Music to SanDance! to
Istudied anthropology at university. I wasn’t sure why at the time, but I think I know now that it had something to do with me having a wild heart, not wanting to experience Africa from an airconditioned office, wanting to sleep under the stars, be surrounded by dense bush or desert. I also studied music, and ethnic music was my particular intrigue. A stringed instrument made from an old 5l oil can or a piece of wood captured my imagination more than something electronic or modern-sounding, and still does.
So you can imagine how excited I was to get a call from moviemaker Richard Wicksteed inviting me and Pops Mohamed, South African multi-instrumentalist, jazz musician and producer born in Benoni, Gauteng, to compose music for SanDance! a new movie about the rituals and dance ceremonies of the hunter gatherers of the Namib and Kgalagadi regions that have inspired me my whole life.
In the film Wicksteed heads through the desert following nine different clans on their journey to the Kuru Dance Festival. The story is a beautiful telling of both the many trials of these peace-loving people and their resilience in the face of encroaching westernisation.
Pops and I spent three days in studio scrolling back and forth on the timeline (we felt like we were living with the bushmen in lockdown) jamming and sharing our own stories — I was born in Namibia, Pops has recorded three albums with Namibian San people — and recording new works that surprised us both.
One of our compositions is a tune called Tsuie People, named after a San group living in the Okavango Delta with a taste for water lilies, waterblommetjies as the Afrikaners I encountered as a child call them. They too have a taste for them.
The exquisite footage of the beauty of the central deserts of southern Africa, the Okavango delta, wildlife and birds and the healing sounds of the music make this film one to watch. The years of research and ongoing relationships that have led Wicksteed on this path are remarkable.