Nyttu Chongo (he/him). Photo courtesy to Buck Holzemer.
NYTTU CHONGO
CEDAR COMMISSIONS SPOTLIGHT INTERVIEWS
Over the next few weeks we’re featuring the six artists of the 2021-2022 Cedar Commissions (taking place Friday, February 18th, and Saturday, February 19th at The Cedar) in a series of interviews on our site. The Cedar Commissions is a flagship program for emerging Minnesotan composers and musicians made possible with a grant from the Jerome Foundation.
In the second and now third year of the COVID-19 pandemic where shifts in daily life have been ever-present, these artists have been riding the waves. They’ve been composing, exploring new ideas, and assembling teams of musicians to bring their work to fruition in a mix of virtual and in-person work sessions. Over the two nights of the Eleventh Annual Cedar Commissions, audience members will witness performances about uncovering hidden truths of one's ancestors, uniting African music traditions across drawn lines, illuminating the Third Culture Kid experience, pushing oneself to the ultimate limit, the relational process of self discovery, honoring the disrespected beauty of our planet, and so much more.
Our third spotlight interview is with Nyttu Chongo (he/him). Nyttu is a Mozambican artist. His new work for the 2021-2022 Cedar Commissions NKOVU WA XIVAVU imagines the unity that could be tapped into across the African continent by bringing together different African instruments. Nyttu spoke with Marketing and Communications Manager Shasa Sartin about breaking convention, longstanding impacts of colonialism, and the responsibility of artists.
“For me, music is not for fame or to make money. I’m not a musician, I don’t call myself a musician. I’m just a vessel for the spirit that wants to come through me. No one taught me how to play most of my instruments. I don’t know how to write songs, they just appear in my head when I’m sleeping. So I know I have a purpose: for my people, for the universe, for these instruments.”
Shasa Sartin (she/her): Could you speak about the title of your project NKOVU WA XIVAVU, which I see translates to "a celebration of pain" in English? And could you talk about why you chose this name?
Nyttu Chongo (he/him): I chose this name because of the moment we are in now. Coming here to the United States, living in Minnesota, has given me another vision about who I am and where I am, and what Africa means and what the United States means. And then I started to think, “hey, it seems like in Africa, we are still in the same place.” And sometimes I think, “how can we be happy in the middle of sadness?” So, in my native language, Changana, NKOVU WA XIVAVU means the celebration of pain. As Africans, I feel that we show this face of a smile, but our heart inside is wet with tears. So we play music and celebrate, but what is on our face and then what is in our heart is totally opposite. So I illustrated this idea with these instruments — with the kora, inanga, and xitende. These instruments are peculiar. Each instrument has its own meaning. So I wanted to bring them together celebrate this pain.
Kora is an instrument that is like a mix of sadness and happiness. And xitende is kind of a warrior instrument that is vibrating all the time, it doesn't follow rules. Inanga is more for lullabies. So bringing these instruments together, merging them, the idea is to celebrate this pain that we are feeling even when we are still smiling, playing, or singing.
From top to bottom, Nyttu’s instruments are: kora, inanga, and xitende. Photo courtesy to Nyttu Chongo.
Shasa: Do you have collaborators for your project?
Nyttu: Yes, American musicians will be playing viola, violin, and cello. So it's like we will all be using string instruments together: African instruments and classical instruments. To make this pain become a celebration, to bring the glory of string instruments. Kora is a classical African instrument.
Doing all this collaboration is going well. I like the sound that we are making. It's amazing, I never thought that we could achieve this level of sound.
There are four American musicians. There's Mikaela Marget [playing cello], Jason Burak [playing cello], Karin Valdizan [playing violin], and Svetlana Davis [playing viola]. It will be unique. Even the instruments that I'm playing, in Africa they are never played together because of the different disciplines. But I want to bring them together. We never play kora with the inanga, or kora, inanga and xitende all at the same time. So it's a really interesting project and a very ambitious project. And then it's challenging for me, too.
Nyttu and Karin rehearse their kora and violin, respectively. Photo courtesy to Nyttu Chongo.
Shasa: Do you want to speak to why it's been challenging?
