HOBOKEN PROGRESS - FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, 2012
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LOCAL NEWS HOBOKEN
Students learn about Africa during special presentation On the morning of Jan. 20, Wallace School in Hoboken hosted a presentation by African Views where a handful of seventh graders were encouraged to rethink their views of Africa and Africans. The African Cultural Exchange (ACE) program, an ancillary of African Views, was designed to counter some of the negative representations of Africa that children are exposed to by educating them in an immersive and interactive setting. Wallace School was the first school in New Jersey to host the program. With special help from Hoboken school board trustee Carmelo Garcia, the event was organized by Wale Idris Ajibade, William A. Verdone, Agnieszka Grzybowska and AV Media Producer Frances Hanlon. The team arrived at 8:30 a.m. and Wale immediately began discussing the different regions of Africa with Mr. Donovan’s history class. The presentation was supplemented with Skype video conferences with students from schools in Africa. The first call was to Cheikhou Thiome’s bilingual class in Dakar, Senegal. It was 9:20 a.m. in New Jersey and 2:20 p.m. in Dakar, but there was the same excitement and eagerness in both schools. Up next was a call to Botswana where Sandra Augustine Nnebo’s class was waiting. Like the students in Hoboken, Nnebo’s class was a multi-national one, with students from different countries. There was Abby, 11, from Zimbabwe; Madeleine, Adam and Brandon, also from Zimbabwe; there was an 8 year old from Nigeria; Kayla, from Botswana; and others from South Africa, Zambia and Namibia. The children exchanged ideas on food, sports and the cities where they lived. Hoboken kids even taught the kids in Botswana how to say hello in Spanish and they learned how to say goodbye in Setswana, the mostly widely spoken language by the people in Botswana, the Batswana. Wale then began the second part of his presentation: “What is African?” Africa, from the Greek word “Afrike,” meaning a “warm and safe place,” is as varied and dif-
ferent in climate, religion, culture and people as the United States and Europe. Africans are as different from each other as most Americans are, with different color skin and features, said Wale. Patrick Gorham, a “modernday Indiana Jones” from AfricaWrites gave a presentation of an ancient acrobatic dance performed by teenage girls in northern and central Guinea as an initiation ritual. It was Gorham’s extensive adventures through the continent that piqued the students’ already heightened curiosity. They asked him if he’s ever been attacked; if he’s seen a lion; and what the gorillas in the region are like. Up next was a music lesson with Yacouba Sissoko and Sacha Chavez. The students learned the intricacies of the kora from Malian singer and kora aficionado Sissoko. The kora, a 21-string instrument found in traditional and popular West African music, especially in Mali, Senegal, Gambia and Guinea, is noticeable for its huge soundbox, which is made from cow- or goat-hide, a long hard-wooden neck and a bridge that connects the twenty-one strings. Most kora players, like Sissoko, are also singers, or griots, which are responsible for keeping track of decades, even centuries of family history. Chavez explained to the class the historical and social influences of three different string instruments: the guitar, the charango, a Native American-style mandolin made from armadillo shell, and the banjo. Then it was time for doll making. Coordinated by France Garrido from the Newark Museum, and inspired by the artwork of the Ndebele people, a small ethnic group in Southern Africa, the students made their own dolls using plastic water bottles, adding fabric and accessories to decorate and individualize them. The dolls were beautiful, stylish, odd, and cool, but all were creative. When asked about the inspiration behind their dolls, one student, Xavier, an avid history and geography bluff who wants to be an explorer, explained that his doll is an assemblage of his heritage.
A musical performance featuring African music was part of the presentation at Wallace Elementary School.
Wallace students recently saw a special presentation by African Views in which a handful of seventh graders were encouraged to rethink their views of Africa and the people who call the continent home.
New digs for hob’art
PHOTO COURTESY OF HOB’ART
Erik Attia, Starr Tucker-Ortega and hob’art President Liz Cohen (left to right) are seen here at the local artist co-op’s first board meeting in its new home in the Monroe Art Center last month.
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