African American History Month Teaches Tradition Through Music

This February, Albemarle students and teachers celebrate African American History Month through the rhythm of music.

On Feb. 13, drummer William “Whit” Whitten from Charlottesville’s premiere African dance group, Chihamba, visited band director Greg Thomas’ percussion class. He demonstrated hand-drumming techniques and explained the role of the African drum in traditional African dance.

“The music world is so varied, and hand-drumming is a very vibrant and social phenomenon. It originated as a way of communicating and celebrating, and drumming in traditional African culture is a central part of every ceremony,” Thomas said.

“I think when people started to become aware of that and they experience the power of different culture in that way, it’s groovy. Also, [the music is] super fun to listen to and super danceable.”

Thomas says that African drumming serves “as sort of a grandparent of a lot of the percussion music we have in America” and that “it eventually morphed into blues, jazz, R&B, soul music, rap music, pop music, and basically every musical form we have in America.”

During CHAT this past week, students got to make their own drums in the media center in preparation for Chihamba’s appearance on Feb. 25.

“I think that this year we’re connecting African American History Month more to the origins in Africa and more to people of African descent, because in our school not only do we have African American students, we actually have students from Africa, who have immigrated to the United States,” ESOL and Ethnic Studies teacher Leilani Keys said.

Chihamba will be performing during CHAT in the media center next week, and Keys says it is amazing way for students to connect with the artistic and musical history of Africa.

Thomas has two reasons why all students should go see Chihamba perform: “One it’s awesome, it’s great fun to look at, the dancing is incredibly athletic and infectious. It’s all groove based, so anybody who likes groove based music has just got to be there,” Thomas said.

His second reason: “Anytime you’re opening your eyes to culture, your culture, or any culture that affects you, you become a broader, more worldly person. Music like this destroys barriers, and we are a society of barriers.”

Keys’ Ethnic Studies class is also planning to educate students by making a video for the announcements that will play at the end of February.

“The [Ethnic Studies] students, for the video, have started to focus on what people have not learned in U.S. History class, so that [the video has] interesting pieces of African American history that aren’t generally taught in our regular curriculum, but are still very important to understanding the history of America,” Keys said.

“Sometimes the U.S. History teachers just don’t have time to cover it because the standards don’t focus on African American history, yet African American people built this country, and we need to remember that, especially in this area that we live in.”

This story has been updated on Feb. 17 to correct the date of Chihamba’s upcoming performance at Albemarle. The group will now be at Albemarle on Feb. 25 during CHAT in the media center.