Telling our own stories

Many know her for her solo work but our Shishani has more than what meets the eye to offer. In 2015, she and a fellow artist from Amsterdam, Sjahin, who plays percussion, started a unique project that brought two different worlds together through music. Shishani studied musicology including traditional music in Namibia. “The idea behind the tuneful group Namibian Tales is to study traditional music from Namibia regardless of which people and we decided to start with the San,” she said. The group - made up of four artists from all over the world - was established with the aim to study traditional Namibian music and to create music with new influences. The first leg of the project will kick off with the four artists featuring the San community. The San people are known as the oldest continuous population of humans on earth and known as the children of the world. They are bearers of centuries of knowledge and experience about the natural world. On this project, Namibian Tales captures the beauty and strength of the San people, celebrating their musical culture in new ways. They have met with different communities of San people, and are now working together with the Ju/'Hoansi from a village called //Xao /oba near Tsumkwe in the Kalahari Desert. “We seek to showcase the wealth of their traditions through an exchange and collaboration with our acoustic quartet 'Namibian Tales'. The San have many 'tales', both profound and ancient. Although the San are seen and portrayed as primitive and poor people, they possess a connection and rootedness to nature we have long lost,” Shishani said. The five-day trip to the Kalahari Desert resulted in an eight-track album with different rhythms, melodies and a fusion of old and new tunes. The Namibian Tales in collaboration with four San grandmothers will be hosting a concert at the Warehouse Theatre on 16 and 17 June. “We got support from the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN) with the idea of engaging artists from rural areas who do traditional music to present their own work,” The second part of the project will involve the group travelling within Namibia giving concerts within Namibia and recording a live CD together. The CD release is scheduled for October 2017, followed by a tour in Europe in the summer of 2018.June Shimuoshili

Telling our own stories

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-17

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Telling our own stories

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Namibian Sun 2025-09-17

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