SAN­DRA L BLOOD

An in­vi­ta­tion to per­form in Africa evolved in­to an ex­pe­ri­ence of a life­time for mul­ti-tal­ent­ed T&T artiste Em­press Ajé.

The tour, co­or­di­nat­ed by Av­ery Am­mon, in­clud­ed a per­for­mance at the Mar­cus Mosi­ah Gar­vey (MMG) Foun­da­tion’s Gold­en Gala in Ghana on Au­gust 17, where she was ac­com­pa­nied by Ghana’s Na­tion­al Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra.

This led to oth­er per­for­mances. In Kenya, Em­press Ajé, whose re­al name is Al­li­son Bernard and was for­mer­ly known as War­rior Em­press, was wel­comed by chair­man of FES­TAC, Yin­ka Abioye, and met Gov­er­nor of Kisumu Coun­ty Pe­ter Anyang’ Ny­ong’o, Min­is­ter of For­eign Af­fairs Dr Abra­ham Ko­rir Sing’Oei, Prime Sec­re­tary and Cab­i­net Sec­re­tary for For­eign and Di­as­po­ra Af­fairs Dr Musalia Mu­dava­di, Head of Tourism, Trade and In­dus­try for Kisumu Coun­ty, Kenya, Fari­da Ahmed Sal­im, Bar­ba­dos High Com­mis­sion­er to Kenya, William A Mc Don­ald, and the Ro­man­ian Am­bas­sador to Kenya Gen­tiana Ser­bu.

Her guides in­clud­ed FES­TAC’s di­rec­tor Lehlo­hono­lo Pee­ga, Odi­ma Os­ure and Joseck Asikoye.

At FES­TAC, she per­formed at the Jo­mo Keny­at­ta Sta­di­um and Dun­ga Hill Camp, ac­com­pa­nied by T&T’s Caribbean Steel­pan Con­nex­tion led by Is­rael McLeod.

Her oth­er per­for­mances were at the Har­mo­ny for Haiti Fes­ti­val in Uhu­ru Park in Nairo­bi, Kenya; Geco Café, al­so in Nairo­bi; the Women’s Sum­mit at Aca­cia Pre­mier Ho­tel in Kisumu, where she was ac­com­pa­nied by the Wa­hen­ga Band; Ethiopi­an New Year cel­e­bra­tions in Moshi, Tan­za­nia; and Pat­wa Joint in Arusha, Tan­za­nia.

Em­press Ajé said she al­ways want­ed to vis­it Africa, par­tic­u­lar­ly Nige­ria, to trace her an­ces­tral lin­eage.

How­ev­er, she had no idea she would get an op­por­tu­ni­ty to vis­it and per­form.

“I didn’t see it com­ing,” she ad­mit­ted.

The ex­pe­ri­ence went be­yond per­form­ing. Em­press Ajé learned a bit of the na­tive lan­guages, tast­ed au­then­tic foods and met some in­ter­est­ing peo­ple.

“Africa is a vi­brant, mag­i­cal con­ti­nent that has great op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­vest­ments in all spheres of life, in­clud­ing the per­form­ing arts and I must say, even though I en­joyed shar­ing my artis­tic gift of per­form­ing with the peo­ple of Africa, which was the pri­ma­ry ob­jec­tive for go­ing there, I can­not de­ny the un­ex­plain­able feel­ing I ex­pe­ri­enced meet­ing the in­ter­est­ing peo­ple of the Ma­sai tribe.

“I’ve al­ways been fas­ci­nat­ed with the Ma­sai tribe and their jump­ing abil­i­ty. Look­ing at them on Na­tion­al Ge­o­graph­ic was the clos­est I got un­til I vis­it­ed Kenya. They are al­so there in Tan­za­nia,” she said.

She said it was al­so a mem­o­rable culi­nary ex­pe­ri­ence. The singer sam­pled Dawa, a pop­u­lar African cock­tail in Kenya, made with grat­ed gin­ger, lemon juice and hon­ey. She al­so en­joyed Tilapia from Lake Vic­to­ria, which was well-sea­soned, fried and drenched in a sauce of toma­toes, bell pep­pers and onion. The dish is cus­tom­ar­i­ly served with Ugali, which is made from white maize and looks like coo-coo. In Ghana, she savoured jollof rice with stew and roast­ed plan­tain.

Em­press Ajé al­so went hip­po hunt­ing in Lake Vic­to­ria, fed gi­raffes and im­palas in the Sa­tara area of the Kruger Na­tion­al Park and met Casper the white male li­on.

She ex­pressed her grat­i­tude to Am­mon, Caribbean Steel­pan Con­nex­tion, Joseck Asikoye, and the Wa­hen­ga Band of Kenya for the mem­o­rable ex­pe­ri­ence.