By John Owoo
(Lomé – Togo)
A collaboration between Esinam Dogbatse (Belgium/Ghana) and Sibusile Xaba (South Africa) unfolded as a deeply immersive sonic ritual—less a concert than a spiritual gathering shaped by ancestry, improvisation, and transcendence.
Performing at the 2026 edition of the Togo Jazz Festival, the duo created an atmosphere that felt both intimate and expansive. Esinam, moving seamlessly among flute, synthesizers, percussion, and voice, crafted airy, meditative textures that floated above the ground rhythms.
Opposite her, Xaba’s guitar work—at once delicate and percussive—anchored the performance with an earthy resonance, while his vocals carried a raw, almost ancestral urgency. Together, they forged a dialogue that blurred geographical and cultural boundaries, merging Belgian-Ghanaian and KwaZulu-Natal influences into a singular, fluid expression.
The set leaned into what could best be described as Afro-roots-electro with a spiritual jazz sensibility. Yet labels quickly fell short. What emerged instead was a constantly shifting soundscape, where Ghanaian highlife echoes met Zulu and Ewe traditional motifs, all filtered through contemporary electronic manipulation. Looped rhythms intertwined with live instrumentation, building hypnotic grooves that drew the audience into a trance-like state.
Central to the performance was the duo’s use of vocal chanting—not as mere embellishment, but as a driving force. Their voices rose and fell in cyclical patterns, invoking something ancient yet forward-looking. These chants, layered over intricate rhythmic structures, transformed the stage into a space of storytelling without words, where emotion and memory took precedence over literal meaning.
There was a palpable sense of “cross-pollination” throughout the evening. Each piece felt like a living organism, evolving in real time as the artists responded intuitively to one another. Esinam’s electronic textures would swell and recede, making room for Xaba’s guitar lines to stretch and breathe before converging again into dense, pulsating climaxes. The result was music that felt alive—organic despite its electronic elements, grounded despite its cosmic reach.
The audience, initially observant, gradually succumbed to the performance’s hypnotic pull. Subtle head nods gave way to full-body swaying as the duo’s grooves deepened and expanded. By the final moments, the boundary between performer and spectator had all but dissolved.
At a festival known for celebrating jazz in its many forms, Esinam and Sibusile Xaba offered something profoundly distinct: a reminder that jazz, at its core, is not just a genre but a spirit of exploration. Their performance stood as a testament to music’s power to connect past and present, tradition and innovation—an experience that lingered long after the final note faded.
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