Saturday 12 September | 10:30pm | Royal City Mission
Kofi Ackah . percussion, drums, sampler, voice
Ebenezer Agyekum . bass guitar, voice
Tichaona Maredza . nyunga-nyunga mbira, guitar, hosho, voice
Daniel Nebiat . krar, voice
Aron Nitunga . guitar, voice
Assane Seck . lead guitar, voice
Sadio Sissokho . kora, tama (talking drum), djembe, voice
Mabinty Sylla . dance, voice
Multple instruments, languages, and countries together help define the music of Okavango African Orchestra.
Okavango African Orchestra is an ambitous musical ensemble created by Batuki Music Society Artistic Director, Nadine McNulty, who assembled a cast of accomplished African-born musicians. The orchestra takes its name from the Okavango Delta, a basin in the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, where many different animal species come together to feed and find water. Predators and prey are forced to coexist and share the meager resources because of the harsh environment around them. Similarly, Okavango African Orchestra brings together the traditonal music and instruments of several major
African cultures that historically have had little or no interaction. The musicians of Okavango have created a common meeting place for these disparate cultures, and a new musical language that harmonizes their different tuning systems, rhythms, and timbres. The musicians and instruments of
Okavango represent a continuum of traditions and cultures from time immemorial to the present day.
The multicultural spirit of modern-day Canada bridges ancient African solitudes.
Okavango African Orchestra revisited the site of its debut, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, to record the group’s debut, self-titled album in February 2016, which was awarded the 2017 JUNO for World Music Album of the Year. Their second album, Africa Without Borders, released in February 2020, was nominated for a 2020 JUNO Award for World Music Album of the Year and the 2021 Canadian Folk Music Award. On November 1, 2023, Okavango released their third album, Migration: “Our music is not static, it’s constantly evolving, and like the animals in the Okavango delta that migrate to greener pastures, the music of Okavango endeavours to reach new territory of migration and exploration. We are not just playing music, we are introducing new concepts, ideas, and ways of working together.” Migration was awarded the 2025 Canadian Folk Music Global Album of the Year.