Africa Is a Country

Afropolitan Divas

Africa Is a Country Podcast
African Five-a-Side Podcast

Afropolitan Divas

By
Orlando Reade

Numbi, a gathering space for the Somali diaspora artists in the UK, expands its focus to include poetry and music from elsewhere in East Africa and elsewhere at a showcase in East London.

Eritrean-born singer Miryam Solomon. Photo: Cristine Leone.

Numbi is a platform for collaborations between Somali artists and others. It is named after “a kind of dance that happens in Somalia where one lets go of one’s inhibitions and gets free” and was created in 1998 by artist and activist Kinsi Abdulleh. The second Numbi gathering of 2012 happened last Saturday, with undeniable flamboyance, bringing a team of ‘Afropolitan divas’ and an influx of poetry and music from East Africa and elsewhere to East London.

The evening began with a performance from poet-singer Zena Edwards (introduced by novelist Diriye Osman as “our number one soul sister”), and poems, most memorably on bad hair and the slave trade in Bristol (respectively), by Dorothea Smartt and Rosie Martin, who read to rhythmic support from several members of what would later become eleven-piece Afrobeat outfit Bronzehead.

Following these, a quiet and beautiful set by Eritrean-born singer Miryam Solomon and an accompanying guitarist. Solomon’s work seems to be, unfortunately for internet-dwellers, still totally unavailable outside Numbi.

The climax of the whole thing was a performance by Somali singer Maryam Mursal, who stood alone on stage, accompanied by a backing track, her arms outstretched towards the audience in antique admonishment to sing her classic Somali u diida ceeb (‘Somalia, don’t shame yourself’). Mursal – having effortlessly attained diva status with a life of breaking precedents, government suppression, asylum-seeking, collaborations with Nina Simone and Peter Gabriel – departed after only two songs. The night ended with some Afrobeat from the Bronzehead collective, and a dj set of Afropolitan classics by Bradley Zero.

Abdulleh also edits Scarf magazine, which appears yearly, and has published some of the poets involved in Numbi, and diverse other artists, photographers, and writers of poetry, fiction, interviews, and essays. The new edition looks promising, including interviews with Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu (for whose medical sketches see here) and Malian singer Fatoumata Diawara, creative writing by Abdulrazaj Gurnah, and a recipe from Edwidge Danticat.

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