Mar
07
Filed Under (Beninese culture, Ethnomusicology, General) by Rob on 07-03-2008

You MUST watch this video – I’ll tell you about it afterwards…

Recognize anyone? Did you laugh?!? Well, a local Christian musician, Mathieu Assogba, has been working with me a lot on my research here. So, when he came to filming his latest pop video he asked me to come along and play the cÉ›nkumÉ›n, a large gourd used in traditional music here. So, they sat me down in someone’s back yard, where there was a large blue sheet draped across a wall, and I played along to the CD.

When I’d finished playing, he said “You speak a bit of FÉ”n, can you mouth the words to it”, so, with difficulty I did! A couple of weeks later and this is the result. Incidentally, I also put him in touch with the white dancers too, who had a whale of a time learning the moves. Check what Lauren says about the experience here and here. Oh, and apparently it’s been on local TV already – scary! That almost qualifies me for Celebrity Big Brother!!!

That’s all for now. Bon weekend!



Comments:
4 Comments posted on "Six minutes of fame!"
Eric on March 7th, 2008 at 7:07 pm #

OH MY GOSH. That was hilarious. Rob, you were hysterical!


Will Hussar on March 9th, 2008 at 7:44 pm #

That song is catchy! Oh Cool, I am the first one to comment on this!

Cheerio,
Will


Rob on March 9th, 2008 at 7:58 pm #

2nd actually, as there was one waiting to be moderated! Glad you liked the song Will!


Michael Young on March 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pm #

How funny. I saw the same video clip on another blog site — that of a missionary in Benin. Small world!