A quick review of the wonderful workshop day at Eef Bresser’s with AFROKICK 2018 in Mijnsheerenland. This mini festival has a nice tradition since years of being held every few years. This edition was sun-drenched and with lots of different offerings. For myself also a special edition because for the first time I contributed to it myself with a balafon workshop.

First time participation

For two years I have been giving monthly lessons in balafon for the group ‘Hoeksche Waard (later Dordrecht)’ in Eef’s studio on the Blaaksedijk. Now this time I had been asked to give a workshop at AFROKICK. The Djembé, Doundoun, African Dance, Singing and Balafon workshops were held at friendly neighbours in the immediate vicinity of Eef’s Studio. I myself got to conduct the workshop with my students in the studio itself. But by 26 May, summer was well underway and we were able to play outside behind the farm in the shade.

With a nice little club (Leon, Rob, Hanny, Paulien, Wendy, Ineke, Hans and Yvonne) we worked on the song ‘Sanata’ from Mali / Burkina Faso. The accompanying song calls for a group of friends , including ‘Sanata’, to gather to do something fun together. It then sings: Hey there he (‘Sanata’) is already arriving! So Sanata is the name of a boy, which you can easily replace with other names in the song.

Presentations

After the workshops, a beer in the grass followed by a delicious African meal. Afterwards, the different groups were able to show what they had been working on. Successively, the different workshops gave presentations at different locations on the grounds. We had the audience singing along with the song of ‘Sanata’! Here is a video with an impression of the day. Unfortunately Eef has stopped his activity’s for now.