MBOLON Festival: Everything You Need to Know
PHOTO VIA MBOLON
This weekend, China Cloud Studios will host the Mali-centric MBOLON Festival, a satellite event modeled after a much larger version in Kolondieba, a small-town in Mali.
Named after one of Mali’s traditional instruments, the inaugural festival will celebrate African music and instruments, and is by Ismael Konate, founder of the original MBOLON festival.
The Vancouver offshoot is the brain-child of Elastic Stars’ Jennifer Bojm and Colin Cowan, who also owns and operates China Cloud. Bojm met Konate on an airplane and… well, we’ll just let her tell the story on how this whole thing developed:
“We were going to visit Colin's family in New Brunswick one winter, and I was on a separate flight. I happened to sit beside a lovely man named Ismael. We got to talking about music and he told me about the Mbolon Festival that happens annually in Kolondieba Mali. He told me that it’s a festival that engages the community and educates generations about the Mbolon. He and his father were involved in the establishment of that festival.
“We kept in touch, as we’d been hoping we might bring our band Elastic Stars to perform in Mali at the festival. Fortunately, we were granted some funds to try and make it happen in some form. So we planned this satellite Mbolon festival here in Vancouver.”
Bolm says she hopes to expand future editions of the festival to include musicians from Malo.
This year’s festival lineup includes:
Saturday, Nov. 16
KUNDA AFRICAN CULTURE, MUSIC AND DANCE – Founded and headed by Kocassale Dioubate, Kunda has its' home bases between Vancouver and Dubreka / Conakry in Guinea. Kocassale is a ‘griot’, or ‘ djeliba’ of the Mandingo tribe – in other words, a musician, praise-singer, story-teller, entertainer, counselor,and keeper of tribal history and tradition. It’s a role inherited through lineage, passed down through the family for hundreds – possibly even thousands – of years.
ELASTIC STARS: Vancouver-based psyched-out nostalgia-pop outfit, fronted by Colin Cowan, China Cloud founder and member of Destroyer, Dada Plan, among others. The live band also includes Bojm (bass + vocals), Daniel Ruiz (drums), Roisin Adams (keys + vocals), and Joshua Zubot (violin + electronics).
Sunday, Nov. 17
KURAI MUBAIWA - SOLO MBIRA: Born in 1976 in the village of Mutimbanyoka, Zimbabwe, Kurai Mubaiwa is the lead musician with the group ZimbaMoto and Zhambai Trio. As a solo act, Kurai tours the world teaching, singing, and playing both the marimba and the mbira, and African thumb piano.
GORD GRDINA - SOLO OUD: Grdina is a Juno-award winning oud-player and guitarist, with a unique sound combining mainstream jazz, improvisation and Arabic music.
PHOTO VIA MBOLON
History Of The Festival
The Association for the Promotion of the MBolon (AMB) has been organizing the International MBolon Festival in the city of Kolondiéba since 2017. This is the fourth edition of the festival, and its president is the Honorable Dr. Sidiki N’Fa Konate. The values promoted by the MBolon include hard work, bravery, unity, and selflessness—values that explain AMB's deep connection to this instrument and its decision to organize a festival around it. The MBolon has always been central to festive and ritual ceremonies, serving especially to inspire exceptional leaders and farmers during planting and harvest seasons since the 11th century. With each edition, the International MBolon Festival of Kolondiéba has become a unifying event for communities and a cultural exchange that highlights the tangible and intangible cultural heritage, as well as the artistic, cultural, and tourist potential of the Kolondiéba district. It also strengthens the bonds of solidarity between the various communities. The festival mobilizes all 12 communes and 209 villages of the Kolondiéba district, where the populations show their dedication to the event, aiming to further promote the MBolon as both a musical instrument of agriculture and war and a symbol of their identity, customs, and traditions shared with other agrarian civilizations in Mali, Guinea, Gambia, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, and beyond. A typical edition of the Kolondiéba International MBolon Festival is marked by a cycling race to open the event, artistic performances, thematic conferences and debates, and a football match to close the festival.
The most recent edition celebrated the inclusion of MBolon-related cultural practices and expressions in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a recognition that underscored the urgent need to safeguard these traditions. This celebration reinforced the belief that preserving these cultural practices linked to the MBolon can be achieved through international cultural activities, involving young people and the general population in promoting the values of the MBolon, and ensuring its presence at ceremonies, events, and colloquia. The hope is that this global recognition will lead to more resources being allocated to support both the promotion of the MBolon and the livelihoods of its players and troupes. In this continuity, the present initiative—the Vancouver International MBolon Festival—seeks to serve as a cultural bridge between Kolondiéba and Vancouver, showcasing the MBolon and its fusion with modern Canadian music. This edition, organized with local artists due to logistical reasons (visa procurement and scheduling constraints), is meant to be a precursor to future editions where troupes from Kolondiéba will perform, introducing the sounds of the MBolon and collaborating with Canadian artists. We look forward to the upcoming editions!
PHOTO VIA MBOLON
MBOLON Festival, presented by China Cloud Studios and Do604, will be held on Nov. 16th and Nov. 17th.
Tickets can be purchased here.
