An enchanting collection of 25 traditional songs pays homage to the rich
cultural heritage and multilingual communities of East and Southern
Africa. The resulting highly mixed musical styles that are unique to
each region demonstrate how they welcomed new horizons through contact
with others. A wide array of styles--skipping rope songs from
Mozambique, lullabies from South Africa, counting songs from Réunion,
traditional dance tunes from Madagascar--are all performed exquisitely
by men, women, and children in more than a dozen languages and dialects.
Vibrant compelling artwork and homegrown instruments, such as the tube
zither, the kayamb, the bobre, the segakordeon and ravanne drums round
off this wonderful celebration of history, language, and culture. Lyrics
appear transcribed in their original language and translated to English
followed by extensive notes describing the cultural background of each
song and a map of East and Southern Africa. This picture book is
accompanied by a CD featuring 25 recorded songs along with unique code
for the digital download of the audio.