Fifteen children and staff attended the opening of Chartwell’s academy. The children performed a song in traditional shona language about a lady riding on a white hyena. They sang absolutely beautifully and recieved a huge round of appluase for their perfect performance. The children were also lucky to be involved in two workshops, African drumming and African dance. The drum workshop was lead by a lady from Lands End who showed the children how the villages in Africa communicate by sending drumming signals. She told them how a collective drum piece can be heard 10 miles away because the land is so flat the sound travels great distances. One group learnt a simple drumming pattern that signals that a young girl is looking for a husband and this informs other villagers to send their young men to see if they are suitable husband material. The children learnt a pattern by mimicking a chant…one group had to beat the phrase ‘remember you’re a womble’, as the other group had to mimick, ‘I like playing on my drum’. The children then split into two and played their beat pattern to a background of deeper drums. The overall sound was fantastic.
The dance workshops were in an amazing dance studio and they were accompanied by guitar, drums and mbira. One group learnt a dance from Sierra Leone and the other group learnt a routine from Zimbabwae.
The day culminated in the sharing of Zimbabwean food cooked by three Zimbabwean ladies. the children were very adventurous and tried spiced chicken and sausage, beef stew, rice with chick peas and vegetables cooked in a peanut butter sauce.
