Founded in 1998, the troupe takes its name from the Nimba mask of Guinea’s Baga people - a symbol of fertility, beauty, and female power. The troupe’s own power is manifest in the school it runs in Conakry, Guinea’s capital, where around 50 young women at a time are training as professional dancers and musicians.
The most advanced join the traveling troupe, which has crisscrossed the world on concert and workshop tours, and which visits Sanders Theatre Sunday.
“Nimbaya! has changed my life,’’ says Seregbè Conde, a current troupe member, in French on the phone from Conakry. The women, drawn from all of Guinea’s major ethnic groups and regions, come from traditional backgrounds. To become a professional drummer is daring enough; to make a globe-trotting career of it, all the more extraordinary.
But with multiple years in the group - Conde joined in 2001 - she and her colleagues take the experience in stride. The focus is on the performance, and on the messages that it aims to deliver. Part is a general message of cultural identity and empowerment. Part is specific to a theme - this year, eradicating female genital mutilation (FGM), the practice also known as genital cutting, which is widespread in Guinea and many countries, not just in Africa.
“Our message is that we want to tell Guinean women, all African women, that we can’t just stay as we are,’’ Conde says. “Women need to do everything men do, fight for everything like men. For you, overseas, we want to give a true image of Guinea, and of our culture. And we have a message against cutting.’’
The current performance starts with a story about cutting, says Mamoudou Conde, the group’s (male) artistic director. (Though Conde is a common last name in Guinea, he is also related to Seregbè and a few other members.)
“The show starts with a young girl who is afraid to go through this,’’ Mamoudou Conde says. “She runs from the village but is kidnapped by one of her relatives and taken to the forest.’’ After the procedure, the girl falls ill with an infection and dies.
