The beautiful African voices could be heard loud and clear, as an exciting new era dawns. The Woodville High School and Adelaide Secondary School of English, in South Australia, have joined forces to form a new children’s choir known as Uhuru Voices ("Uhuru" means "Freedom" in Swahili).
The choir is made up of the recently-arrived teenage refugees from the Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia.
The Woodville High School is also planning a trip to Tanzania in 2009.
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The Gentle Neophyte
16 years ago
1 comment:
I am enthused to see that this sort of information can be given in a blog. It is uplifting that these stories can be accessed so quickly through the internet.
It is postive to learn about the initiative of setting up a "Children's Choir." One of the sad parts about a culture having to be relocated in another country is that the reeds and grass of the culture are often torn from the seabed of their homeland which supported the continued growth of their culture.
To discover that a school has set up a choir which will carries a Swahili name is positive. It can certainly be envisaged that some of the traditional songs may be sang in the future. It means that the language will be preserved. This is vital in terms of allowing younger people to retain a link back to their parents and ancestors.
When young people are able to continue to use their language it provides them with a form of resistance to the potential denigration of their where they need one. The fact that this initiative involves teenage refugees from Sudan, Rwanda, Sierra, Leone and Ethiopia means that these cultures can perhaps share their cultures. If such a process takes place then the coming generations can look forward to cultures which encompass the positive aspects of various backgrounds.
One of the benefits of using a blog to provide this information to the public. Is that the project can receive attention much faster than it otherwise would have. This is also encouraging to similar community groups who may have entertained the idea of carrying out a similar project.
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