Anders Nyberg's blog

Part 1 My time in Nepal is drawing to a close. For this time... Impossible to summarise this amazing country, but in short it has been a peak experience. Peak time with peak people in peak country. The nature is unquestionably one of its kind, with both jungle and the highest peaks of this planet within sight. And the people, to a large extent poor, but with a richness of soul and spirit that is overwhelming; generous, kind, humble and proud at the same time. But most amazing has been our way to approach it; walking, talking and singing... I feel that our "Sång & Gång" concept, our "walk & sing" adventures that we now have developed for almost 30 years have found an ultimate form here. We walk into the villages, meeting people eye-level, share a song, and walk out of there with a garland around our necks and a blessing on our foreheads. And a smile in our hearts and a sense of taking part in a real transformative meeting. For both parties. All of this has ...

Ska Sverige gå med i NATO? Ytterst sett handlar detta om vilka vi är och vilka vi vill vara. Vad är det att vara svensk? Vad betyder det? Finlands nutidshistoria är trots närheten brödrafolken emellan på många sätt väsensskild från vår. När Finland först 1917 utropade sin självständighet gjordes det under brinnande världskrig och medan Ryssland av bolsjevikerna kastats in i en blodig och totalt omvälvande och uppslukande revolution. Finland hade i över 100 år varit ett förvaltningsområde under det ryska tsardömet där den högsta beslutanderätten tillhört tsaren i Moskva. Medan Ryssland var fullt upptaget med sina interna stridigheter bröt sig Finland ur och utropade självständighet. Och kom undan med det. Nu vill Finland oerhört snabbt, medan Ryssland är militärt uppbundet på en annan front, ta ytterligare steg mot den västliga gemenskapen och ansöka om NATO-medlemskap, i en förhoppning om att historien ska upprepa sig. Ingen i Sverige kan förvånas eller invända. Det moderna Finland, me...

  ”Sverige möts”,  tv-debatten om folkomröstningen i Malung onsdagen den 7/10 2020 , lämnar en fadd eftersmak. Sällan har begreppet ”den tysta majoriteten” fått en sådan primetime-möjlighet som i detta program, en möjlighet som fylldes med en kompakt och ekande... tystnad. Sverige möttes inte. I den rådgivande folkomröstningen om en vindkraftpark på Ripfjället nyligen  sade en tydlig majoritet i kommunen nej . Men under debatten i Sveriges Television saknades dessa röster. För att ytterligare understryka demokratins skakiga position denna kväll tillkännagav den socialdemokratiske ordföranden i kommunfullmäktige Hans Unander i direktsändningen att kommunen inte kommer att beakta folkomröstningsutslaget, utan ge vindkraftsbolaget rätten att sätta upp snurrorna. Den enda i församlingen  som egentligen hade något att erinra mot denna demokratiska frivolt var Henrik Wachtmeister från föreningen Svenskt landskapsskydd, som med en greves vältalighet sökt...

Hanna at the docks in Banjul, Gambia, on the lookout for her Roots! There’s no doubt in my mind what has been the most soul-stirring part of our wonderful Song Safari to Gambia. Travelling up the Gambia river in search of my daughter Hanna’s slave roots… Do I hear a few grumbles here? Hanna’s slave roots in Gambia? Well, your scepticism is justified, Hanna slave-roots are not in Gambia, they are in Benin, but never have I been so close to them as the day when we took the boat up the Gambia river and visited Jufureh, Kunta Kinte’s roots, and greeted his family still living there. Meeting Kunta Kinte's relatives The memorial in Jufureh Spotting Jufureh from the boat.  Let’s take it from the beginning; I have searched Johannas roots and found something astonishing; Johanna’s (this is easier in Swedish:) mormorsmormorsmorfarsmormorsmormorsmormor’s name was Koddo and she was a slave arriving in Cape Town on the 6 th of May 1658 on the slaveship Hasselt. She came f...

E ver since I heard the haunting voices of the Bulgarian female choirs in the 80's and 90's I wanted to come here and explore the song-paths of this country. And now when I am here I am astonished how well the story of this country is conveyed by its music; the beauty of the mountains, the pain of its history, the longing of its spirituality... all was there in the music, and all is now here to be discovered  tangibly on my first visit. I am in the best of companies; hosted in Plovdiv, the European Cultural Capital of 2019, by a group of really dedicated hosts who are eager to share the treasures that are hiding underneath the surface. As with the magnificent Roman theatre here, which was rediscovered, unearthed and restored only late in the 20th century, so are we, together with our hosts, rediscovering the rich cultural treasures of this in many ways forgotten corner of Europe. And what a beautiful group to explore it with: In our network "Co-creating Europe" a...

--> We are two days in on our run of concerts at Baxter Theatre, Rondebosch, Cape Town. Some songs are, as they should be, harder to sing and listen to than others, but they are important ingredients in our stew of bitter and sweet. Some songs bring sweet memories of victories won and some courage for victories to be won. But to have the opportunity to express it all in music and words is precious. A human right that this part of the world has taught me all I know about. I had to go and do a little shopping just before yesterday’s concert. I asked where the closest grocery shop was and got the answer Pic’n’pay in Rondebosch. I went there, for the first time ever, but still had a flashback of memories… Almost 40 years ago when I came to do a volunteer year in SA I stayed together with two other young foreign men in a house in the designated “white” area of Rondebosch, trying to come to terms with the absolute madness of its racial laws in our daily rou...