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JoboKunda is looking for a hardier breed of tourist.
Chriss Convert and Gray Parrot, founders of the JoboKunda travel service in Hancock, aren’t looking for adventure tourists or “Survivor” wannabes. They have a nobler cause in mind – to protect the native culture against the onslaught of global commercialism by exposing Americans to local arts, crafts, music and lifestyles on tours of Gambia.
“We’re interested in seeing if we could bring guests over there to help them preserve their culture by disseminating it, basically,” Convert says.
“Global commercialization overruns some of the fine aspects of traditional culture,” Parrot adds.
JoboKunda offers annually three two-week packages – an introductory tour to the country and culture of the Gambia; a cloth-decorating workshop; and an artist retreat. This year, two 10-day samplers have been added – West African music appreciation for beginners and a Gambian craft and market tour. There is also a year-round independent residential program for people who want to design their own schedule of study.
Travelers in the shorter packages stay at bed and breakfast inns or hotels, while those in the residential program can stay in private homes. Transportation is by private and public car or taxi.
“What the program has to offer is a bridge for people who want to go to Africa to have an intimate relationship with African culture and African people,” Convert explains.
Those interested in the tours fill out a lengthy application form, with requests such as “Please list any prior experience traveling in less developed nations.”
“We ask people a lot of questions, because we want to make sure people who go over there are well suited,” Convert says. “Adjusting to being in another culture is not easy, and we put people right into the culture.”
The tours take place from December through February, which is during the dry season in West Africa. Temperatures are in the 70s-90s during the day and mid-50s to mid-70s at night. The harmatan winds that occur at then can be either hot or cool, and dusty.
West Africa has become almost a second home for the couple, who have been there seven times since 1995. The arts and crafts of the region decorate their Hancock home, which they share with their African gray parrot, Fareye. In addition to organizing the tours, they also run a small import-export business to benefit their artist friends. They also run a hand-bookbinding business.
Parrot, a musician since his teens, was drawn to Africa through music.
“I went through rock ‘n’ roll, but was not completely satisfied with the music,” recalls Parrot, 52. “I was interested in rhythm and percussion, and began to study it on my own.”
In 1990, he was host to a musician from the African band Mama Tongue, which played in Ellsworth. One of the musicians played a kora, a harp-like instrument which is considered the ancestor of the banjo. Parrot became a student of the instrument and started listening to more African music.
He now hosts a radio show, Mostly Manding, from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesdays on WERU (89.9, 102.9 FM).
“I have a small but loyal following, and it seems to be growing,” Parrot says.
What is the biggest misconception about African music?
“It’s not all drums,” he said. “There’s more melodic instruments that happen in West Africa. People are surprised to hear that.”
By 1995, Parrot wanted to further explore the music he loved by traveling to Gambia. That was fine with Convert.
“I had always wanted to go to Africa, so there was a confluence of interests there,” she says.
The couple has returned six more times since then, making friends throughout the Gambian artistic community. Because family connections are very important there, they were “adopted” into a family and given African names – Ousmane for Parrot and Isatou for Convert. They work with a native partner, Bakary Kanyi.
Parrot said the tours have value both for the guests and the hosts.
“People get to experience a culture that’s still alive,” he reflects. “Then the young [African] people think that if Americans come all this way to study [traditional culture], there must be something to it. I’ve seen children come back to their traditional music.”
In West Africa, musicians serve to chronicle the journeys of its people.
“You’re born into a family and trained for your whole lifetime as oral historians,” Parrot says. “The [foreign] culture that’s coming in isn’t compatible with that. So musicians have to find a way to go forward and preserve some of the aspects of their culture.”
Gambians, who are 90 percent Muslim, live in crowded conditions, and often gather outdoors rather than inside their homes.
“They behave more cooperatively,” Convert notes. “For example, you might have four people preparing a meal for 16 people. There’s a collective mentality we don’t have here. We have an individual mentality here.”
The poverty in West Africa is the biggest jolt to many visitors.
“There’s a recognition of what a privileged society we live in,” Convert observes. “We are living in the midst of vast wealth, and we have responsibilities about how we use that wealth. You have an increased sense that what brings happiness isn’t the acquisition of things, but rather the relationships you develop.”
Convert sees what JoboKunda is doing as a form of redistribution of wealth.
“There’s so much economic injustice in the world,” she says. “We’re bringing people with money, and they’re spending it over there. They share their culture, and we share our wealth.”
For more information, contact Jobo@acadia.net or phone 422-9529. Convert and Parrot have set a deadline of late October, so they can decide which tours are booked enough to offer.
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