Bagamoyo Uhuru dancers!

This is a low-res (point and shoot camera) video i took yesterday night at the Bagamoyo Arts College (Chua Cha Sanaa) weekly performance. There was some really great work by young artists, including the young people in this piece - a group called the Uhuru (freedom) dancers and drummers. Sadly, the sound on my camera is not working, so i had to splice it with a Gilberto Gil song to give it a beat.

Many of the artists presented work that was a good mix of traditional and modern influences. The video shown here was more traditional in drumming and dance style - though it's always interesting to see what people do for their dance outfits. In this case - colored plastic straw skirts over boxer shorts for the men... and t-shirts and tank tops with cotton wrap bottoms for the women. The video might make it look like a dorky college cultural show, but i assure you that it was way cooler. ;)

The best part of this performance was that it was in an outdoor amphitheater on the beach, and the audience was filled with folks from the Bagamoyo community - bibi, babu, watoto (grandmas, grandpas, children) were all present. It's great to see the community all come out and participate and enjoy the creative work of its young people.

There were only a small handful of wazungu (foreigners), including myself and a bunch of the volunteer art teachers from Spain and Portugal whom i'd met and befriended on the plane ride over from London to Dar 4 weeks ago. It's a small world after all!