Cuban and Cameroon Ékpè in DC

 This past weekend has been an important one for Abakuá and Ékpè members alike.  Here are images and music from all the encounters between Cuban Abakuá Roman Diaz and Angel Guerrero accompanied by a song they learned from Sisiku Assám Assám .  In just a little while Dr. Ivor Miller will be presenting his talk as Senior Fellow at the Smithsonian museum. We are very grateful to Dr. Johnnetta Cole and all the staff at the National Museum of African Art. Soon I will post more video and pictures of the events following Chief Dr. Ivor Millers talk.

Abasi Menguame,

Onel Mulet
for The Voice of The Leopard.

Sese Mariba Kondo:"The Voice That Comes From The Sea"

In April Enyenison Enkama performed a spectacular set at the Schomburg Center for Research and Black Culture. The enthusiastic crowd received the group with love and admiration as it revealed the traditional Abakuá masquerade and sang songs of praise for their comrades, the ancestors and the traditions that were brought from Ekpé lands in southeast, Nigeria and southwest Cameroon. Our dear friend inventor, entrepreneur and professional photographer Martin Cohen captured these images posted on his congahead.com blog. Cuban photographer Juan Caballero was there and captured these brilliant images. Cuban filmmaker and author Aristides Falcon also documented the event and video footage of the concert will be posted very soon. Download Ecobio Enyenison, the latest release by Enyenison Enkama(Roman Diaz, Angel Guerrero, Pedro Martinez) at the iTunes store.

Editors Pick on Descarga.com

EEcobio Enyenison
CD (Habana|Harlem 205976), Released 2009;
Editor's Pick:
Very Highly Recommended folkloric Abakuá release featuring Roman Diaz, Pedro Martinez, Angel Guerrero and guests. A rare album of its type, and continues where Cuba's Grupo Andabo's 1997 Enyenison Enkama 2 left off. Recorded in very high quality at the home of Roman Diaz and Pedro Martinez, NY, 2009. Those who are familiar with Ékpè and Abakuá hold this session in very high regard. The real deal. With Onel Mulet, Oriente Lopez, Ruben Rodriguez and many other noted musicians. Guests Steve Turre and Paquito D'Rivera. - BP

"...This recording by Proyecto Enyenisón Enkama is a brilliant effort to continue that conversation, using the same form in which both Ékpè and Abakuá have recorded their own histories: ritual phrases with symbolic rhythms. Members of Proyecto Enyenison Enkama have been leaders in the conversation with their African counterparts at each stage in the process, which certainly began before the first encounter in 2001. In 1997, the Havana rumba group Yoruba Andabo’s recording of ‘Enyenison Enkama 2’ (arranged and chanted by ‘Roman’ Díaz’) became the basis for the Brooklyn encounter; it included an historic chant evoking Efí Ebutón, the first Cuban lodge, that Nigerians interpreted as identifying ‘Obutong’, an important Calabar community. In 2000, Angel Guerrero led the creation of ‘Ibiono’ in Havana, the first full length CD devoted entirely to Abakuá ritual chanting that evoked historic lineages in Cuba and the foundation of Ékpè in Africa. Following this trajectory, in ‘Ecobio Enyenison’, Cuban Abakuá chant their history and proclaim their faith in their inherited traditions.

The phrases of each composition describe sacred geographies (maps) of West African source communities, as well as histories (epic deeds) of the African founders. By evoking these inherited chants, members of ‘Proyecto Enyenison Ekama’ praise their teachers, as well as all those Abakuá leaders of the past who maintained their faith in the teachings of those Carabalí migrants who established Abakuá. By chanting within the context of contemporary arrangements played by vanguard jazz musicians, they celebrate a cultural victory of continuity and evolution across time and space, as well as offer a vision of the expansion of their traditions into the future."

Dr. Ivor Miller
African Studies Center
Boston University
(DR, 2010-11-02)
Song titles include:
Eribo Eriboñe
Neri
Itia Fondova
Tumba Efo
Danza Ñañiga
Ekon Erima
Mariba Konkai
Beromo Ñampe
Isunekue
Iro Gañu
Musicians include:
Ramon Diaz Percussion
Pedro Martinez Percussion
Angel Guerrero Percussion
Onel Mulet Flauta, sax
Oriente Lopez Piano
Ariacne Trujillo Piano
Philbert Armenteros Lead vocal
Ruben Rodriguez Bass
Panagiotis Andreou Bass
Dennis Hernandez Trumpet
Eddie Venegas Violin, trombone
Willie Alvarez Trombone
Edmar Castañeda Harp
Alvaro Benavides Bass
Axel Tosca Piano
Category: Folkloric => Rumba And/Or Santeria/Lucumi
Shipping Value: 1
ORDER TL-24115.10 CD $16.98

Okim Agbor Esija "The True Essence"

Okim Agbor Esija. Interview by Dr. (Chief) Ivor Miller with H.H. Okim Agbor Esija, Clan head of Ikom, Village head of Abokim Ngbabor, Ikom Town. February, 2008.

Chief Agbor Esija introduces himself, then explains what the term 'brikamo' means in the Nkòmè language spoken by the people of Ikom urban. Among Cuban Abakuá, 'bríkamo'is a reference to 'the real origin', the sacred land of Usagaré. While visiting this chief, I heard the term 'bríkamo' in reference to palm wine, and the local gin made from it, used to pour libations to the ancestors. 'Brikamo' means 'the real one', the best quality drink, or, 'the essence of' the drink used by Ékpè. One can see how this term would become used in Cuba to mean 'the essence of Abakuá'.

Since Chief Esija passed away in April of 2008, we are posting this five minute video in his memory, and so that Cuban Abakuá can learn about the culture of the source region of their own traditions.