Sidiki Conde

Sidiki Conde is widely recognized in his homeland of Guinea, West Africa, as a master of the traditional arts of drumming, singing and dancing. To understand the depth of that achievement, one must understand the context. Sidiki’s birth roughly coincides with Guinea’s independence from French colonization, and he came of age artistically in a country whose president, Sekou Toure, considered culture to be its greatest national resource. The national dance and music ensembles rehearsed in the presidential palace.  During this time and at the behest of Toure, Sidiki and other artists traveled to remote villages to learn the songs and dances of Guinea’s 26 different ethnic groups in order to preserve and celebrate the rich cultural diversity of Guinea and unite the country. Sidiki became a master ethnographer in addition to a master artist.

In America, Sidiki uses his deep knowledge of traditional music as a bridge across differences, creating a community of inclusion for his audiences and students. Barriers of race, national origin, ability, religion, and gender melt away in the warmth of the connection to rhythm, melody and movement.

Sidiki’s distinctive strengths as a teaching artist are his focus, his compassion and his intuitive understanding of each individual student. The students in the schools where he teaches have a wide range of disabilities – intellectual, physical and emotional. He also works with students in economically disadvantaged areas.  In every case, he takes each child’s abilities into consideration when creating his lessons so that every child feels good about them self. He never pushes too hard or holds back. Besides turning all the children into African drummers, dancers and singers, Sidiki teaches self-respect and respect for others, self-discipline and persistence in reaching their goals.  Sidiki’s disability reminds the children that they can do anything they want to if they keep trying. In some cases they may have to find a different way, like he did when he learned to dance on his hands (see bio).

In a recent trip to Guinea Sidiki reunited the disabled musicians from Message de Espoir (see bio) for a concert in his birthplace, Kankan. There he received the praise of the district governor, Ousmane Camara for uniting people of disparate, and often factious, ethnic groups and giving hope to a region torn by ethnic violence.

(Photo courtesy of Deborah Ross)

Website: http://tokounou.home.mindspring.com/