Children bring music from Africa

DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas (KXAN) - The cafeteria at Walnut Springs Elementary in Dripping Springs was full of loud drumming.  The African Children's Choir was on stage performing and more than 100 third, fourth and fifth grade students who attend school at Walnut Springs have their hands out on the lunchroom tables banging the beat. 

The rhythm united these children who live on two different sides of the globe. The African Children's Choir has come to Texas to sing and dance at various events in and around Austin, and the stop at the Dripping Springs school was all about education. The teachers in this case are 13 children from Uganda between the ages of 8 and 11.

The African Children's Choir members like to think of themselves as ambassadors for Africa's most vulnerable children. Most of the choir members have lost one or both parents. They now live most of the time in a boarding school in Uganda where they go to school and also learn music that they take on the road all over the world. They sing, dance and tell audiences about their lives back in Uganda and raise money to support the network of schools in Africa.

The group runs boarding schools that support about 8,000 children in seven different countries in Africa. Children have to audition to be in the touring choirs that have traveled the world for 26 years.

"We see the pictures of African children on television," said international choir operations director Julia Barnett Tracy. "Sometimes they're emaciated, and really when they're able to come to the schools they're able to show how much potential and how much beauty the dignity the African child has and how much they have to teach us."

In between singing and dancing, the choir members told the Texas children about life in Uganda. There was laughter when the members said they take baths outside and showed how they carry buckets of water on their heads. The cultural lesson is eye-opening for many of the Texas children. Some are just learning where Africa is on a map.

"It's really close to Asia," said fourth grader Max Mora. "It's pretty close to Asia."

"I do dance classes after school," said third grader Aimee Brownson-Welch. "They're not like that."

Nine-year-old choir member Deborah flashed a big smile during the entire performance and in an interview. Her grandmother heard about the choir and knew it could be the chance for Deborah to get an education never heard of in their small Ugandan village. Now with every stop on the American tour, her world keeps growing.

"I like America, because the people are very nice and friendly," said 9-year-old Deborah. "I like American dogs. They're so friendly. American dogs are tame, but Ugandan dogs are very, very wild. I like Texas, because it has many fun things like swimming and ferris wheels."

Many of the choir staff members and volunteers are former choir members who benefitted from the education. 

"Growing up I lost my parents at the age of 5, and my grandmother raised me up with 14 other siblings," said former choir member John Paul Sekajja.

Sekajja sang with the choir when he was young and now has a chemistry and math degree that he hopes to use in the medical field. However in the meantime, he travels with the choir and works with the children. He said the work feeds him physically and spiritually.

"One of my boys that I worked with in Kenya was basically thrown out into the garbage by his mother," said Barnett Tracy. "He came into our home. We took care of him. He went on tour, and he is a nightly news anchor in Nairobi today."

Their rhythms may take them all over the globe, but the children were quick to tell of their plans to go home to Africa and make it better for children who come after them.

Texas tunes into Africa

The African Children's Choir will perform at a benefit at the Nutty Brown Cafe at 12225 W. Highway 290 on March 23 at 6:30 p.m. Other bands will also take part, like Sara Hickman, Guy Forsyth, Kacy Crowley and others. The event is hosted by actors Connie Britton and Taylor Kitsch from NBC's "Friday Night Lights."

Tickets are available at Waterloo Records and on the choir's website .