This article summarizes the research creation activities as part of Singing Storytellers in 2014, and subsequently the development of knowledge dissemination outputs through deep collaboration with scholars and artists. Over the past decade, the field of research creation has brought together academics and practitioners across institutes of higher education, the arts sector, and the creative industry in Canada and internationally. My work as a documentary filmmaker and sound artist has expanded to a curatorial practice that centers community engagement, in no small part due to the connections with artists and scholars, training opportunities, and mentorship from which I benefited during this project while I was a graduate student. While collaborations between the musicians and scholars involved in Singing Storytellers have thrived since and resulted in multiple initiatives, this article reflects on the initial collaboration that brought a novel approach to the Sunjata epic performance accompanied by poetic translation to the public through multimedia. Here, I reflect on the process of filming, editing, and presenting The Sunjata Story & ETH; Glimpse of a Mande Epic drawing on methods from visual anthropology and ethnomusicology. I conclude with a consideration of how acts of reciprocity can create more sustainable relationships between artists and scholars-a practice I now incorporate into my own scholarship today.
This article presents a conversation between Afua Cooper and Marcia Ostashewski. Cooper is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar, and a celebrated Jamaican-born Canadian historian who specializes in Caribbean studies, women's studies, history, and Black studies. Cooper became involved in the Sunjata Project in 2019 after witnessing Lassana Diabat & eacute; share music and stories about Mande culture and history at a public library in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This conversation represented in the curated transcript below was conducted via video call in 2022, in preparation for the community-engaged research-creation project TransAtlantic Pilgrimage: African History, Poetry, and Music, a collaboration involving Cooper, Diabat & eacute; and Ostashewski. Cooper discusses how elements of the Sunjata narrative-such as the themes of exile and the overcoming of obstacles and challenges-relate to her own experiences as a dub poet and a woman of African ancestry living in Nova Scotia. Cooper also discusses the power that public performances of the Sunjata Fasa and other aspects of Mande music and culture have in promoting cross-cultural dialogue and exchange.
This article examines the centuries-old tradition of "griot" or djeli-musicians, historians, and keepers of the ancient stories of the Mande-as a current global phenomenon, where collaborative works between "global griots" incorporate elements of this tradition into new and emergent contexts. Situating the group Trio de Kali (founded by balafonist Fode Lassana Diabat & eacute;) within a framework of applied ethnomusicology, this article canvasses the history of a growing movement of Malian griots who are able to engage with diverse audiences across the world through a network of artists, scholars, and institutions. In doing so, this article investigates the challenges and benefits involved in such collaborative endeavors; how such projects both preserve and progress musical tradition and practice; and, how emergent performative contexts for professional global griots at collaborative events-such as the Sunjata Project Singing Storytellers Symposium at Cape Breton University-contribute to the development of traditional griot practice.
The British Library mounted a major hibition entitled West Africa: Word, Symbol, Song from October 2015 to February 2016. It brought together the intellectual traditions of literature, music and art from across 17 countries, referencing 1000 years of history to offer insight into a profound, engaging and current literary culture with centuries-old written heritage existing alongside ancient oral traditions that persist to this day. This paper describes the intentions of the exhibition-to dispel misconception and to encourage engagement with West African intellectual traditions-foregrounding the place of oral traditions in descriptions of each of the five primary sections, with a focus on forms of oral traditions, and on the Sunjata epic specifically. The final section of the paper evaluates the impact and legacy of the exhibition, demonstrating how it engaged teams across the institution by invoking the British Library "machine," and, most importantly, young visitors of West African backgrounds as they "reclaimed" and took pride in their histories.
