TARIKA

About the Artist

TarikaÆs music is always steeped in uncompromising pride for their cultural roots. A large part of their award-winning 1997 album, Son Egal, dealt with the legacies of colonialism, racism, and corruption in Madagascar. Historical connections are often an inspiration for the music and their songs also reflect the musical roots of their own Merina people in the Malagasy highlands.

The first settlers of Madagascar around 1500 years ago were not from nearby Africa but of Malayo/Polynesian origin, arriving from Indonesia either by a circuitous coastal route around the north and down the east coast of Africa or directly across the Indian Ocean. They were related to the same people who, two thousand years earlier, had begun to spread out and eventually populate the Pacific, reaching Hawaii, Easter Island and New Zealand many centuries before European explorers. Similarly, ancient connections between Indonesia and Africa have been well documented.

It was after TarikaÆs leader Hanitra Rasoanaivo first ventured abroad in the late 1980s that she made some remarkable discoveries. A TV travel documentary from Sulawesi showed people who looked like her relatives involved in ancient burial customs that were startlingly familiar; a bamboo instrument called the sasandu from the island of Roti near Timor was a close relation of MadagascarÆs valiha tube zither; and records of music from far away Polynesian islands and even Okinawa, right on the other side of the Malayo/Polynesian diaspora, contained strong echoes of music made at home.

It became a burning ambition to visit Sulawesi and meet the descendants of their shared ancestors. In September 1999 she stayed for a month among the Bugis, Makassar and Torajan people and found many connections, similarities and ghosts. These connections are now also reflected in many of TarikaÆs songs.

Past Performances

September 9, 2001

Tarika produces songs that have been described as "history lessons in party mode."

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