ARTS& ENTERTAINMENT Siley Adama: An interview

Jen Aird, OP Contributor

Siley Adama is a musician and dancer from Senegal. He left Senegal with the national dance company Ballets Africaines, traveled extensively worldwide, and has resided in Canada for the past ten years. He has since taught thou- sands of people the traditional dances and rhythms of West Africa, while performing with both Takaja and Joko Band. Siley is one of the most interesting and charming people I have ever met. One should be as lucky as me to have the opportunity to sit down and talk with him.

J: Siley, what do you do?

S: What I do I do? I do music, dance, drum, the African dance, the African drum, and [I] sing in my band.

J: In Senegal there are people called Griots...(Griot is a French term for a class of musicians in West Africa).

S: Griots, yes.

J: Is it true that it is only a particular caste that make music, or is music free for all to do?

S: Okay, before it was only the Griots. But now, in the new generation, now we understand it’s...work. Like before, women, they didn’t drum because they say when you play drums nobody wants to marry you. But the female Griots, they can play, they can sing. But now in the new genera- tion, everything has changed.

J: What about your family?

S: My family, they are Geer.

J: Geer?

S: Geer is like a nobleman. That is why my family, when I was a kid...didn’t want me to do the music.

J: What should you have done instead of music? What would have been more of an appropriate job, rather than music?

S: Everybody does music now. If you don’t play the drum, you're going to sing. If you don’t sing, you’re going to dance. If you don’t dance, you know painting or some- thing. You must know something about art. Sing, dance, drum, paint, or collage.

J: The first president after Senegal became independ- ent was Leopold Senghor...

S: After we had the independence of Senegal, we had pres- ident Senghor.

J: He was really interested in the arts?

S: Yeah, Senghor was really interested in the arts and music. That’s why Senegal has a lot of artists. He support- ed a lot of musicians. During the time of Senghor, artists were happy. After Senghor, came Abdoulaye.

J: You were born three years after Senegal achieved independence. How was that?

S: Cool. It is the only country [that] got independence in Africa with no fighting, no blood, no war, no dying. You got the independence intellectual. You must be smart. It’s your house. Like here, in my house, if I fight here in my house, who’s going to last? Me? I don’t fight with you. Like Shayhk Ahmad Bamba, the prophet of Senegal, he wrote a message for Senegalese people. And that helped Senegalese people too, the message of Shaykh Ahmad Bamba. When you are traveling, everywhere you travel, you see the Senegalese people fighting for peace. Shaykh Ahamd Bamba, he had a problem too with the colonization, with the French people, when they came. He was there, Shaykh Ahmad Bamba. They thought Shaykh Ahmad Bamba did government politics, and he didn’t do government politics. He did the politics of Jah Jah, God...peace and love. You just understand we live together. If something happens, who’s dying? Us. Senegal never had a war, man, never had fighting.

J: Who taught you music?

S: One guy lived in my family house, Abass. He played six drums together. Every Sunday, he would play nine to five in the morning. That guy by himself would play six drums for everybody in the community. I slept by the drum every night. When I woke up I would say, “Yeah, I’m Abass.” Me too, I would play for the kids. I played the same rhythms. I played a lot of drum.

Some people grow up with the music. In Africa, some people have it in the blood, the same here in Canada and America. You can see some people, they burn. They have it naturally, something in the blood. It’s not you who does music, but music does it to you. I got the music, that’s

what I do. Music likes me. All of my friends, they ask me, “How do you live? How do you live in Canada?” I work only by my music. I teach African dance, drums, and in the band I sing. All of my life I work only in music. And I don’t want anything more, only music. No money, I don’t want millions, nothing, Just to do my music, and then I’m good.

.J: Do you feel like you can do that here in Vancouver?

S: Sometimes I think it’s easy. Sometimes I think it’s not easy. It’s easy when you find your people. It’s easy when you have a house, and when you rent your house you prac- tice there. If you don’t have a place to practice, that’s the problem. You need to practice music everyday, man, just play.

J: You lived in Quebec.

S: In Quebec I worked with my band called Takaja. Takaja won the Juno for World Music here in Canada.

J: Who are, for example, some of your favorite artists to come out of Senegal?

S: Oh, Youssou N’Dour, Baaba Maal.

J: Independence Day is a national holiday in Senegal. Why is it important for you to celebrate it here?

S: The day that Senegal achieved peace is the day we call Independence. When I am here in Can@a, when I came for the first time I said, “Yeah, I need to do something to help the community, the Senegalese community.” I did something big. I did the festival for Independence Day. I met my ambassador. I never knew I had a councilor here in BC. I [met] a lot of Senegalese people I had never met. And this year too, ’m going to meet a lot of different peo- ple. The ambassador from Ottawa is coming for that.

In 2005, at the Croatian Cultural Center, Siley hosted a full day of dancing, drumming, and food to commemorate Senegal’s national Independence Day on April 4. He plans to hold another cel- ebration this year at the Croatian Cultural Center near the end of April. Look out for it!

You can also catch him every week at Paranada. He teaches a drum class from 5—6:30pm. Paranada is at 1505 Commercial Drive. Phone 604.255.3600 for more details.