African Awareness Month will climax for most schools this week.

While emphasis is expected to be placed on the wearing of African garb, art and craft, music, story-telling and drama, research and discussions will also feature highly on the programme of activities.

African Awareness Day at Bay Primary is slated for Wednesday, February 24, beginning at 9:00 a.m. This year, the school is partnering with the Barbados Tourism Product Authority to explore the theme of genealogy.

Last term, some age groups were exposed to family trees during Social Studies/Health and Family Life Education, and as a result, the school will mount the creative work of students who developed their own family trees.

They will also showcase, by age groups, elements of indigenous folk heritage such as the stilt walker; Shaggy Bear; Mother Sally and the Green Monkey.??Students will also trace their origins in West Africa. The usual street parade, followed by a mini-concert with invited indigenous characters and dancers, begins at 9:30 a.m. from the school in Bay Gardens, St. Michael.

St. John Primary will host its cultural extravaganza on Thursday, February 25, from 1:00 p.m. There, students will pay tribute in song, dance and drama to black leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, as well as National Hero The Right Excellent Errol Barrow, Obadele Thompson and Jackie Opel. The theme will be: Remembering Our Roots: Then and Now.

At Charles F. Broome Memorial, where the theme is: Appreciating Our African Heritage: The Dream Continues, there will be an Open Day on Friday, February 26, from 9:00 a.m.

Students from Infants A and B will dress in African garb and display work done on black inventors such as Garrett Morgan ??? traffic lights; W. H. Richardson ??? the reversal baby buggy, and I. R. Johnson, the bicycle frame. They will also look at the transatlantic voyage and National Heroes such as Sarah Ann Gill and Bussa.

On that same day, at the nearby Government Hill Nursery School, tiny tots will display their research projects depicting various countries in Africa from 9:00 a.m. This will be under the theme: Celebrating Our Roots: Embracing Our Heritage, and they will perform acrostics and model their African clothing.

Also hosting activities on February 26 is Hindsbury Primary. Students and teachers will model their clothing as they parade under the theme: Our Mirror Image Fashionista: We Rocking It African Style.

The event starts at 9:00 a.m., and will include discussion on African wear by television presenter, Rosemary Alleyne, as well as performances by stilt men and the Barbados Landship.

Meanwhile, at the secondary level, Thursday, February 25, will see Parkinson Memorial hosting their activities from 9:30 a.m. Under the theme: From Africa to the World: A Millennium of Culture, there will be a potpourri of dance from Pinelands Workshop; songs from John King; drumming by male students and an African hair style and dress competition.

The school will also showcase African flags as Head of the Barbados National Trust, Dr. Karl Watson, speaks to students on the given theme.

joy-ann.gill@barbados.gov.bb

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