Kidfest. Marang's Janjungo Ba. Warwick Secondary, Warwick Kidfest organisers excelled themselves with an absolutely top-notch performance by US and Canada-based Marang.

And -- amid calls for African history and culture to be recognised in Island schools -- the song and dance troupe, which draws on African music, dance and folk history, presented an overwhelmingly convincing argument.

For the six-strong group, from Burkino Faso, The Gambia, Ja maica, the USA and Canada, provided a stunningly sophisticated blend which had its audience literally dancing in the aisles.

The four-act performance is based on the history of the Manding empire of French West Africa -- Mali.

It tells the tale of Sunjata, the crippled heir to the Mali empire and the real Lion King of the largest black empire in African history and his miraculous restoration to full health.

Dancer Freymond Taylor performed his own miracle, dancing mostly on his hands, perfectly conveying the frustration of the disabled prince while at the same time showing unbelievable athleticism.

Master kora player Alhaji Papa Susso -- a jali or hereditary bard to royal courts, with a heritage stretching back through the generations -- created an eerie linking of the set pieces with a sound midway between a harp and a lute.

The show moved steadily to its climax with each act surpassing the last. The penultimate act provided a marvellously balletic representation of the clash between Sunjata -- miraculously cured of his affliction -- and Sumangaru, the warrior/sorcerer ruler of the Sosso kingdom.

Sunjata -- after a lightning fast dance of death with his opponent -- ultimately triumphs, setting the scene for a carnival celebration on the streets of the Mali capital of Timbuctoo, involving a host of children and not a few adults as well.

And the audience lapped it up, with the ululating sounds of celebration which owe more to the wild plains of Africa than the well-tended lawns of Bermuda echoing around the hall.

Indeed, it was one of those shows, ostensibly aimed at children, which everyone could enjoy and they obviously did.

And the sight of children, both black and white, discovering together the ancient rhythms and movements of Africa would have brought a lump to anyone's throat.

But one of the biggest surprises of the show was the fact that there were a fair few empty seats.

This is not the place to talk about the value of people learning about their African heritage and sterile debates about who first discovered everything from electricity to the electric can opener misses the point a bit.

But a people's culture, any people's culture, is a very long cable stretching down into the seas of time. And that cable has an anchor at the end.

Take that anchor away and you're talking about a people adrift, because if you steal the past, as the white man did with the guns and ships of the African Diaspora, there's a strong possibility you can rob people of some of the strength and security needed to face the future as well.

The self-confident belief in the value of the Mali culture displayed by Marang was a delight. It's a pity more people didn't take advantage of it.

---- Raymond Hainey