Nolly Kawina

plays Creole folk music, which has traits in common with gospel and polyphonic call-and-response styles but is accompanied by all kinds of Surinamese percussion. Typical are double-skinned drums, the zigzag or box rattle, and the kwa-kwa bangi. Like with much South American music, the kawina's rhythms originated in Africa. Colonists shipped Africans to the Americas in the 16th century, where they were forced to work on plantations as slaves. These slaves brought their religions and music along. To pass the time they sang during work, often in a pattern of one voice calling out and a chorus answering in unison. This music was so rhythmic in Suriname that it became a dance: the kawina. The lyrics have always remained in call-and response style. In the late 1990s, kawina was rediscovered by young Surinamese born and living in the Netherlands.