MADAGASCAR MAGIC IN BORNEO
By Yeoh Jun Lin | Artistic Director - Rainforest World Music Festival

When Hanitra Rasoanaivo of TARIKA BE is on stage, one is mesmerized by the sweet harmonic singing, the exotic instruments, the passion she emanates and the wonder of the music.

She and her sister Noro are here at the Rainforest World Music Festival again to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of the event. This year, all the bands who will be on stage are bands who have performed at some point in the last nine years.

Madagascar, that lies about 250 miles off the east coast of Africa in the Indian Ocean, is thought to have separated from the mainland about 160 million years ago. It was not inhabited till the 7th century. And the first inhabitants of the island, which ranks as the 4th largest in the world, are said to come from Asia  rather than Africa.

The Malagasy language has more similarities to Malay-Polynesian areas, and some 90% of its vocabulary is akin to the Maanyan language from the region of the Barito River in south Borneo.
A big part of the island is also made up of tropical rainforests, and the climate has 2 seasons – hot and rainy for one half and a dryer other half.

So there is a lot of lost-cousinshipness between Malaysia / Indonesia and Madagascar.
Hanitra, and with her band Tarika Be, has been almost singlehandedly responsible for putting the music of Madagascar on the world map. She is obsessed with spreading the knowledge of her culture and the many varied instruments from the island.

There is the valiha – a cross between a harp and a zither made of a bamboo tube with strings stretched lengthwise all around the tube and are plucked with the fingertips. Then there is the marovany which is the rectangle box cousin of the valiha.

A short lute with a box-shaped body is the kabosy. It is played like a guitar but with a different fret system. And the strangest of all their instruments is the jejv voatavo – it is like a gourd dulcimer with a neck.

A lot of these instruments are all hand carved or self-made.

Hanitra herself is usually stage front with her talking drum as well. But she is at her best when singing with her sister the way they have been singing all their lives.

In October 2001, TIME magazine voted them one of the top ten acts in the world – no mean feat when you think that this included huge names like U2 and Radiohead.

Apart from the singing and the instruments, there is also dance. There is the watcha-watcha, the selegy and even a dance that Hanitra has invented – the bakabaka. Watch out for this at the workshops at the festival.

It is also a treat talking to Hanitra outside of the stage. She has great charisma and a great drive for everything that is like a cause to her. She instigated the building of an Arts Centre in Antananarivo, and the last I heard, she was trying to get enough finances and support together to start a festival there as well.

July 13th– 15th are the dates for this year. The venue is the Sarawak Cultural Village about 45 minutes outside of Kuching where the hotels in the area are reported to have a long waiting list of people trying to get rooms for this special edition of the festival.

Tickets are already on sale and can be bought online at http://www.ticketcharge.com.my/  as well as at all Visitor Information Centres in Kuching, Miri and Sibu.

Ticketsare priced at RM80 for a one day Adult Pass, and RM200 for a 3-day Adult Pass. Children aged 3 – 12 years of age can purchase half priced tickets.

More information on the festival can also be found on the website www.rainforestmusic-borneo.com
Sarawak Tourism Board is the organizer, as it has been for the last 9 years.

It is with strong and penetrating music and musicians like Tarika Be that the Rainforest World Music Festival tries to build its reputation on. And for 2007, we have prepared a huge line-up. And we hope you will be there to share it with us.

Yeoh Jun Lin
Artistic Director
Rainforest World Music Festival