SEPTEMBER 14-16

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. – The World Damba Festival 2012 @ Tufts University, a vibrant celebration of the music, culture and religious traditions of northern Ghana, will take place September 14-16, 2012, at the Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center on Tufts' Medford/Somerville campus.

The Tufts University Department of Music hosts the WDF 2012 @ Tufts and the event is free and open to the public; registration is required in advance at www.worlddamba2012.org, and a schedule of events and other information about the festival can be found there as well. Questions about the festival can also be directed to the Tufts Music Box Office at 617.627.3679.

The Tufts event is modeled on a traditional Ghanaian Damba Festival, which is the region's celebratory highlight of the year, akin in some ways to the Christian Easter or the Jewish High Holy Days. Featured participants will come from Africa, Europe, Asia, and North America. The event will include academic symposia, a concert, participatory workshops in music and dance styles of northern Ghana, a development fair, and a presentation of some of the significant events that are part of a traditional Damba. Dr. Mohammed Ibn Chambas, Secretary-General of the United Nations’ African, Caribbean, and Pacific Group of States, will deliver the keynote address.

Celebrated with pageantry, music, and dance performance, the traditional Damba Festival is a communal homage to chiefly traditions, an affirmation of family networks, and an observance of religious rites. It is associated with the birth of the Holy Prophet Mohammed, founder of Islam.

The Value of the World Damba Festival

In addition to offering cultural affirmation and festive celebration, the WDF 2012 @ Tufts is an opportunity for discussion of important community development issues and business promotion. Northern Ghana is on the frontline of many global challenges: climate change, community health, economic disadvantage, changing gender roles, the role of traditional chieftaincy within the modern state, ethnic conflict, and Islam's encounter with the contemporary world. Formal panels and the keynote address will engage these issues. Throughout the weekend, participants will also have informal opportunities for discussion and to learn about opportunities for employment, internships, and volunteering.

The WDF 2012 @ Tufts was developed by David Locke, associate professor of music at Tufts and a specialist in African traditional music culture, and Natogmah Issahaku, a principal with the Knowledge and Skills Share (KSS) Foundation (http://ksshare.com), an international charity engaged in community-based development projects. Locke's recent book, Drum Damba, is about the music of the Dagomba version of the Damba Festival. Locke and Issahaku are leading the WDF 2012 @ Tufts Organizing Committee that will include Ghanaians based in North America, Ghana, and in the African diaspora, as well as non-Africans from North America.

Sponsors of the WDF 2012 @ Tufts include the Tufts Department of Music, with special funding from the Granoff Music Fund, and Kilimanjaro Foods, Inc. of Louisville, KY, as well as support from the KSS Foundation. Media partners include Africans Universe (www.africansuniverse.com).


Tufts University, located on three Massachusetts campuses in Boston, Medford/Somerville, and Grafton, and in Talloires, France, is recognized among the premier research universities in the United States. Tufts enjoys a global reputation for academic excellence and for the preparation of students as leaders in a wide range of professions. A growing number of innovative teaching and research initiatives span all campuses, and collaboration among the faculty and students in the undergraduate, graduate and professional programs across the university is widely encouraged.

The Tufts Department of Music offers a flexible and eclectic academic program leading to a Bachelor or Master of Arts degree in music. Students concentrate in composition, ethnomusicology, musicology, or theory, while having the opportunity to explore all these disciplines, as well as the areas of music cognition, linguistics, sociology, and anthropology of music. Students also have the opportunity to perform in over twenty different department ensembles and chamber music groups, as well as study privately on the instrument of their choice (including voice). The Tufts Department of Music is housed in the Perry and Marty Granoff Music Center, home to the Distler Performance Hall, Fisher Performance Room, Varis Lecture Hall, and Lilly Music Library. The Music Center hosts over 180 events and concerts annually, the majority of which are produced and presented by the Department of Music.

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