Ghanaian dance troupe drums its way to America

As part of the celebrations of Black History Month, the University, Ghana Education Project, Akwaaba and Frist Campus Center sponsored several performances and workshops on campus this week by Twerrampon, a Ghanaian dance and drum troupe. Twerrampon founder and choreographer Okyerema Kwam'ina Pra, Stage Manager Agya Boakye-Boaten and Manager and Artistic Director Philip Dadzie recently spoke with 'Prince' Executive Editor Rob Laset.

'Prince': Where are you each from?

Kwam'ina Pra: I am from Capx [Cape Coast Slave Castle] and the group is also from Capx. We were born and raised in Capx.

P: Where is the town located?

K: The south central part of Ghana, where the former capital of Ghana was.

P: And how many people live in Capx?

Dadzie: We are a little over 3,000.

P: Let's talk about your group now. Why did you decide to create the Twerrampon dance and drumming troupe?

K: This came about as a result of the death of our culture with the advent of Christianity. Our cultural aspects were termed demonic. People did not do it very much. So I came up with the idea to revive and use it as a medium for education and also for theater for development.

P: Tell me more about the history behind the group.

K: The group was formed in 1982, like I told you to revive and innovate the culture because people were terming it demonic, and to preserve the cultural aspects of Ghana and Capx.

Boakye-Boaten: We are an international group and have performed in Denmark. We won [a] carnival contest there. Some members of the group had been holding instructions for Danish groups in Denmark.

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K: But [we have been] not only in Denmark, but also Germany and other countries.

B: That is what we seek to do in America. We want to try to teach American youth drum and dancing.

P: How many members do you have?

K: We have 54 in [our] membership and right now 12 are here. We can't transport all of them to this place. There are some others who are part of it and next time we hope we can have them.

B: They come from diverse backgrounds. Some are artists, some are students, unemployed and artists. Basically we come together as a family, but after performances we have our own lives.

D: The group has been performing Panafest [an annual concert held in Latin America], which has seen the likes of Steven Wonder, Maya Angelou. We performed on the same stage with them. This year we are the official Panafest 2001 Amabassadors to America. We are here to instruct the Americans about Pan-American culture. And yes Princeton University brought us here to be a part of the Black History Month festivities on campus and to relate to Princeton students about our culture and exchange ideas of culture.

We are also doing workshops and they are going very well. The group wants to find other schools who are interested in hosting us. This first visit has been very successful. We have learned a good deal from it and I believe our American partners have learned a good deal from it.

B: This is our first time in America. The group has learned a lot from Americans and we hope this dialogue will continue and we develop a strong social partnership and that it can seep into other aspects. As a strong developing country, we hope we can link this to other spheres of development. We are also in partnership with the Ghana project which has its basis in this campus.

D: Ghana Education Project and Akwaaba and Frist — these are the student organizations that brought us here and we take this opportunity to extend our thanks to these student bodies and Princeton University as a whole.

Dean Thomas Dunne and Arthur Whitman are the people who brought us here. We have been working for six months for this trip and finally we're here. It's worth it. We learned a great deal from our visit.

P: How often do you travel and perform as a group?

B: In Ghana almost every week. This is our second mission internationally, first one was Denmark.

P: When was your trip to Denmark?

B: 1996, May that is.

P: Besides performing, what else have you been able to do here this week?

B: We've been to New York and we went to the Museum of Modern Art...

D: And Manhattan and Chinatown and we took the subway.

B: We performed there in the subway.

D: And we've interacted with Chapin School. We had a workshop and interacted with the youth there. On www.chapin.org we are the first front page right now.

B: We will be going to Philadelphia tomorrow, we have two performances there tomorrow.

P: How have you enjoyed your visit so far?

B: It's been really fantastic. We were indoors and we have been busy.

D: America is very cold. Where I come from, [this] is very cold. I will say I am very impressed with the response and reaction we've gotten from the youth. They have been very responsive to the need of the endeavor we've taken. But America has so much stuff, its incredible how much food they waste. That's another experience. We've had a wonderful time here and the group has learned a lot. We're doing well.

Who says Westerners can't dance? It's amazing the response and body movements and sense of rhythm in our lessons. We've been impressed it doesn't take long to teach them.