Speaking in sacred tongues
A SOUTH African group that brought New Delhi to its feet with their performance of a soul-stirring mix of Sanskrit chants and Aramaic prayers, are heading for home — and their first big concert in Joburg.
The members of Desert Rose are based in Cape Town and have given performances in India and Europe.
But on Friday they will be giving a concert at the Wits Theatre at 8pm.
Band manager and vocalist Yusuf Ganief said: “We have performed in Joburg at smaller venues to very niche audiences.
“This is the first big show we’re doing in Gauteng.
“We do very specific sacred world music — basically taking ancient sacred music and recomposing it within a classical world music context, which makes it accessible to everyone.”
“We” includes Sisonke Godlo, Nceba Gongxeka and Michaela and Lynne Holmes, who perform on a wide variety of instruments and in several languages: Aramaic, Sanskrit, Latin, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Xhosa and English.
Ganief, who sings in six of the languages, said: “I grew up with Arabic . . . and over the past few years I’ve taught myself Sanskrit — mostly around the chants — and Aramaic as well.
“It doesn’t mean that we can speak all the languages.
“With Aramaic, we do the Lord’s Prayer in the original language that Jesus spoke.
“That came from someone from the UK, who had researched it for 20 years — we sat with him and made sure the transliteration was right and [the] pronunciation. We wanted to at least know the meanings of what we sing.
“All the chants that we chant have to have been verified by specialists in those languages.
“We have the approach that if we do something, we have to it as perfectly as possible.
“There is a respectfulness for what we do so that we don’t offend anyone and because it is sacred.
“Therefore, it has to be done so that it is reminiscent of the original chant.”
Earlier this year, Desert Rose went to India, where Sanskrit was born, and got a standing ovation at their concert. That meant a lot to them, said Ganief.
A year ago, the group performed in Warsaw, Poland, a majority Catholic country.
“The response was overwhelming,” said Ganief.
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