São Paulo – Next week, the musician Elfatih Hussain Ahmed will finish his tour of Brazil, after having shown the face of Sudanese music in two states and the Federal District. Hussain played a concert and gave a lecture as part of the Virada Cultural programming, in São Paulo, and he also discussed Sudanese music and played the acoustic guitar in state of Bahia and the Federal District. He is returning to his country with the impression that he was at home. “I did not feel like a foreigner,” the artist told ANBA.
Hussein said Brazilian audiences had very positive reactions to his music. He played for a packed house at São Paulo’s Mario de Andrade Library. According to him, the audience was moved and not quite surprised with his arrangements, because there are many similarities between Brazilian and Sudanese music. “Even though I played by myself, the reaction was good,” said Hussein, who usually performs with his eponymous band, Dr Elfateh Hussain, comprising 12 members.
Following his trip, Hussain says he will now spread Brazilian music in his country, especially among his students, because he is also a music teacher. “I will encourage my students to listen to Brazilian music,” said the artist. Brazilian music teachers who met Hussain during his stay in Brazil should do the same with regard to Sudanese music. In his lectures to Brazilian students, he said they are very “attentive.”
In addition to being an artist, Hussein is an innovator and a representative of his country. Early on in his career, one of his concerns was to promote his country’s music around the world. He says he started playing at age 15, while still in school. At that time, however, he was divided between music and painting. Encouraged by his lute-playing uncle, Hussein leaned towards music. He learned to play the lute and then acoustic guitar. Lacking the funds to buy a guitar, he built his own and learned to play by ear.
In secondary school, Hussain first gained access to a ‘real’ guitar and started competing in festivals. He would always win, and that led him to join the Sudanese Institute of Music and Drama. Hussein would accompany leading names of national Sudanese music, and played concerts with them in Europe and the Arab countries. Soon he joined other graduate and student musicians to rescue Sudanese music and show it to the world. The idea gained momentum after he returned from a seven-year stint in Moscow, where he took an advanced course and pursued a master’s and a PhD in music.
Back in Sudan, Hussain was invited to recreate the Sudanese national band. After that, he started performing in other countries with his group. The artist has since been to other Arab countries and Africa, Europe and Asia, among others. Hussein has written approximately 30 songs, and he also plays music by other songwriters. This was his first trip to Brazil. “But I will be back,” he says, expressing his personal will.
He performed at the African Union’s 50th anniversary celebration, which was attended by African ambassadors to Brazil and former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. He also played at an event organized by Bibliaspa, the cultural arm of the Summit of Arab and South American Countries (ASPA). The events that featured Hussain were organized by the Bibliaspa, the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its Cultural Department, the Ministry of Culture, the International Advisory to the government of the state of Bahia, and the São Paulo City Hall.
Last Friday (31st), Hussain paid a visit to the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce headquarters, alongside the Sudanese ambassador Abd Elghani Elnaim Awad Elkarim, and the two were welcomed by CEO Michel Alaby. The Chamber also backed the musician’s activities in Brazil. Hussain highlighted ambassador the crucial support from Elkarim, who accompanied him to appointments and organized his schedule in the country.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