Nyttu: It has been challenging because of the narrative of the instruments and then the narrative of the music itself. I had this idea, but I didn't think that, “okay, this can [actually] happen.” I play these instruments, but I never could join them together because of the [different] disciplines of these instruments. Some traditional instruments have these rituals that you have to follow to play and they have their rules that now ... I'm going against those rules. So it's challenging.
My background is in traditional music. Knowing now, that I'm breaking the rules, is sometimes like too complicated within me, saying "hey, you're supposed to keep things the way they're supposed to be." But this time I had another vision, and the same spirits that allowed me to play [before], are talking to me to bring me the message in this [new] way. So it's kind of challenging sometimes and I have to stop to take a little break because my brain starts getting ... not anxious, but feeling like there's too much energy.
Photo courtesy to Nyttu Chongo.
Shasa: Wonderful, thank you for taking me through that. It sounds like this project has a lot to do with rule-breaking and convention-breaking. I'm curious, after reading your project blurb and speaking with you about the three instruments, I’m wondering if this project has a focus on Pan-Africanism. Can you speak to that?
Nyttu: I don't like to use the word Pan-Africanism. Because of this word, the movement is losing power because people are focused on the concept and not on the essence. So that is something where most of the time the concept makes the essence not appear.
Now, we have COVID-19, and it's affecting Africa. And in the past when different diseases were affecting Africa, different parts of the world would help Africa by using a NGO, like malaria for example. But for COVID-19, none of these organizations are there in Africa to help. Regarding the vaccine, for Africa we were the last to receive them, but we didn't have many fatalities. So it's like hey, maybe what we are missing here is our lineage, is our heritage: the way we were before. Maybe we have something shining in our eyes that is keeping us from seeing what we're supposed to do to overcome all of our struggles. If we go back to what we were before colonization, we used to be the same community. But they came and they divided us, they put a map. One family was cut in the middle, and then all of these problems made us lose our heritage, our spirituality, our essence to be. By using our instruments that we use to talk to our ancestors, combining different voices from the instruments, maybe we can come together and we will solve our own problems.
For me, music is not for fame or to make money. I'm not a musician, I don't call myself a musician. I'm just a vessel for the spirit that wants to come through me. No one taught me how to play most of my instruments. I don't know how to write songs, they just appear in my head when I'm sleeping. So I know I have a purpose: for my people, for the universe, for these instruments. Being a Cedar Commissions artist is not because I'm talented or I wrote a good statement, it's something that's meant to happen. This is my calling, using these instruments. So it's not about Pan-Africanism, but it's about Africa coming together. We can fight our fight with our neighbors.
If I was in Africa I would never use these instruments to play together. But here, I see I have to do it in this way.
Nyttu holds an inanga, one of the three instruments he is playing in his performance. Photo courtesy to Nyttu Chongo.
Shasa: What thing or things do you want the audience to take away from your performance?
Nyttu: What I will be doing is not just music. It's more than that. It's not just celebration, "oh today is Friday, I want to go there." They will feel the energy. Each person will feel differently. They will feel connection between themselves as human beings, as individuals. They will understand that we are still evolving as human beings. And that different phenomenon can change our behavior or ourselves. That is the idea of this project. To shape, to connect, and then to move forward.
They will feel like "when I got here I felt like this, but now I have another understanding." It is not an evening where people will dance and applaud and be like "oh yeah it was a wonderful show!" No, it will not be like that. Each person will define the way they felt. Some will be healed, some will feel like questions have arisen. It's hard to give a tangible answer, because there will be a session of healing. Different energy will happen, because that is what our ancestors prepared themselves to deliver. We're creating music with that purpose. Each person will feel differently after.
What is my wish? I would like for everybody to get the idea that we are still the same people. Pain is still pain. I wish that the next time they step into someone else's shoes, they can feel that persons pain even before they do that. But it's not me who decides how people feel, I'm a vessel, as I said.
Catch Nyttu Chongo’s performance of NKOVU WA XIVAVU premiering live at The Cedar on Friday, February 18th as part of the Eleventh Annual Cedar Commissions. Buy tickets here.