Cultural music, dance conclude four-day festival

In the shadows on the stage of the Annenberg School Theatre, a little boy played drums and a young girl danced, while older drummers stood to the side. Together, the children conveyed the spirit and culture of African dance and rhythm, as 350 students, faculty and members of the Philadelphia community watched in awe. The scene marked the end of Saturday night's cultural show, completing a four-day celebration of Africa's beauty and heritage known as Africa Fest '96. The New York based El Shabazz D'Jembe Orchestra, featured the performance of Iyataiye, an African Dance group. The orchestra played the unique and mysterious sounds of Africa, in what the performers called "edutainment" -- education through entertainment. The Penn African Students Association hosted the cultural show, which displayed the roles and traditions in various African communities. The show included poetry reading, story telling, music and dance. PASA looked at various aspects of different African countries, in an attempt to show that not every culture in Africa is the same, explained College junior Nkem Nwuneli, Africa Fest's chairperson. The introduction to each performance offered the audience background into many of the countries. The show featured an elaborate fashion show which presented a combination of East and West African music and garb that followed the life of an African woman from birth to motherhood. "The fashion show was very well coordinated and colorful," said Linda Washington, a Philadelphia resident. "Part of the interest of the audience is to find out how many countries are represented so you can identify at other times what you are seeing." A group of PASA members reenacted a traditional South African Miners' gumboot dance. "The length of the program and the coordination of the steppers gave proof to the amount of time that they must have spent practicing," said Rachel Skerritt, a College freshman. "The steps were intricate and the rhythms were very complicated. It was amazing to watch and hear!" According to College freshman Malik Wilson, Africa Fest '96 "opened people's eyes to the diversity of African people and African cultures." Engineering junior LaShanta Johnson noted that the show recognized the separate cultures of East Africa and West Africa. "The performance was extraordinarily educational, and I learned a lot about African culture that I didn't know about before," she said.