Davorio: Help us to build a library in Ivory Coast

We are raising funds to construct a library/community space in Gohouo-Zagna, located in the Guemon Region of the Ivory Coast. With a combination of album Sales, vinyl sales and fundraising we are hoping to raise enough money to construct this facility. Our overall target for the construction of the Library facility is £6386. If we raise more than that then we can stock the community space with books and music equipment.

Through a musical collaboration between Italian musician Samuele Strufaldi and the villagers of Gohouo-Zagna in the Ivory Coast, a new album called Davorio released on Música Macondo Records, will raise money for a new community library space in the village.

We are working alongside the ONG Permlay De Gohouo-Zagna a charity set up to facilitate the construction of this community space.

Watch our video to find out more.

Davorio: Building futures through collaborative music

This collaboration has grown very organically. In 2019 musician Samuele Strufaldi was invited by his friend and Djembe player Boris Pierrou to travel from Florence to Gohouo-Zagna to record and collaborate on some music. After spending some time in Gohouo-Zagna, Samuele returned home with a series of recordings that tell the story of the village.

Davorio is the joint efforts of Samuele Strufaldi, and the Guéré musicians of Gohouo-Zagna, located in the Ivory Coast’s Guemon region. The record is a cross-cultural conversation that tells the villagers’ stories through a modern musical language; one that blends Guéré music, jazz, and electronica. More than just a record, Davorio is a story about the villagers of Gohouo-Zagna, with their lives, traditions, and cultures animated across the album’s 16 tracks.

In telling the story of the village through the medium of recorded music, we hope to generate enough income to construct this library facility and if we surpass our target, stock it with books and music equipment. The goal of building this community space is to support local families, children, young people and women and to act as a meeting place for the creation of partnerships, music making and learning.

During the making of this album, Boris Pierrou started to make plans to build a library facility in the village of Gohouo-Zagna where he is from, he subsequently set up a charity with his brother, partner and fellow family members to achieve this. As a collective, we agree that the best way to jump-start this project was to put 100% of the profit from the sale of the album towards the construction of the library.

You Can Buy The Album Davorio Here

Head to our Bandcamp page to purchase a copy of the vinyl or digital.

All of the profits from the sale of this record will contribute to our construction goal.

Library Construction plans

A plot of land located behind the Church in Gohouo-Zagna measuring 25m x 30m will be dedicated to the construction of the Library.

The library project involves the construction of a traditional house that includes two rooms one of which will be used as a library/playroom and the other as a restroom for the children. There will be a big hall used as a conference room and reading room. Outside there will be two toilets, each equipped with a toilet and shower, a kitchen for preparing meals, an open-sided shed used for games and entertainment and a music studio.

The entire property will be enclosed with a wall to allow better supervision of children.

The management of the spaces will be supervised by the president of OPGZ and a collective of women from the village will take care of the children. Initially, about 10 families will benefit from the facility and a total of 20-25 children.

The majority of the villagers of Gohouo-Zagna work on Coffee and Cacao Plantations, this coupled with the remote location in The Guemon region means it is pretty difficult to raise and source funding for these kinds of projects.

The current cost of the construction of the Library space is 4.760.000 francs, which translates to 7256 Euro and £6386. Our dream would be to raise this money through a combination of album sales and fundraising. We hope that through the power of music and community, we will be able to achieve this goal and make this dream a reality. We thank you for your time in reading about our project and if it resonates with you, please donate. No donation is too small. With love from ONGPGZ, Música Macondo Records and Samuele Strufaldi.