Getting art in its fullest helps raise skills

ONE of the presentations made at last month’s International Ethnomusicology Symposium held at the University of Dar es Salaam concerned 23 paintings.

Now it might seem strange for the presence of such artefacts to be part of a gathering related to music. However, after hearing the reasons given to justify their presence at the gathering, there is likely to be a change of opinion.

Don’t be confused to hear that the concerned fine artist is a retired local biology teacher and school inspector called Mac Sawaya. The fact remains that it is since his retirement four years ago that he has had time to delve into his art with a new vigour.

He had been part of a fourman exhibition 25 years ago at the Geothe Institut when they were located within the IPS Building in Dar es Salaam. After his retirement from public office, when he realised there was now ample time to get back into his art, Sawaya did exactly that.

Now rather coincidentally or not, he had his first exhibition last year after returning full force within the newly located Geothe Institut, which is situated near the Aga Khan Hospital. The chosen theme for these works was simply “Musical Instruments.”

“These 23 paintings that come under this theme, specifically concerns local musical instruments,” Sawaya told the ‘Daily News’ after information about seven of the artworks, which decorated the area in which the symposium was held, were explained to the participants by Prof Elias Jengo.

Sawaya continued: “Prof Jengo, who is from the Fine and Performing Arts Department (FPAD), came to my last exhibition, at the Goethe Institut twice and gave me some ideas, as to how I can present, at least some of my paintings, at the then coming International Ethnomusicology Symposium, to be held at the Department in July (last month).

“Now, that is why I was at the symposium, supporting his presentation.” At first Sawaya had the idea of representing musical sounds of these instruments by using colours in drawing.

However, after further thought he realised this might be too difficult for viewers to comprehend the kind of instruments that produce these colours, so he thought it best to use the abstract art format instead. This idea was also discarded as being complicated for viewers to interpret and that’s when he came up with the idea of giving value to the musical instruments.

Now the only way he could think of doing this was to draw them just like they look, which would also have the players of these instruments in a realistic form. He also said that the 23 painting, which were displayed at the Goethe Institut represented two continuous years of his work. Some of them, he maintains, are still incomplete in respective to the level and standard that he desires.

“I’ve seen most of these musical instruments being played. Some of them I’ve painted from memory and others from pictures. But what you see in each painting is a composition of mine, so that I can have the images properly presented on the surface,” he added. He was happy that the presentation at the symposium was done by such an expert of the Fine Arts, as Prof Jengo.

This had extra significance for him because Prof Jengo had taught him Visual Aids, which he had taken as an option when taking his degree in Education, with Biology as his principal subject in 1970 at the UDSM. He wanted to learn Art but there was none there at the establishment at the time.

Now, as far as having his artworks presented at the symposium, Sawaya says he feels good to have been introduced to so many new people from several parts of the world. He further observed the response was good both at the Goethe Institut and the symposium.

He maintains that seeing the primary motive for doing these paintings was a pleasure and he got a bonus at the symposium to see his works bringing pleasure to others. He explained that the reason why he used the realistic format was because the paintings are a sort of way of conserving the local instruments for future generations.

Presenting them to an international audience, at an ethnomusicology symposium, although not his original idea, he could now say was very much in line with their preservation. This international audience, which Sawaya referred to several times during the conversation, consisted of people like saxophonist, Rick Déjà, who is currently pursuing his doctorate at Illinois University in the USA.

The musician, who also identifies himself as an ethnomusicologist is very clear how he benefits from attending the gathering. He said the fact that this event takes place here in Africa is part of the attraction. For him, it presents an environment that people can share knowledge right here on the continent.

“It’s an environment here in Africa, where we can engage in dialogue that’s not merely academic,” says Déjà. “We have musicians speaking from the heart, as musicians and we have academics speaking, as academics. “We even have other sections of the arts and cultural aspects of Africa right here.

You don’t have this often at conferences of this kind. “Here there is a good balance of being casual and friendly to all disciplines and all walks of lives.” In his first of two presentations, at the symposium he said that he simply wanted to share his journey listening to African music, as a saxophonist, with the other participants.

The motive behind sharing his story with others was to encourage them, where necessary, to open their ears and listen, not because he posed to be an expert but simply to show how he came to appreciate music from other countries and cultures after doing just that. Having gone through this experience, which Déjà said had encouraged him to keep on striving towards improving his own skills, one gained in understanding about the purpose of such gatherings.

With such desires it made sense why he was so much ready to participate in various musical collaborations with other participants at the symposium. In one of these musical interludes he was joined by an Ethiopian pianist Ezra Abate, who is currently studying for his doctorate at Addis Ababa University.

It seems Abate was not the only one there at the symposium of like mind to the saxophonist, for on a previous occasion, they were joined by a mouth harp player from the Ivory Coast called Adepo Yapo, a trumpeter from Seattle in the US, who lectures in music education in Western Norway, David Hebert and a guitarist from Malawi radio and television called Walika Makhala.

All of these musical sounds were being listened to in a surrounding decorated with seven of Sawaya’s paintings. No doubt he might have gained more fresh ideas, as to the nature of his next collection of paintings on local traditional musical instruments. Wonder how he is going to fit the saxophone in this set.