Anwar

Another day, another festival to work towards!

As part of our preparation for this summer’s Africa Oyé we’re involving people who use the services of Liverpool’s specialist mental health support provider for people from Black, Asian, Minority Ethnic and Refugee communities - Mary Seacole House.

Today, we had a social gathering with them, discussed a whole bunch o’ stuff, ate some delicious food and put on a gig featuring our chums Anwar Ali and Dave Owen, a duo in which the Bajuni Islands (off the coast of Somali) meet Oswaldtwistle (off the M65, near Blackburn!).

Their instruments (oud and guitar) and their voices blend beautifully on a selection of traditional East African songs, performed in Swahili... with the occasional foray into Scandinavian folk tunes.

Most of their repertoire consists of songs of love and parting but their translations of the Swahili reveal some fascinating insights. One, for instance, is called ‘I Love You (But You Smell of Fish)’, another translates along the lines of ‘Get Over Here, We Need to Have Words, Now!’.

My blip today is of the lovely Anwar and you can see him and Dave, mid-performance, in the Extra picture.

If you’d like to see and hear them play, then check them out here www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NQQSqlKSfw as they play ‘Malaika’.