Fatoumata Diawara channels ancestry and activism in Cape Town

It’s a warm Saturday afternoon in Cape Town. Music lovers are beginning to trickle into the CTICC hosting the Cape Town International Jazz Festival (CTIJF). I’m in the media centre, excited for my next interview of the day.

In walks Fatoumata Diawara, the artist I have been looking forward to speaking to. She immediately greets everyone, then turns to look at me and says: “I love your hair.” I’m donning my Afro curled-wig. Surprised with a big smile on my face, I respond with a “Thank you!” As the Malian singer-songwriter and actress takes a seat, I notice the four traditional white dots painted down her forehead.

She is wearing traditional beads around her neck. I notice the white bead headpiece beginning from her forehead to the top of her head. I notice that her hands and fingers are a different colour than that of her skin tone.

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They seem to be painted in a brownish/maroonish colour. Diawara is in tune with her Malian heritage, so she is known to use artistic, visual and symbolic elements on her body. The artist deeply connects with ancestral energy.

This is evident in the type of music she makes — one that blends traditional Malian sounds. Arriving in South Africa for the second time, the musician felt a powerful ancestral presence. As she set out to perform for the first time in the Mother City at CTIJF, for her, the ancestral energy was palpable.

“Being here, the energy is so strong in a good way. And the first thing that I really feel. It’s my second time now in South Africa, I feel the ancestors.

That’s strange. In the hotel, I feel a lot of dead people,” she says. “Sorry for telling you about the crazy part of my life,” she giggles.

“It happens to me only in South Africa, not even in Mali, so strongly, I don’t know. When I get out, I wonder if people in here feel the same energy. That’s my questioning. “It’s like I look at people and say: ‘Okay, they know about this, that it’s so strong, you know, and that the ancestors are still with us, even if they’re from a different period of time.’ And that’s one thing.

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