Casa Árabe is presenting this recital dedicated to a very special expression of Sudan’s traditional folk music, women’s songs. Afaf and Rabab are performing for the first time ever in Spain, and they are doing so along with other members of their family, Rasha and Wafir, musicians of great prestige in our country whom the Spanish public is very familiar with.

Musicians:
Afaf Sheikheldin Gibrel: Arab oud        
Rabab Izz Eldin Gibrel: vocals
Wafir Sheikheldin Gibrel: accordion, violin, nay and percussion
Rasha Sheikheldin Gibrel: vocals and percussion

The Sheikheldin, a family closely linked to music and culture
Afaf and Rabab live in Sudan, forming the only music group made up of women in the country. Their musical repertoire includes several styles of music, but above all the “guna al banat,” or women’s songs, and the “hagiba,” melodies created in the 1940’s, composed on the basis of poems of great value in popular Sudanese culture. Rabab is one of the few women singers in Sudan to perform various different styles of traditional Sudanese music: alhagiba, guna al banat, madih, etc. As for Afaf, she earned a degree in musical composition and the Arab oud at the Music and Drama Conservatory of Sudan and is the country’s only professional female Arab oud player. Both come from a very well-known family of performers in Sudan: the Sheikheldin. Their sister Tumadir is a famous actress and director in both theater and film, and one of the pioneering women in this field.  Rasha is a very well-known singer in Spain and Sudan, as is her brother Wafir, a very talented musician who has collaborated with mythical groups and performers in Spain’s music scene, such as Radio Tarifa, Lole y Manuel, La Banda Morisca, Los Djambutus, Eduardo Paniagua and Bidente. Another of the Sheikh Eldin siblings, Tabarak, is a famous visual artist and writer who currently lives in the United States.

The guna al banat (women’s songs)
The Sudanese songs known as guna al banat are common at weddings, baptisms and other private celebrations, with main topics including love, marriage, couples, etc. At weddings, the singer is generally hired by the groom or the father of the bride, though throughout the course of the performance, it is common for the payment received to increase gradually due to the praise given to the groom by the singer through her songs.

The origin of the guna al banat lies in the chants sung by women slaves at bars and brothels, or “indayas.” The first Sudanese singer to achieve great fame in the 1950’s was Aisha al-Falatia, who originally came from Chad. Her surname is actually a reference to the term used in Sudan, “falata,” to refer to slaves who were brought from Chad and Nigeria in the old days.  The “guna al banat” became so popular that in the eighties and nineties several male singers began to perform them, as well, something unthinkable in prior years, given the traditional nature of Sudanese society.
 
One of the most characteristic songs in the repertoire of the “guna al banat” is the one performed on a specific day of the wedding ceremony, lasting up to an entire week. These are songs are sung on the “dag arriha,” the day when women prepare special beauty products for brides. The rhythms created by the women when striking the gourd and pestle as they mix sandalwood with flour, perfumes, grease and other products to help make the bride more beautiful, are the basis for these lilting, cheerful tunes. The use of the mortar and gourd as percussion instruments by women is also very widespread in other countries such as Senegal, Mali, Nigeria and Guinea, forming part of the musical ethnography of many African regions.