Black History Month Events at Eckerd College Celebrate Tradition and Freedom
Eckerd College is proud to announce its celebratory events for Black History Month. Both events are free and open to the public. Fox Hall and Dendy-McNair Auditorium are located on the Eckerd College campus at 4200 54th Avenue South in St. Petersburg. Call the Office of Communications at (727) 864-7979 for more information.
Traditional Music and Dance of Ghana
Obo Addy, master drummer
Monday, February 9, 7:00 p.m., Fox Hall
Obo Addy has a 20-year presence on the international performing arts scene and has become known for his ability to celebrate past traditions while expanding to embrace new ideas and foreign influences. His musical background is a combination of the rigorous standards of ritual music he learned from his father, a Wonce Priest, with the flashy international pop music he performed as a young professional with big bands in Accra, Ghana. Internationally, Obo Addy's contribution can be measured by the fact that he is one of the key originators of the seminal musical movement now known as "Worldbeat."
Obo Addy serves as the artistic director of Homowo African Arts and Cultures (Oregon). His Okropong ensemble (Okropong meaning "eagle" in Obo Addy's native Ga language) performs traditional Ghanaian dance and music chosen from the various ethnic cultures in Ghana, including Ga, Ewe, Ashanti, Dagomba and Dagarti. Using a variety of hand and stick drums, talking drums, bells and shakers, the musicians build layers of driving rhythms while the dancers, clad in colorful West African garments, engage in an energetic physical "conversation" with the drummers.
In 1992, Obo Addy was commissioned by the classical music rebels, Kronos Quartet, to compose "Wawshishijay" for their chart-topping album Pieces of Africa. Four years later, he became the first African-born artist to receive the National Heritage Fellowship Award by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor a traditional artist can receive in this country.
Escape from Slavery: My Journey to Freedom in America
Francis Bok, abolitionist
Tuesday, February 24, 7:00 p.m., Dendy-McNair Auditorium
*A Phi Beta Kappa chapter installation event
Francis Bok is a 23-year old native of Southern Sudan. At the age of seven, he was captured and enslaved during an Arab militia raid on the village of Nymlal (outside Aweil) on May 5, 1986. For ten years, he lived as the family slave to Giema Abdullah, forced to sleep with cattle, endure daily beatings and eat terrible food. Always called "abeed" (black slave), Bok was given an Arabic name - Dut Giema Abdullah - and forced to perform Islamic prayers.
In December 1996, Bok escaped to the nearby town of Matari, where he was enslaved by local policemen for two months. With the help of an Arab truck driver, Bok eventually escaped to Khartoum, the capital city. There, Bok was arrested by the security forces and jailed for seven months. After his release, Bok escaped to Cairo. In 1999, the United Nations resettled him in North Dakota. Bok is now an Associate at the American Anti-Slavery Group in Boston.
Francis Bok has spoken alongside Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Boston Freedom Award ceremony. In September 2000, Bok became the first escaped slave to testify before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in hearings on Sudan that were broadcast live on C-Span.
Bok has been featured in The Boston Globe, the Christian Science Monitor and dozens of other newspapers, and has appeared on numerous radio and television shows, including Black Entertainment Television. His autobiography, Escape from Slavery: The True Story of My Ten Years in Captivity - and My Journey to Freedom in America, was published in October 2003.
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