Today we talk with Chris, one of the members of Hòfi Kultural. Chris is retired and spends his days making music with his friends. The goal of the interview was to find out what kind of impact Hòfi Kultural had on Chris.
How did you start with Hòfi Kultural?
Chris used to play music at different hotels, entertaining people. One day he received an invitation from one of his friends to come to Hòfi Kultural to share his skills with others and since then he has been going to Hòfi Kultural with a big smile on his face ever since.
What is so special about Hòfi Kultural?
The fact that you can come here and relive the old days with your friends and learn more about your culture, about your island and about your people is really special because you cannot do that anywhere else. Culture is the way that you live and the way that you do things. Culture is who we are actually, if you think about it more deeply. What troubles me is that our culture is slowly disappearing, children are no longer interested in learning it and that is bad because there is nobody to maintain our culture, I fear that if we do not act now that the young generation will never know of what makes Bonaire truly unique. It is important to promote what we do at the schools and on the radio to show people what we do here and make sure they understand why this is important. This way we can hand over our knowledge to the younger generation, because after we are gone it is they who would have to continue the work, so we have to do our best to promote our activities to them.
Why is Hòfi Kultural so important?
Good question! Hòfi Kultural keeps our culture active, meaning it makes sure that it does not die, Hòfi Kultural not only helps us get in touch with our culture but it also makes sure that we keep it active and alive by making traditional music that our ancestors did and also by doing activities that we were brought up with.
What kind of impact did Hòfi Kultural had on your life?
Before Hòfi Kultural, I had nothing to do really besides sitting at home and listening to the radio. Now I have a purpose again, get up and go to Hòfi Kultural to get in touch with friends and to have a good time. To answer your question, it gave me something to do rather than sit and home all day, I feel young again, I feel active again thanks to Hòfi Kultural.
Foto: Jildou van Dijk