Madagascar to Ethiopia – Hanitra and Haymanot
JUDE MONTAGUE AND VICTORIA KINGHAM
Two extraordinary female African musicians, Hanitra Ranaivo from Madagascar and Haymanot Tesfa from Ethiopia, visit Hastings this summer.
SONGS OF MODERN-DAY MADAGASCAR
On July 12, on a boiling hot Sunday afternoon, Hanitra Ranaivo, accompanied by Jean-Marc Bontemps, played her unique songs inspired by the ethnic sounds of Madagasy and fused with Afro-Cuban rhythms. She has recently taken up bass playing: having met The Police during her first trip to the United States, she said to herself (inspired by Sting) that one day she would sing while playing the bass. Thirty five years later, she has realised that ambition.
Ranaivo’s 2013 album Songs From Madagascar features her astonishingly pure vocal sound in songs with accompaniments both jazz-influenced and African traditional, with a hint of South American. Throughout, there are echoes of the wonderful multi-layered polyrhythms of Madagascar’s traditional music, which is necessarily influenced by its extraordinary multi-national history.
Her 2017 album Lasa is dedicated to the acclaimed singer Lhasa de Sela, who died at 37, leaving a truly international musical legacy of songs influenced by Mexico, French Canada, USA and Chile. Hanitra says: “I found her style of music bewitching and her songs very moving. I was very distressed by her premature disappearance.”
The lyrics on Lasa, however, deal primarily with social issues. One song, Ampela, tells of the plight of Madagasy fishermen. Despite local oceans once rich in fish, now huge industry fishing fleets (particularly from China) are plundering nearby stocks. Local boats must now go very far to fish: sometimes they never return and their wives grieve. Other songs sing of deforestation, same-sex love, mistreatment of wives and a rebellion of housewives. Instrumentation is provided by Bontemps on French hand-made guitar, Pascal Bouterin on drums and traditional percussion, and Mikael Seznec on bass, rubab, and satar. It’s a global, universal, inimitable sound.
Hanitra’s trip to Hastings was supported by Eleanor Thorn who runs Tuned In London, a unique world music venue in an ornate Rotherhithe church. Eleanor translated, for the audience, the story of the lament of a farmer for a missing zebu. An animal going missing causes distress and shame for both the farmer and the community.
ETHIOPIAN TRADITION, VIA ROTHERHITHE
Haymanot Tesfa, who is due to play a Tuesday in August, plays the six-string lyre of Ethiopia (2,000 miles to the north of Madagascar) as an accompaniment to the voice. Her vocals are mesmerising, and she is inspired by the ancient roots and landscape of her land of origin. No two songs, or versions of songs, are ever the same. “I play in my own way, because I love improvising.” Her singing has not been widely recorded but you can find examples on youtube and vimeo (links below).
The song Ambassel is about the beautiful town of Gishen Mariam, known for its honey and its holy monastery, where crowds of pilgrims gather each year. It is a piece of meditative poetry, transporting both performer and listener to a transcendent state. It is believed the right arm of the True Cross of Jesus was buried and given to the Ethiopian Orthodox monastery by St Helena of Constantinople, wife of Marcus Constantius, the first Christian emperor of Rome.
Though now UK-based, Tesfa sings in the ancient language of Amharic, one of the most widely spoken Ethiopian languages (which, incidentally, is represented in one of the most beautiful and esoteric written scripts). This year’s performance at the Goat Ledge will be her second here. At her first, in July last year, she was lauded for both her extraordinary, almost other-worldly, sound and her colourful and artistic dress. Besides being a musician she is a visual artist and paints vivid scenes, both figurative and imaginative, and still life. Bright colours and textures are of daily importance to her.
Haymanot Tesfa plays live on the beach at Goat Ledge, Tuesday 11 August, 5.30pm, FREE as part of Sunset Sessions.
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