With 'Itaala' Belgian-Namibian Shishani Vranckx attempts to put the musical traditions of her motherland - Shishani was born in Windhoek, but in 1992 moved to The Netherlands - in the spotlight. Easier said than done, because Shishani wasn't fluent in Oshiwambo, her mother's native tongue, (on 'Itaala' she also sings in English and French). And when she went in search of music from Namibia, all she found was an ethnographic album with music of the San or Bushmen in a local Dutch library. Even Namibia itself provided little comfort, because there also local traditions are on the decline and being replaced by genres like house, reggae, kwaito, hip-hop and r&b. It was Amsterdam based percussionist Sjahin During who finally persuaded her to give the project a go, and the result is 'Itaala', an acoustic (guitar, percussion, cello, mbira and kora) singer-songwriter album with a title that is more than appropriate as it translates as "faith"; believing in yourself and what you can accomplish, but so also believing in the importance of traditions and languages.