Africa: Religion, Myth and Music (A Post by C13)

Hi, I am C13,   Claire’s younger twin.   As you may have guessed from previous posts I am a vivacious and fun loving teenager.☺ I am passionate about music, reading, writing and religious studies.  I therefore intend to focus on these passions whilst learning about Africa.

Africa: Religion, Myth and Music

1. Learning to play the bongos: I love music so when Mummy mentioned learning the bongos I jumped at the chance. I am lucky, Daddy knows how to play, meaning I will be able to ask assistance in the case of an emergency!  Also I have found a few free lessons on the web and maybe if I ask very nicely Mummy might buy me the rest of the course which is not free……Mummy?  Daddy?
2. Rewriting the story of Anassi the Spider as a play: I love writing and have a small amount of experience in play writing when I rewrote a scene from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream over the summer.  I will be using this play writing course to help me.
3. Producing the above play as my final project:  I will be using African music, African clothing and African jewellery (which L13 will provide).  I will also be roping in my siblings to help!  Again I will be using elements of this course to guide me.
4. Researching Ancient African myths:  This is an extra I will do if I have time.  It is something I personally wanted to do.  After researching them I will be comparing them with stories from the Bible. I recently did a comparison with the Bible and the Epic of Gilgamesh and I enjoyed it so much I thought I might do something similar with African mythology.  Mummy is not requiring this though, and if I don’t have time it will be left undone!

At the end of my time working I will be putting on a presentation and the aforementioned play.  I am hoping that the play will give the spectators a peek into traditional African culture.

The actual presentation will be focused on the music of Africa, in particular African Bongo Music, and if I have had the time I will also present my findings on African mythology compared to the Bible.

My Personal Goals for this African Project

Through my studies I hope to achieve:

1. A better understanding of African religion.
2. An understanding of African literature.
3. An ability to play an instrument – the Bongos.
4. Experience with writing, producing and acting in a play.

I hope you will follow along with my project and enjoy all I share.