Oh What a NIght!

Vendredi…

It was a typical day in Agbang, I was washing my clothes minding my own business when out of nowhere Boniface appears. He was with the chief of the village of Agbang! Apparently I was invited to a tribal dance and welcoming ceremony! Sweet! Nothing else of major note happened that day as it was mostly spent waiting for clothes to dry and for the dance to start.

We took a packed car ride down yet another washed out road to the nearby village and made our way through the crowd to the chief’s hut (insert typical African hut here). And once inside we saw why it was the chiefs – there was a throne. Kid you not, a brightly and sloppily painted throne, but a throne nonetheless. It was awesome! We sat and ate some what I think was chicken and sheep while drinking the l’Eau Rouge (red water), which was a local wine alcohol with a seemingly high alcohol content. It was interesting but, at the time I was more interested in the dance going on outside!

We eventually made our way out  and were given front-row seats to the tribal ring of people and watched in amazement the mixture of traditional garbs with hints of modernization move in front of us to the sound of clanging metal and leather drums. SPECTACULAR! The girls and one of the priests from the monastery was there as well. And to my surprise he made his way to the centre of the ring and started dancing in that “hey look at me” type of dance, somewhat waving his arms and bouncing back-and-forth. He then motioned for Colin to go out with him, and to my surprise he did! Well I couldn’t let them have all the fun so I jumped in as well to a large roar from the village crowd. Talk about a stirring experience. We eventually made our way back out and watched some more when it started to rain. I was told to go inside to stay dry, but I politely ignored the request. I was mesmerized. There was no way in Hell I was missing this!

I actually brought my rain coat with me, but gave it to one of the little girls to wear. And as soon as I did that, another session of dancing started. This time one of the official dancers invited Colin, the girls and myself in. I took it as a sign. I started dancing like one of the tribesmen. I thought that that first roar of approval was loud, Holy Buckets was I wrong! I was even lucky enough to have the chief come out and place a 100 Franc piece on my cheek, which is a sign of approval and payment for services rendered from the dancers. Not to gloat, but WOW!

Once the dance had finished we went inside to drink our gift from the chief, which happened to be more beer and red water. More alcohol. Thank God I am Irish! Colin had tough time, he was trashed by this point and had to keep politely denying more drinks. Me? I’m a tank, bring it on!

After finishing off the gifts, we went back outside to partake in the communal drinking of red water. At this point we were also allowed to try and ring one of the dancer’s instruments – a double-sided shovel head with a metal ring around the thumb. The shovel dealio is also attached by a string around the wrist so that it can hang freely. One then raises the arm and lowers the hand at the same time so as to hit the shovel-thing with the metal ring. This was the maker of that clanging sound. I got on my first try…”boom baked biscuits.”

I also made a few friends in the form of some smaller children who were more than happy to make my acquaintance. Eventually it was time to leave and we bid our farewells to the chief and the elders and made our way back to the monastery and stumbled to our way to bed. We missed mass Br. Paul, I hope you can forgive me for this one!

At dinner that night, I decided to throw the girls a curveball. They had previously been sitting with the younger girls closer to Colin and I, so we decided to sit in such a fashion that we cut off one of the older girls from the rest of the group. It worked! My plan, isolated one of the girls enough from the other group that she didn’t have to worry about choosing to talk to us over her sisters, she had no choice – talk to us or not at all. It may seem mean, but the move was made with the best of intentions. We were curious as to who they were and why they were here. It actually sparked a friendship in which we figured out at that the three older girls were actually students at the University of Lomé and were up in Agbang because their father was a friend of the monastery and sent them there for a vacation. After dinner I was also invited to play UNO with them until God knows what hour, probably only 23h or 24h, but it seemed later. And sadly, as fate would have it our new friends were leaving at 5h the next morning to return to Lomé. I said my goodbyes right then and there.

Some quick notes on the dance (one of the girls took actual notes and I am currently waiting for her to email me them)… But from what I remember it is a coming of age dance that signifies the final right of passage into manhood and only happens once every 5 years!

What a night!