Mansour Ciss Kanakassy: “Ndeup-Ritual”

“Any attempt to understand Africa and the Africans without any reference to their traditional religions would be like opening a vast wardrobe whose most valuable contents have been removed,” writes the Malian author Amadou Hampâté Bâ. This idea provides the starting point for Mansour Ciss Kanakassy’s Ndeup ritual on the south terrace to the rear of the Gropius Bau.

The Ndeup is one of the most important rituals of the animist tradition that are still practiced today in Senegal. It takes place in the “penthie”, the village square. In Dakar’s precolonial historic centre, the area around its core was settled by communities from the Lebu people, who lived mainly from fishing and agriculture. “Penthie” are places full of life, where people meet, exchange goods and ideas and pass on knowledge: places where disputes are aired and mediated.

To this day the Lebu people still use the “penthie” to practice traditional rites that Mansour grew up with. The Ndeup ceremony that has been handed down from generation to generation can inspire states of trance and forge social links, transference and feelings of allegiance as well as helping individuals to preserve their physical and mental equilibrium within society. Mansour Ciss Kanakassy brings Ndeup from Dakar to Berlin to share it with the audience and, as he puts it, “to ‘heal’ a world that has become alienated from its traditions and is searching for a new spirituality.”

The ceremony will be performed by 14 Senegalese women and men resident in Berlin – drummers, priests, singers and dancers.