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1964 -
ERITREA
Member of: | Sbrit band |
| Language: | Kunama Tigray |
| Genre: | Traditional folkmusic |
| Instrument: | Female vocals |
Articles: Article/Video
She is one of Eritrea's best known singers and her personal story is a chapter in Eritrea's history. Her father was a well-known person among the Kunama tribe.
During his many years of struggle for a free Eritrea he gained the title "Fighting Gun" - a name the British gave him early in the 1950s - a play on the name "Faid Tinga". While her father was of the Kunama people, her mother grew up in the highlands and was of Tigray descent with grandparents from the Blen tribe. So Faytinga represents three of Eritrea's nine tribes.Faytinga herself participated in Eritrea's fight for independence from the age of fourteen, got her education via the struggle, and was a freedom fighter until Independence in 1991.
She has always been interested in music and has developed her own style "in the field" that is her own blend of several traditional music forms.
Relevant artists: Aster Aweke Maryam Mursal
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Last Modified:
22 nov 2009
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NUMEY 
Cobalt/Melodie/1999
This is the first CD ever to be recorded in Eritrea, one of Africa's youngest nations.The disk was made in Asmara, with Sbrit Band as backing group.The band is comprised of eight musicians who play traditional instruments such as percussion, drums, bass, krar (lyre), wata and begala (stringed instruments).The songs are a blend of older, traditional tunes, chiefly inspired by the Kunama people's music and newly composed songs from the war of independence.The album opens with the song "Numey" which in Kunama means "Don't disturb the narrator". It needs no translation, because Faytinga sings with a sensitive engagement that touches you.The repetitive riffs from the acoustic stringed instruments lay underneath and create a driving rhythm. Everything is done with warmth; when with her light, almost girlish voice. When Faytinga sings that (you are) "in my thoughts in the day, in my dreams at night.You breathe through my mind. Come and kiss my thirsty lips", you meet the poetry in her heart.
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ERITREA Cobalt/Melodie/2003
KJØP PLATE Editor: Bjørn-Erik Hanssen
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