N’golá (São Tomé)
Our Ancestors Swam to Shore
Free Dirt / PM Press
The people of the Angolan Islands of São Tomé and Príncipe are the descendants of people who literally escaped sinking slave ships by swimming to the islands These people lived for generations in semi-isolation, developing their own traditions and Creole language (N’golá). Our Ancestors Swam to Shore is a collection of field recordings of the residents of São Tomé. The music is primal, consisting of primarily voice and percussion. The instruments are largely household tools and boats repurposed as drums. The recordings made by producer Ian Brennan and Italian-Rwandan filmmaker and photographer Marilena Umuhoza Delli are clear and crisp for field recordings. This project is part of an ongoing series of field recordings documenting cultural survival in isolated communities.
While I can’t understand the words, the song titles point to problems of everyday life: “Went Out To Sea and Forgot My Fishing Nets,” “Sister, Are You With My Husband? (You Can Have Him),” “If Everyone Was As Kind As Alice, The World Would Be A Better Place.” On a few songs, Brennan uses echo and other effects to encase the emotion of the songs.
