Mandela Day African music fest, Brooklyn

Beside's Ade's 13-man African Beats (plus two merrily callypygous female dancers), there were performances by South African pop-soul band Freshly Ground (fronted by singer olani Mahola and electric violinist Kyla-Rose Smith), the somewhat more tradition-minded Mandingo Ambassadors (vocalist Ismail Kouyaté and guitarist Mamady Kouyaté, plus balafon/elect.bass/hand-drums/saxes and reeds) out of Guinea (and they play every Wednesday at Barbés!), Afro-funk diva Abena Koomsom (born in Brooklyn, parents from Ghana), the Egyptian dervish-like dancer Yasser Darwish  and the Senegalese-originating Cheikh M'baye and Sing-Sing Rhythm, starting about 2 pm and ending at 9. Despite the emphasis on percussion and electric gear -- guitars, basses, keyboard-synths, even processed flute -- used by all the bands except Sing-Sing and Darwish (who was accompanied by a accordionist and side-held hand-drummer), the sounds were mostly mellow. The mood was entirely upbeat; no blues, no protest (as far as I could tell -- most of the singing was not in English but communicated across language barriers).