The Bank Family Days: Thanksgiving – The African Harvest w/ TOES – Nov 29, 2020
Sunday, November 29, 2020
Come explore the interconnected rhythms of music and community with ethnomusicologist Charles Chipanga, and T.O.E.S. Niagara!
Host, T.O.E.S.
Empowering immigrant and marginalized women and their families through multi-lens educational workshops, programs, and other support services to enable, assist, and inspire women to believe in their abilities and skills to enhance their roles in their own lives, local communities, in business, and in the wider world using our Five Pillars of Empowerment:
– Economic Development
– Education for Sustainable Development
– Leadership Development
– Social Development
– Personal Development
Host Artist, Charles Chipanga is an ethnomusicologist acquired at Zimbabwe college of Music. Born and bred in Zimbabwe and now based in Ontario Canada. He has continued cultural exchange programmes in different countries. Chipanga toured the world for more than 12 years playing music, dancing and teaching African percussive instruments namely the marimba, mbira, African drumming, singing and African Rhythms. Charles has Four music albums to his name which contain a fusion of jazz, ethnic and contemporary sound combined into a stylized musical cocktail bolstered by a tailor-made set of Marimba which opens a whole world of sound elasticity
The Bank Family Days, produced by Femmes du Feu Creations, is a series of arts & culture events full of engaged activities for families and people of all ages. Activities will take place digitally and at home. Registration is required, but all events are FREE! Each event will include a take home kit with supplies for the activity. Each event will include a series of online videos to watch, a craft to do at home, and an interactive Zoom meeting with the lead artist.
Nhimbe Culture and Music
“Nhimbe is a traditional Shona practice of working together as a community to help each other in daily tasks such as harvesting, weeding fields, constructing a house, gathering manure or other tasks. It is “a socialising agent where members of the community come together and communally assist each other in a number of ways”.
-Individuals and families participating in Nhimbe promote an African ideal of individuals’ communal responsibility, prevention of selfishness
-Most importantly, keeping people interacting within communities.
In doing all this, MUSIC PLAYS A VERY PIVOTAL ROLE. There is no African duty that happens without a song. There are specific instruments that are played for each activity. Special songs are also rendered to get the work rhythm going.
By nature, a Nhimbe caters for community security rather than individual welfare, and it broadly exemplifies a Shona and African culture of extended family, oneness, community, sharing and togetherness. A Nhimbe hosted at the traditional leader’s home was largely known as Zunde raMambo, while when hosted by other ordinary members of the community, the nhimbe was called jakwara, jangano or humwe among other Shona dialects. However, the practice of undertaking a common task is not solely peculiar to Zimbabwe. It is also practised in other countries – examples include harambee in Kenya, chilimba in Zambia and milpa in Mexico.
Music is passed on orally and in a circular format, one song can have many unrehearsed parts that can take it to 30mins or more and with loads of naturally co-ordinated parts.
Let’s have FUN and ENJOY the community music.”
CHARLES CHIPANGA