Cultural exposure

NEW GLASGOW - Temperance Street School students were given a rare first-hand glimpse a style of traditional singing and dancing native to southern Africa yesterday.
Travelling through Nova Scotia as part of a cross-Canada tour, Zimbabwean quintet Black Umfolosi was invited to perform at the school.
The group sings in the traditional Mbube style, which features a rich, warm choral sound mixed with claps and vocalizations. Perhaps the most recognizable song taken from this musical style is Wimoweh, or The Lion Sleeps tonight.
Thomeki Dube, one of the group's founding members, said the music is the tradition of the Nguni-speaking people who live in the southern regions of Africa.
The group takes its name from the Umfolozi River, which is actually in the Natal province of South Africa. Dube said it was where the group's ancestors came from before migrating north into Zimbabwe.
Though the group has toured theatres, Dube said they enjoy heading into schools.
"That's where we came from. Our group started in a school. It was a boys' boarding school. So when we work with schools, we are going back to our roots," he said.
He believes that children are enriched by exposure to new cultures.
"Sometimes they need to get that first- hand information to know what's going on in other parts of the world - so they grow up with a lot of knowledge. It opens up their mind," he said.
The same could be said for the members of Black Umfolosi. They've been in Canada three weeks now, from one coast to the other and north to Yellowknife.
That was pretty amazing, Dube said.
"It was quite a different part of Canada, we never experienced that before. It was more or less dark all day, but like an hour or two when we got a little bit of light. That was quite amazing to us. But the people were very nice - very friendly and very forthcoming."
Black Umfolosi are also practitioners of gumboot dancing, which they entreated both students - and teachers to try Wednesday. It's an intensive style, featuring the rhythmic slapping and stomping of rubber boots. The style was developed during the 20th century by South African miners.