Projects

Fatoumata Kouyaté Djeliguinet wearing a Wales hoodie

Dathliad Cymru-Affrica Project

Exciting collaboration project

Exhibition screen at Festival of Voice

Danser ensemble dans la même bateau avec de l’eau et du vent

“Danser ensemble…” is the representation of a series of online encounters between Wales and Senegal based contemporary dance artists exploring their dislocated connections by finding and creating shared vocabularies.

Blankface (AKA Joshua Whyte) posing on the Ffresh Stage at the Wales Millennium Centre, Cardiff Bay, for Butetown Carnival 2022

Scouting Ffresh Afro-Welsh Talent

Youth led Ffresh stage at Butetown Carnival 2022

Mabinty Chantal Kouyaté playing kenkeni

Planting the Seeds

Our development phase Connect and Flourish project funded by Arts Council of Wales has drawn to a close – check out the results here!

Uni Arts et Culture

Balafon Origins

In the winter of 2021/22 N’famady  travelled to his homeland of Guinea on an R&D trip supported by Wales Arts International’s International Opportunities Fund (IOF) to research the tradition of his instrument and its story, which is so central to the Mandingue folkloric canon.

N'famady and Gruff Rhys

Mandingue Horizons #2

Mandingue Horizons #2 was our first directly Arts Council of Wales funded project as an organisation. It brought together Wales-based African artists with Welsh language artists to create new compositions for new audiences during an intense week of work at MusicBox studios in Cardiff during February 2020. The artists were truly diverse, including a Guinean […]

Djeli & Beirdd

An insight into the connections between the ancient musical traditions of the West African griots/djeli and the Welsh beirdd/bards

Djembe drumming workshop in Neuadd Ogwen, Bethesda, with N'famady Kouyaté, Suntou Susso, Mohamed Mommo Sangare, and Aboubacar Konate

Africa Goes North!

Summer 2021 saw The Successors of the Mandingue take their collaborative Afro-Welsh fusion project to North Wales with a creative residential, pop-up performances, and a community workshop.

African drumming workshop in Canal Park, Butetown

Successors’ Kids

Successors’ Kids was a Tŷ Cerdd funded Inspire project that delivered West African music workshops for children and young people from a range of backgrounds aged 4-25 in djembe and balafon.

N'famady Kouyaté and Sallie Maclennan at Cardiff MADE

Mandingue Horizons #1

This was the first Arts Council of Wales funded project that The Successors of the Mandingue had the pleasure to manage.  A collaboration R&D project bringing together our very own N’famady Kouyaté with Welsh singer, Sallie Maclennan, to create new harmonies and new versions of traditional Guinean songs hailing from the Mandingue tribal canon.  After […]

UK/Canada Dance project flyer

Mandingue Horizons Dance: Cymraeg/Québécois

This project linked up two West African arts companies for a new ‘Mandingue Horizons’ Wales/Canada music and dance collaboration fusing traditional and contemporary art forms.

N'famady leading Oasis djembe drumming workshop

Oasis One World Choir project

Over the course of 6 weeks, participants enjoyed twice weekly online djembe drumming workshops via Zoom, which culminated in an outdoor physical event at the Oasis Centre, Cardiff, on May 1st 2021.

Voices of Dance

This was a lockdown collaboration led by Dominika Rau in partnership with the Wales Millennium Centre’s #voicesofchange project. A community initiative to celebrate diversity in adversity. N’famady Kouyaté was commissioned to compose a short piece that would form the soundtrack to a collage of dance recordings of dance styles from around the globe being danced […]

Children's mark making to music

Ysgol Twm o’r Nant

35 children aged 10-11 took part in this mixed medium project, participating in percussion activities online using school instruments, and visual arts activities in the classroom.

Gwanwyn Workshops

This was an amazing project that The Successors of the Mandingue were delighted to be involved in working with Age Cymru and Age Gwent to provide djembe and balafon workshops to the over 50s firstly in The Riverfront Theatre in Newport during 2019 culminating in a VIP showcase evening. We are pleased to have been […]

Workshop poster

Africa Comes to Butetown

Africa Comes to Butetown was a Ty Cerdd funded project delivered in partnership with Butetown Arts and Cultural Association (BACA). The Successors of the Mandingue were commissioned to deliver 10 music workshops beginning in September and ending in December 2019.  Workshops were held in four different locations, which included outreach sessions to specialist youth provisions. […]

Sharing authentic culture, quality, and joy

For our performance and recording work we create and facilitate professional music collaborations and fusions bringing professional artists together and recording, documenting, and sharing our work live and online.

IF YOU HAVE A PROJECT IDEA THAT YOU WANT TO WORK WITH US TO REALISE –

Testimonials