David Donkor leaped onto the cabinet on the side of the room, his face full of emotion to show wonder one minute and happiness the next as he flapped his arms up and down as though he was flying.
This performance was part of an African folk tale Donkor told along with Praise Zenenga on Saturday night at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Community Outreach Theatre in the Noyes Cultural Arts Center, 927 Noyes St. About 40 people attended “Melande: Linking African Diasporas Through Poetry, Music, Song and Dance,” the center’s final Black History Month event.
The night was an interactive experience, as performers encouraged audience members to sing parts of two different songs.
Donkor and Zenenga, both Northwestern graduate students, performed in and directed the show. The production blended lessons of various African migrations through folk tales, drumming, poetry, music and narratives of their personal experiences.
Donkor, a native of Ghana, shared his life story with the audience. He was born the sixth of seven boys in his family and moved to Ghana’s capital city at age 3. His parents instilled in him at a young age a cultural identity that has proven strong despite the distance Donkor has traveled to study, he said. He first attended the University of Minnesota and now is a performance studies doctoral candidate at NU.
“I’ve been traveling for some time now, and from what I can tell, I still have a long way to go,” Donkor said. “The lessons we learn at home can help us when we travel. Sometimes the only way home is to leave home.”
Although the show was the final Black History Month event sponsored by Fleetwood-Jourdain, Program Manager Betsy Jenkins said she hopes that issues raised during the month remain at the forefront of students’ interests for the remainder of the year.
Music has played an integral role in Donkor’s life, and he said he always has taken his guitar everywhere he has traveled.
“It helps me carry the things I can’t carry in a suitcase … my stories, my songs, my laughter, my tears, my memories,” he said.
Zimbabwe native Zenenga said coming from communal cultures helped both Donkor and him share their personal experiences, and the performance allowed them to celebrate their cultural traditions.
Donkor also expressed the duo’s desire to relate their personal stories to others.
“We are looking for a sense of connection, a shared experience,” Donkor said. “We wanted to give a part of us.”
Jenkins called Donkor and Zenenga “storytellers” and said she thought Donkor’s reflections about family life and growing up with so many siblings accurately portrayed the unity of black families.
“That’s what black families are about,” Jenkins said. “It’s about that wholesome looking-out-for-each-other (feeling).”
After the performance, audience members were able to speak with both Donkor and Zenenga at a reception.
Evanston resident Schona Buranda, chairwoman of the Evanston Human Relations Commission, said she enjoyed the show.
“It was just masterfully done,” she said. “They really merged cultures and bridged the gap.”
Buranda, who lived in South Africa during her youth and returned three weeks ago from a six-week trip to Zimbabwe, said the program reminded her of personal experiences she had while growing up.
“It took me back,” she said. “I felt a sense of nostalgia. It did provoke me to think more of my life. This sort of metaphorically resonated with my own experience.”
