The Queen of Henna - SETONA
tarig as-sudan African crossroads

Africa World Press 1998
THE ART OF AFRICAN FASHION:
The preliminary conditions to start as a female singer and musician in the Sudan have been nothing but easy to Setona .. but music is her life! Setona was born in Khartoum into a family coming from the Sudanese province of Kordofan. In former times Kordofan has been a legendary kingdom, the most Eastern part within a series of African kingdoms stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea.
For centuries Kordofan has been an area traversed by the tarig as-sudan, an ancient route for both trade and pilgrimage. More to the west, close the 'Mother mountain' (djebel marrah), two more roads clashed with the tarig as-Sudan - the trans Saharan road to Libya and the darb al-Arba'in'(Road of fourty days). The exchange of goods and people enabled centuries ago the establishment of powerful empires who took their profit from trade with salt, animals and slaves.
The Muslim pilgrims from Western Africa (Haussa, Fulbe etc.) used the tarig as-sudan on their pilgrimage (hadj) to Mekka. Many of them stopped in the villages and little towns along the road in Kordofan to recover and regain strenght for the on-going journey. Some stayed and worked at the local farms - these immigrants called fellata are said to be more zealous than the long time settlers. They settled down and intermingled with the natives.
Starting a career as professional singer and musician was a challenge for Setona as a young woman even though one of her uncles was the founder of a so called "jazz band" in the fifties. But acting as a female musician in the public has never lost its connotation of indecency in Sudanesean society. Setona lived with her family in the Sudanese capital Khartoum in a quarter inhabitating people from different Central African countries as Nigeria, Zaire, Ethiopia and people from the southern parts of Sudan.
Together with her husband Ahmed, who has been working as a teacher and collecting music all over the vast country, she draws from a broad spectrum of African rhythms and melodies.
In her music Setona combines with ease influences of all those peoples living alongside the tarig as-sudan as an unique crossroad of cultures. One will find musical influences from areas being as too dispersed as East Africa (Taraab), Zaire (Soukous), Ghana (Highlife), Nigeria (JuJu, Fuji) and Sierra Leone (Palmwine music) and furthermore Uganda, Ethiopia, Tchad, Senegal, Nubia, Egypt and and and ... - apparently pan African music and truely Sudanese at the same time.
She creates a musical mix that has never been done by any other Sudanesean artist. One shouldn't be surprised to find within Setona's repertoire songs from countries in Western and Eastern Africa she has never been to. But the greatest "hits" have been kept within the peoples' memories for centuries and as a result Setona sometimes performs in languages (or fragments of languages) she doesn't really understand.
In all countries of the Orient women share a life sphere of its own which is filled up with lots of songs. Within this sphere that is hardly noticed by male visitors from abroad Setona learned how to work the typical Henna tattoes without whom no traditional wedding would be complete. And she was trained in specific African kinds of female healthcare as vapour-baths and burning incences. In Cairo today she is the so called "Queen of Henna".
Since a couple of years Setona lives with her husband Ahmed in Cairo, where she has established herself as a wanted "wedding-consultant" for traditional wedding ceremonies. She takes care about the young women expecting their wedding, prepares special wedding food and teaches the old songs that women sing during the wedding ceremony - in this way she keeps alive tradition in a changing world. With her music that is released on this album for the first time Setona wants to evoke mutual understanding and togetherness of different cultures within her native country - and beyond. (SALAH M. HASSAN *)

SETONA: THE NATIVE HENNA ARTIST IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

