellow-artistes from other national groups. One was from Nicaragua, the other from Bolivia. We were able to communicate with each other using sign language».
Mr. Uya said that resulting from their participation in the Festival, a Ghanaian choreographer was interested in cooperating with Kwoto, and a Kenyan acrobat group known as «Salto Jamboree» might come to Sudan to train youngsters in the field of acrobatics.
Kwoto had to make lengthy preparations for the Mundial Festival. Participants were fully aware that to perform at an international arena in the presence of many big names in art, music and dance was quite a challenge. They were also aware that Kwoto would be a goodwill ambassador for a country which has the reputation of having nothing but death, starvation and destruction.
Stephen Affear: «We had to prepare ourselves physically for the hectic programme in Europe which would be very different from our usual shows. Usually, in Sudan, we perform only once or twice a month. Kwoto was privileged to open the Festival on 31 May. It was a tremendous experience and the feedback from the audience told us that we had performed well. We had a ten-minute “slot” during which we had to present a culture that is both southern Sudanese in particular and Sudanese in general. (Remember — Southern Sudan has more than fifty ethnic groups and therefore, a variety of cultures). It was a crucial occasion for us because we had to introduce Kwoto and the Sudanese cultural heritage in a matter of minutes. We attracted attention because we employed purely local traditional costumes and we used traditional musical instruments and the dance was also traditional. I think people are searching for originality and this is what Kwoto endeavours to provide. And for ourselves, we were able to discover new things and update ourselves. We learnt the meaning of punctuality and using our time well. We saw professional artistes at work. Our young student artistes who are mostly internally displaced people in Khartoum had the chance to share experiences with professional dancers, singers, actors and musicians.
And what next for Kwoto? Well, there’s Daniel Comboni’s canonization ceremony in Rome this coming October!
- Yusuf el-Hussei, Sudan, June 2003 — © Reproduction authorised, with usual acknowledgment