DEUP REVIEW - MUSIC AND DANCE AS REPOSITORIES OF KNOWLEDGE
DR BONNIE MCCONNELL
Senior Lecturer | School of Music | Australian National University.
The captivating short film ‘Deup’ provides a window into the cultural world of the guewel of Senegal. It includes striking video footage of the Senegalese landscape and cultural performances, including guewel song, dance, and instrumental pieces. Directed by Senegalese Australian composer and multi-instrumentalist Lamine Sonko, the film narrates the cultural significance of music and dance practices that serve not just as entertainment, but as repositories of knowledge. The film’s title ‘Deup’ is a Wolof term meaning “to go back” or “to return to the ancestral path.” The ancestral path presented in the film is one that involves multiple forms of embodied knowledge learned over the course of a lifetime. The film shows that this knowledge, expressed through music, dance and ritual, has ongoing relevance for informing how people live and relate to one another and to the natural and spirit worlds.
Director Lamine Sonko is uniquely positioned to narrate the film, bringing his expertise as a guewel, as a descendant of the prominent Sing Sing family, and as a member of the Wolof, Serer, and Mandinka cultural communities. Sonko belongs to an influential family in Senegalese performing arts, with father Bouly Sonko the former Director of the Senegalese National Dance Company (1982-2004) and mother Oumy Sene an experienced dancer and cultural elder. Both are featured in the film, along with other cultural experts such as sabar player Doudou Rose Thioune and dancer Assy Mbaye. The film focuses in particular on sabar drumming and dancing associated with the Wolof, Serer, and Lebou ethnic groups. It includes examples of bahk, which are rhythmic invocations that hold verbal meanings with rich cultural significance.
The film also shares the process of making the sabar drum and the story of the ancestor of the Sing Sing family known for their knowledge of the spirit world as well as advanced techniques of sabar drumming and dancing. Other music and dance practices featured in the film include a kumpo performance, a spiritually significant masked dance tradition associated with the Diola ethnic group, and excerpts of performances on string instruments such as the kora and xalam. These examples leave the listener wanting more, and give a sense of the richness and diversity of musical practices in this region of West Africa. A strength of the film and Sonko’s ongoing work is his attention to sharing cultural knowledge alongside exceptionally skilled performances of music and dance. This gives audiences a deeper appreciation of music and dance practices through understanding of their meanings and social importance in Senegalese communities. In particular, Deup introduces key concepts underlying the practices of the guewel, including perspectives on cosmology, rhythm, and dance. Sonko shares these ideas with eloquence and simplicity, making it clear that the film is just scratching the surface in describing the cultural significance of these practices of music, dance, and ritual. I look forward to hearing what comes next out of the 13.12 project.
Dr Bonnie McConnell is Senior Lecturer in Ethnomusicology and Higher Degree Research Convenor in the Australian National University School of Music. She specialises in research on music of Africa and the African diaspora.