Children at three of the Island’s primary schools will be showing off new African drumming and dance skills next week. The students have been taking part in workshops with instructor M’Bemba Bangoura.They will be performing for their respective school assemblies next week as well as in Thursday’s Bermuda Day parade.

Mr. Bangoura is originally from Guinea, West Africa, but has been based in New York City for the past 20 years.

He plays a host of continental African instruments — including the djembe (drum) and the belafone (a xylophone-like instrument) — and first came to Bermuda with Les Ballets Africains as part of the 2004 Bermuda Festival.

During the festival, he met Dawn Broadbelt who runs the Bermuda African Dance Company. The meeting sparked an opportunity to expand on the work Mrs. Broadbelt was already doing locally.

She soon made a proposal to then Community and Cultural Affairs Minister Dale Butler to bring Mr. Bangoura to the Island for three months to help teach the dance and drumming.

The aim is to encourage youngsters to be proud of their African heritage, she said.

“We did up a budget and Minister Dale Butler was there. He said, ‘if you can execute it, I will support it’.”

Three schools were chosen — Paget Primary, Harrington Sound Primary and Prospect Primary — and there are ten dancers and ten drummers at each school.

Mr. Bangoura is also teaching students at the Bermuda African Dance Company. For more information 238-2645.

Pride of their African heritage