Porch Priestess

Drumming. Joyous voices. The rhythm of dancing feet.

Early last year, Hudson native Nkoula (pronounced Koola) Badila was walking near the ferry terminal in the vibrant port town of Zanzibar, Tanzania, when the sounds of performance troupe Zan Ubuntu reached her ears. Coming from a family of performers herself, she couldn’t help but be drawn toward the music.

During our first conversation, Badila and I would learn that we had a crazy Zanzibar connection. I too had heard Zan Ubuntu rehearsing at the very same spot when I visited late last year. “Yeah yeah man, that’s incredible. Wow,” says Badila, when we uncover our shared experience. That kind of uncanny connection would imbue our entire encounter.