Marking the beginning of Refugee Week, Celebrating Sanctuary is an extraordinary event which gathers together musicians, dancers and artists from all corners of the globe to celebrate the positive cultural contribution of refugees to the UK. Now in its eight year, Celebrating Sanctuary demonstrates that such a vibrant panorama of sight, sound, aroma and taste would not exist had it not been for the UK’s hard won tradition of providing sanctuary to those fleeing persecution from many parts of the globe. Highlights also include headlining Palestinian hip-hop act DAM as well as a number of amazing African performers including Maryam Mursal (Somalia), Aziza (Western Sahara), Ayak Tracks (Sudan), Alem Franck (Eritrea) and more.
Few have a more dramatic tale to tell than Maryam Mursal, Somalia's powerful and hugely popular female vocalist who will be performing with her band at 5pm on the Sanctuary stage. Maryam began singing as a teenager in Mogadishu in 1966, the first woman in a deeply male-dominated Islamic society. Brought up in the Muslim faith, she was steeped in the traditional music of her country - a remarkable hybrid sound of African and Arabic influences created by centuries of cross-cultural fertilization between migrating nomadic tribes. But from her earliest years she also eagerly absorbed every influence she could find such as Ray Charles, The Beatles and Etta James.
Before her stunning voice could be heard in the west, Maryam was forced to spend seven months crossing the Horn of Africa with her five children as she fled the civil war, desperate to escape the anarchy, death and starvation that was destroying her country. She and her young family hitched rides on trucks, rode on donkeys and walked - out of Mogadishu, the Somalian capital, across Kenya, through Ethiopia, recrossing Somalia again and eventually arriving in Djibouti where she was finally given asylum by the Danish embassy. She eventually reached the UK and has since created two mighty albums on the Real World label.
One day Maryam hopes to return home to Somalia. "The first good thing I hear about my country, the first suggestion that it is changing, and I will go back - and quickly. It might take five years or even ten years but one day things will change. Everybody needs their country. At home you can be a star but then as a refugee you are looked at like a dog. I am a refugee but I am also a singer. That is my job and that is how I survive."
Aziza Brahim is a Saharawi from Western Sahara, born in refugee camps near Tindouf. She did her first recordings for the Saharawi National Radio in the refugee camps and her first tour outside the camps in Mauritania and Algeria as part of the National Saharawi Music group. She currently lives in Leon where she performs with the Latin Jazz music group Yayabo. Aziza will be performing at 3pm on the Sanctuary stage together with Venezuelan musician Luzmira Zerpa.
Performing 5.50pm on the Sanctuary stage is Ayak Tracks, an artist quite unlike any other. Standing at 6ft tall she is truly colossal in size and sound. Southern Sudanese born and South London raised, Ayak and family immigrated to England in 1984, at the very start of the Sudanese civil war. Ayak landed a recording deal with Stereo Wonderland/ Polydor in Germany and the success of her ‘Voices in My Head’ album meant that in Germany you can see her performing to crowds of 50,000, alongside acts like Blue, Mel C and 50 Cent.
Performing in the Acoustic Yurt at 2.15pm will be London-based Eritrean Krar (a harp from the Horn of Africa) player Alem Franck who mainly pays music from Tigrina and at 4.15pm Cuban/ Congolese band Trio Lokito. On the Sunken Garden Dance Stage you can catch Genna Ethiopian Arts & Theatre Ass at 2.35pm and at 4pm. UK-based Nigerian rapper BREIS will be performing 4.35pm and 5.30pm on Spoken Word Stage. The stage will be co-hosted by Nigerian poet Toks Giwa.
CELEBRATING SANCTUARY
Part of Refugee Week (18-24 June) and the Coin Street Festival
Sunday, 17 June 2007, 2 - 7pm
Bernie Spain Gardens, Upper Ground, South Bank, London SE1 (adjacent to Oxo Tower Wharf)
Nearest train/tube: Blackfriars, Southwark, Waterloo
Admission: FREE
