July 6, 2012 by Sodiq Oyeleke
Pupils of Greenwood House School, Ikoyi, Lagos, have explored African context with their performance of a popular South African Ipi Ntombi dance drama at the Muson Centre, Onikan, Lagos.
Ipi Ntombi in Zulu means “where are the girls.” It was first performed in 1974 with a cast of 50 dancers and singers.
According to the administrator of the school, Mrs. Ekua Abudu, the performance by the pupils was a celebration of the traditional South African culture in a clash.
She said the dance gained much audience when it was first presented 10 years ago but had been represented with more creativity.
“This is to show that our children are creative. We actually produced this play 10 years ago and there was demand for it. So, we decided to show it again but this time, with new energy, choreography and technique,” she said.
Abudu advised that pupils should be given the opportunity to express themselves, saying Nigerian children have enormous wealth of talent.
She added, “They are among the most talented groups of people. We just need to work on this talents and encourage them to get the best out of them.
“They don’t have the opportunity to express themselves and display their talents and to be called up to do anything, even to go to school. I just think we need to encourage the younger generations a lot more.”
The Principal of the school, Ikoyi, Mrs. Iyabo Durand, said creativity had a lot to do with academics.
“We should not focus on only academics, morals and creative development also goes a long way in nurturing the pupils. If any school wants to groom a child, it must develop every aspect of the child – academically, socially, morally and find out what their talents are; it may be sports, dance or anything. Just make sure you expose the child as wide as possible in variety of things,” she explained.”
A parent of the school, who identified herself simply as Mrs. Kukoyi, expressed her satisfaction with the display, adding that she was extremely happy.
She urged other schools to develop a vision that would help in building standard and creativeness.
“They must see the building of creativity as a must. It exposes them to a lot of things. Like today, they have learnt about the South African culture, which is a world outside Nigeria. Everything they are doing is part of the education,” she said
Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE
Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner
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