ISHANGI DANCERS TEACH CULTURE WHILE DISPELLING AFRICAN MYTHS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, March 11, 1993                   TAG: 9303110466
SECTION: NEIGHBORS                    PAGE: S-4   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: MELANIE S. HATTER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ISHANGI DANCERS TEACH CULTURE WHILE DISPELLING AFRICAN MYTHS
Do you live in trees? Do you eat people? Do you live with lions?
Baba Ishangi has heard the same questions from both black and white people throughout the 30 years he and his family have performed around the world.
These are myths many people believe to be true of Africans.
The Ishangi family of Ghana, West Africa, performed "A Journey to Africa" last week at Patrick Henry High School.
The one-to two-hour show is an introduction to African life through music, dancing, singing and story-telling. Many myths, such as cannibalism, about Africans are dispelled.
People don't look good enough to eat, Ishangi said to the audience jokingly. "They talk about us, and then the man in Milwaukee eats all those people."
Baba Ishangi, 58, performs with his wife, six daughters, a son and 1-year-old grandson. All take turns playing the drums and dancing while the youngest watches and learns his people's traditions.
"This is African life," Ishangi said. "How we celebrate God and our every day activities. We speak through music."
The dances are passed through generations like history books. Each move has a different meaning, such as harvesting the land, giving birth and reaching for dreams. The children crouch to their father as they dance to show respect to their elder.
The Ishangis promote a greater awareness and understanding of the African culture: a strong family and community, Ishangi said.
"In this country people hardly stay married six months." People's values are hindered by their choices, he said. "If married, it's their choice to be close or not, to make their family a priority or the Mercedes Benz most important.
"Beautiful children and a wife is a better testimony to my manhood than any vehicle," he said.
Ishangi believes the increasing violence in American society is rooted in the country being founded on the massacre of American Indians, he said.
As a result, "mass murder is nothing uncommon," Ishangi said. "What's amazing to me is that the Western mind doesn't see this. People say they don't know why [people turn to violence.]"
"I don't understand the Western mind . . . the endangered species is a decent human being."
In 1980, the Ishangi family was awarded the United Nations World Peace Medal for outstanding work in the arts and furthering the understanding of the importance of culture.
Their message is simple: "Global peace and harmony and to protect our home, planet Earth," Ishangi said.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB