This past week Aya Shabu, Program Director at BUMP: The Triangle traveled to Orange County to bring the BUMP Musicology Program to 2nd and 3rd graders there. Hauling much of BUMP's curriculum materials with her, including: colorful craft supplies, her ipod and speaker, a west African drum, and a 16-foot vinyl floor map of the world, Ms. Shabu entered Mia Jones' music classroom at Northside Elementary. Excited by their new teacher robed in African dress, the eager 8 and 9 years were excited to know what they were going to do. Hopping and rolling on the gigantic map, students traveled through the African Diaspora, visiting Liberia, Nigeria, and Harlem. This lesson in "diaspora" (diaspora means a wide dispersion from an ancestral homeland) was a baptism in drumming, song, and dance. By the end of the two-hour class these students would have made Dr. Pearl Primus proud with their rendition of "Fanga". Both Northside and McDougle Elementary Schools will receive BUMP Musicology for 6-weeks.
From Wikipedia
Fanga is a dance "interpretation of a traditional Liberian invocation to the earth and sky". The dance was created in 1959 by noted dancer Pearl Primus in conjunction with the National Dance Company of Liberia. Babatunde Olatunji, described Fanga as a dance of welcome from Liberia and created a song to go with the rhythm and dance, assisted by some of the students in his Harlem studio, during the early sixties.[1] They used words from the Yoruba language and a melody popularized by American minstrels (Li'l Liza Jane)."
Check out these other sources for more information on Fanga:
http://www.rhythmbridge.com/fanga/
http://pancocojams.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/real-history-of-funga-alafia-fanga-song.html
From Wikipedia
Fanga is a dance "interpretation of a traditional Liberian invocation to the earth and sky". The dance was created in 1959 by noted dancer Pearl Primus in conjunction with the National Dance Company of Liberia. Babatunde Olatunji, described Fanga as a dance of welcome from Liberia and created a song to go with the rhythm and dance, assisted by some of the students in his Harlem studio, during the early sixties.[1] They used words from the Yoruba language and a melody popularized by American minstrels (Li'l Liza Jane)."
Check out these other sources for more information on Fanga:
http://www.rhythmbridge.com/fanga/
http://pancocojams.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/real-history-of-funga-alafia-fanga-song.html
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