Bringing West Africa to the Midwest

Middle school project combines art, music and literature

By Laura Johnston

Southeast Missourian

They might not know much about West African geography, politics or history, but students at Central Middle School certainly know the sounds of West African music.

Step into the school's music room during an early-morning practice session and you'll hear intricate rhythms played on xylophones followed by the sounds of jumbled vowels as students practice Ghanaian folk songs and Adenkum music.

Seated in a semicircle holding empty plastic jugs, the students slap the jugs against their palms and forearms as they sing the lyrics "obaa hemaa due-ee; obaa hemaa due-ee; Adwoa toa be-yie; Okokofuni Adwo ee; Adwoa babo me nkmomo."

The song is usually played on a calabash gourd, but until those arrive the students are improvising. The West African music is part of a cross-curriculum project designed by teacher Pam Dumey.

Dumey was awarded a $4,000 grant by the Missouri Arts Council for a project that would incorporate lessons in music, art and literature into the curriculum.

The specific project she envisioned was to create a concert that includes bits of these artistic elements but focuses them on West African influences.

For the past few summers, Dumey has been taking classes in West African drumming and bringing what she learned back to the classroom. She formed several extra-curricular music groups to share her new skills and those groups will perform during an April 23 concert.

Instrumentalists with Shere Khan, Panthera Tigris, a vocal chorus and the Bengal Beat drummers will perform during the concert at Academic Auditorium.

Also as part of the grant, a master drummer will spend a week at the school playing with students and performing concerts. The drummer, Sowah Mensah, teaches in Minnesota and is originally from Ghana.

African music is one of the most popular of ethnic music traditions, and the students pick up the language quickly but learning the notes is somewhat difficult, Dumey said.

None of the songs they've learned is written in standard notation, so there's no sheet music to read. Everything is taught through oral tradition, so the students listen to recordings of the music and then translate it to their instruments, Dumey said.

The students admit that some of the words are hard to pronounce, but they like being able to sing and play the instruments. Matt Deisher said singing and playing an instrument simultaneously is sometimes hard.

But he's also working on an art project for the concert. Art teacher Beth Thomas is instructing a group of eight students who are making African masks for the concert. The students are all members of the extra-curricular choirs and attended an exhibit of African art at the St. Louis Art Museum.

Their creations must resemble an authentic African mask so the students drew images based on what they saw at the museum. Each mask will be embellished with bright colors, raffia or fabric strips.

Charis Stewart patterned her mask after one she saw at the museum. She spent much of last week building the mask from layers of cardboard and then covering the cardboard with strips of construction paper that will soak up the paint.

Deisher and Roy Leighton made their masks to look a little more frightening than pleasant. Though they weren't sure how the masks would be decorated they did know that masks are used for ceremonial purposes in Africa.

Deisher said the artwork and music has been "really fun because we're learning how to play while we're learning the songs. It makes music more fun."

But this project isn't just about creating African sounds or artwork. Students also are writing African folk tales based on the masks. Laura Green, a fifth grade teacher, has been studying African folk tales with her students. The class invited a children's author from Sikeston to come and share tips on writing with them. She will visit later this month.

Dumey knows she can't teach everything there is to know about West African music in this year but the grant helps her get started.

Want to go?

What: West African musical concert

When: 6 p.m. April 23

Where: Academic Auditorium, university campus

Cost: Free