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Wasafoli Trinidad and Tobago’s upcoming dance and drum show is a landmark for the company in two ways. “Ajuba: Paying Homage to Those Before and After Us” is the fifth African Folk Ballet production put on by the company, and its first major collaboration with performers from the Ijo Vudu Dance Company from Nigeria and Canada.

Wasafoli T&T Manager, Nisha Harding, said the purpose of the show is to highlight authentic forms of dancing and drumming from across the African continent. “Ajuba is a Yoruba word meaning “We Give Praise.” We’d be touching on countries like Nigeria, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mali, South Africa, Ghana, where African ancestors would have practiced their rites of passage or traditional belief systems, etc. The dances and drumming will pay homage to the ancestors who have gone before and those who are to come.”
She said having the dancers and drummers from Ijo Vudu perform in the concert is a first for Wasafoli. The performers will be led by their Director Sani Abdul-Muhammad Allen. Harding said the collaboration came about because Allen was searching for a Caribbean country that practices and promotes African culture in its authentic form and Wasafoli T&T was one of the few companies doing that in the Caribbean. “No other Caribbean country was doing it, I mean they have folk and they may practice one or two African dances and so on, but not in the way that we promote it, so he said he had to come to Trinidad to see what it was about so he came and he visited and we met and he realized it’s more than what he expected.”
She said Allen is revamping the Festival Of African And Caribbean Culture (FESTACC) which has been around since the 1970s and will be launching it in Trinidad in 2018, so Ajuba is also a pre-launch event for the festival.
Harding said Wasafoli’s main mission is to sensitize the population about authentic West African culture. “Most of the African cultural practices which we see in T&T are people’s interpretation of what they are supposed to be and not their truest and purest forms, so we go to these countries or we invite the people from those countries to come here and we do workshops and lectures and whatnot, especially in African dance and drums and we showcase it afterwards. We are trying to maintain the traditional standards and always have correct information from the authentic source for people to be able to access and pass down to the next generation.”
She said the purpose of the show is to show different parts of Africa to the people. “For instance, South African dance is totally different from West African dance. We want to be able to educate people who are looking for that aspect of the African culture, for people to see the diversity in the dance and the drumming and the culture so they can recognize or identify with their ancestors and themselves.”
In addition, there will be two guest performers. “The Trinidad and Tobago Orisha Performing Company TTOPC will be doing an Ifa Orisha interpretation of culture through dance and drum as well, and then we have Pamberi Steel Orchestra who are doing their own musical interpretation, so that’s the gist of what people could take away from the ballet, it’s a night of entertainment as well as information about the entire Africa.”