It can be tough being black in Taiwan but Pan Africana Cultural Troupe aims to change that through the power of music.
The group has been banging the drum of African culture for four years, gigging at festivals, clubs, pubs, business functions and schools.
The seven band members play traditional African drums and songs, perform dances and acrobatics, as well as updating traditional music with rap, soca, reggae and dance hall sounds.
PHOTOS: JULES QUARTLY, TAIPEI TIMES
Tonight Pan Africana brings its message to Bliss, in Taipei. It's a message worth listening to.
“On the MRT or bus sometimes people don't want to sit by us, or hold their nose,” group founder Ben Stobite Sampson said. “It's difficult for people to get to know us because of what they've read or seen on the TV.”
“It's natural for people to be reserved to begin with, but after they listen to us and know us they will love us and we will come together as one.
“Chinese culture is traditional and strong so it can be hard to change people's minds. But generally, we have found Taiwanese to be kind and once they know who we are they are very friendly.”
Often enough, Sampson said, Westerners are the first to appreciate their music and dance. “They show the way and when locals see this they think it's OK and get involved themselves.”
Sampson is a thoughtful and enterprising man from Ghana, who saw the need for cultural understanding on his travels around Asia as an import-export businessman.
It was in Guangzhou (廣州), China, that the 33-year-old saw an African troupe entertaining a crowd and thought, “I want to do this too.” But he decided to do it in Taiwan, which he had visited and liked.
He returned to Ghana in 2002 and completed a course in cultural studies, then bought some drums and costumes and returned to Taipei.
“Luckily I met Kim [Douglas] and we thought we could do something, a collaboration, and it's all worked out since then.”
For the past two years they have been building up a reputation as entertainers and cultural ambassadors. Last month the government finally approved Sampson's application to run his business here.
With a visa and residency the aim is to consolidate Pan Africana as a community organization in Taiwan and eventually spread the message to other parts of Asia.
As well as performing, Sampson and his group teaches African dance and drumming, participates in conventions and work shops, and exhibits clothing and crafts from the continent.
“A lot of people have presumptions about black people, many of them false. So music builds a bridge between us,” Douglas said.
The political science student has lived in Taiwan for four years, speaks good Chinese and has a fair understanding of his adopted home. He comes from Dominica, a small country in the Caribbean, where his father was prime minister.
“The Chinese [Taiwanese] like a fairy tale, there's a lot of stereotypes about Africa and Africans, so we're trying to reverse that and put out a more positive image. You know, black is beautiful.”
Cobby Hoffman, from Ghana, said it's sometimes difficult being black in Taiwan because of the reaction of people to his skin color.
“But I really like being black. It can be a disadvantage but I wouldn't change it, it's part of my ancestry. There is ignorance but not necessarily discrimination.”
As for the music, Douglas said, “It's an international trend to equate black people with mainstream culture in America like rap music. But our roots are in Africa and this is the music we promote.”
“We just want to introduce African music to Taiwan. It's never been done. When I first came here I was like a social butterfly, but I wasn't happy with the scene, socializing and hip hop. I got put off by all that,” Douglas said.
“The drum transcends everything, it's real culture from a black man's perspective, not just spinning records.”
Group members play a range of instruments, including the djambe, doundoun, sousaphone, finger cymbal, maracas, tonton-sansan, castanets and talking drums.
They wear traditional African costumes when they play because it adds to the authenticity.
“We get a lot of people, mostly women, coming up to us after shows asking where they can buy our clothes. The fact is they are very colorful and beautiful. We're going to start importing them,” Sampson said.
Most performances are in two parts: The first section is dedicated to traditional rhythms such as adowa, kpanlogo and mapuka. A second segment moves the tempo up a notch to hi-life, reggae, dance hall, soca, calypso and even rap — when Douglas transforms himself into DJ Rankin Kim.
According to Douglas, a majority of modern popular music is “rooted in the African drum” and even dance hall is just “a watered down African beat.”
Though the group has members from the Caribbean, Cameroon and elsewhere, it sees itself as representing Africa as a whole, hence its name.
“We started up with the traditional beats and we're now becoming more versatile as a band,” Douglas said. He has even written a song recently with Mandarin lyrics.
“We have formed a fan base outside of Taipei because of our shows,” Sampson said. “The idea is to keep building and develop the brand.”
On the way they will change hearts and minds, as surely as the drum has a beat.
For your information:
Pan Africana performs at Bliss tonight, from 10pm. Entrance is NT$300 and includes a drink. Bliss is at 148 Xinyi Rd Sec 4, Taipei (台北市信義路四段148號).
For further information about Pan Africana Cultural Troupe and future gigs visit www.panafricana.blogspot.com or contact the group by sending an e-mail to panafricana@buffalo.com.
June 2 to June 8 Taiwan’s woodcutters believe that if they see even one speck of red in their cooked rice, no matter how small, an accident is going to happen. Peng Chin-tian (彭錦田) swears that this has proven to be true at every stop during his decades-long career in the logging industry. Along with mining, timber harvesting was once considered the most dangerous profession in Taiwan. Not only were mishaps common during all stages of processing, it was difficult to transport the injured to get medical treatment. Many died during the arduous journey. Peng recounts some of his accidents in
“Why does Taiwan identity decline?”a group of researchers lead by University of Nevada political scientist Austin Wang (王宏恩) asked in a recent paper. After all, it is not difficult to explain the rise in Taiwanese identity after the early 1990s. But no model predicted its decline during the 2016-2018 period, they say. After testing various alternative explanations, Wang et al argue that the fall-off in Taiwanese identity during that period is related to voter hedging based on the performance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP). Since the DPP is perceived as the guardian of Taiwan identity, when it performs well,
The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on May 18 held a rally in Taichung to mark the anniversary of President William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20. The title of the rally could be loosely translated to “May 18 recall fraudulent goods” (518退貨ㄌㄨㄚˋ！). Unlike in English, where the terms are the same, “recall” (退貨) in this context refers to product recalls due to damaged, defective or fraudulent merchandise, not the political recalls (罷免) currently dominating the headlines. I attended the rally to determine if the impression was correct that the TPP under party Chairman Huang Kuo-Chang (黃國昌) had little of a
At Computex 2025, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) urged the government to subsidize AI. “All schools in Taiwan must integrate AI into their curricula,” he declared. A few months earlier, he said, “If I were a student today, I’d immediately start using tools like ChatGPT, Gemini Pro and Grok to learn, write and accelerate my thinking.” Huang sees the AI-bullet train leaving the station. And as one of its drivers, he’s worried about youth not getting on board — bad for their careers, and bad for his workforce. As a semiconductor supply-chain powerhouse and AI hub wannabe, Taiwan is seeing
RSS