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Garifuna girlsUmalali unites women’s voices at
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by ERIN MACLEOD To tell the story of Umalali, one must begin with Andy Palacio (1960–2008), whose Watina collective first introduced the music of the Garifuna people to a much wider audience. The Garifuna, descendents of Africans, Arawaks and Caribs, live mainly in areas of Central America including Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Honduras. By the time Palacio passed away of a sudden stroke in early 2008, he had, alongside fellow Belizean producer Ivan Duran, already laid the ground work for Umalali, an equally stunning project that brings together the voices of Garifuna mothers, daughters and sisters. Umalali, the Garifuna women’s project, is not really an album, it’s a showcase of voices, each one expressing an element of Garifuna culture and experience. Singer Desere Diego describes the process that created Umalali. “Women from different places, different villages, came together,” she says. “We didn’t know each other, we didn’t even know who was involved until we went in the studio. I had been singing earlier in 1995 with Andy Palacio and Ivan Duran. It was Andy’s idea. He brought some stuff to Ivan, some of the ladies’ songs.” Then Duran spent quite a bit of time travelling and recording, collecting songs for the project. The music of Umalali blends traditional songs with contemporary performance and production. “The songs are written by composers from towns and villages,” Diego explains. “These are songs that are sung when women gather together after a hard day’s work or other times. The traditional music would be just the vocal, drums and maraca, and more has been added.” Following in the footsteps of Palacio, Diego views the music as a means of expressing Garifuna culture, with a particular focus on the experience of women. “We have our own language, our own food, our own dance and our own music. Singing is something that we do every day, most of the time because, for women, we have a lot to do and a lot to think of. Sometimes we sing because we are happy, and sometimes we sing because we are in pain. This is something I would like to say about the music because we have songs that are composed right away, sometimes even during the death of a loved one. Or when we are working, at the same time we are composing. Most of the songs are very loved. They are songs that are made with love.” AT KOLA NOTE ON WEDNESDAY, JULY
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