Setona, a henna artist from Sudan, is probably the best-known and most internationally marketed henna artist. Setona's story exemplifies the destiny of an artist in a changing world characterised by massive human mobility, dislocation, and globalisation. Hers is also the story of resilience and success in the face of all odds. After all, being a woman and an artist in a place where such a profession lacks the respectability it deserves, this is a remarkable achievement. Setona, whose real name is Fatma Ali Adam Uthman, was born in the province of Kordofan in western Sudan. She moved with her family to Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, when she was a child. Given the fact that she hails from a family of well-known musicians, it is not surprising that her first profession is really that of a singer and musician.13 Since 1989, Setona has been living in Cairo, Egypt, probably one of the many creative individuals forced to flee Sudan in the wake of that country's oppressive regime. She lives in the neighborhood of Al Halamiya with her husband, Ahmed, formerly a teacher in the Sudan as well as a musician who accompanies her in public performances with the lute, the popular Sudanese string instrument. Setona's music combines folk and contemporary Sudanese music with the traditions of women's lore and wedding songs. Setona has been credited, and with good reason, with the revival of henna body painting in Egypt. She may not be the only Sudanese henna artist in Cairo, but she is certainly the most celebrated thanks to her many artistic talents and entrepreneurial sophistication. What distinguishes Setona is her ability to market herself as a wedding consultant for 'Sudanese retrostyle' ceremonies, where she starts by applying the henna designs on the bride and teaching the women Sudanese dances, and ends with singing traditional songs during the ceremony itself. Setona's expertise in the traditional body care of Sudanese women known as Dukhan (vapor-bath) and Bakhur (the burning of incense to perfume the body) are also in demand.14 In other words, Setona draws on her knowledge of an entire set of traditions associated with body care and body painting in the context of Sudanese wedding rites. Setona's considerable artistic and entrepreneurial success can be measured in many ways. Her skill in the art of henna painting has earned her the title of 'Queen of Henna' in Egypt, and the demand for her work is world-wide. Among her most famous clients is The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Prince, who reportedly, makes special trips to Cairo in order to be decorated by Setona. Five-star hotels in Cairo, such as the Meridian, Sheraton, and Hilton, book Setona well in advance for special wedding parties. Lately, Setona has taken to the stage, performing with the avant-garde Egyptian theatrical group EI Tali'aa, the Vanguards. She even had a minor cameo role in one of the most successful Egyptian movies in recent years, 'An Upper Egyptian in The American University." Setona's remarkable success in Egypt is not always viewed favorably by many of the exiled Sudanese intellectuals in Cairo. Some have criticised the Egyptian fascination with Setona as an act of appropriation that exoticises and stereotypes Sudanese culture. They compare the Setona phenomenon with the Western appropriation of African cultural products.
Interestingly, many seasoned Sudanese musicians and singers, such as Mohammed Wardi and Mohammed El Amin, whose styles have defined modern Sudanese music for the last thirty years, and who have been residing in a voluntary exile in Egypt for the last ten years, never enjoyed Setona's success. Setona's popularity has also been attributed to the shift in Egyptian identity as Egyptians move away from pan-Arabism towards increasing awareness of their African heritage. Setona's international success must also be attributed to her shrewd entrepreneurial skills. Nevertheless, she could never have achieved such popularity without the current rise of henna art and African music in the West.
Interestingly, her brochures and CD write-ups market her as the 'Black Magic Woman'. Such labeling is very revealing of Western marketing strategies and their capitalisation of the 'exotic', the 'magical', and the 'primitive' so popular in the West. Thus, Setona's success becomes more comprehensible when read within the context of the henna mania sweeping the West today.
Setona’s uncle, Omar Abdu, has been credited with founding the first kind of of jazz bands’ in Sudan; a Sudanese vocal music closer to what is known as R&B and Black pop music in the United States. The two types of body care function like a sauna. The woman sits over a hole in the ground covered with a blanket to get 'smoked'. It is important to note that these are traditions associated with the esoteric culture of sex and desire in Sudan. Setona has a German manager, Martin W. Riedel, who manages her international engagements and performances. Through Mr. Riedel's efforts, Setona has released two records on famous labels such as Blue Flame and BMG, and toured many of the major cities in Europe.
Released the summer of 1998, the controversial comedy made box office history in Egypt, grossing more than a million dollars in its first few weeks. I would like to acknowledge the fruitful discussions I had with Adil Kibaida, a Cairo based Sudanese artist during my recent visit to Cairo in the summer of1998. Equally helpful were the insights and shrewd observations of Hassan Ali Ahmed and Safwat Ahmed, also of Cairo. The current debate among Egyptian intellectuals concerning the identity of Egyptian literature, culture and arts, and the renewed interest in Nubian culture and history, well illustrate this phenomenon. The interest in Sudanese culture and arts can be interpreted, therefore, as a kind of 'return to African roots.' Hence, the new popularity of Sudanese music, known for its faster tempo and hot rhythm, and the demand for henna and Sudanese-style weddings among fashionable Egyptian families. Gawhara, a Cairo-based Sudanese singer, has sold thousands of CDS of Sudanese folk songs and popular music, rearranged and written to suit popular Egyptian taste.

SALAH M.HASSAN *
Salah Hassan (Sudan) is an Assistant Professor of African and African Diaspora, Art History and Visual Culture at Africana Studies and Research Center, Cornell University, lthaca, USA. He published and edited several books in the field of the arts and served as a guest curator for several exhibitions. He is editor of 'NKA Journal of Contemporary African Art', and serves as consulting editor for the magazine 'African Arts' and 'Atlantica International Journal of Contemporary Art'. Hassan is interested in human rights and democratisation issues in Africa and has been a member of the Sudan Human Rights Organisation since ist revival in London in 1989.