The 460 people who packed Springwood High School hall to see Ubuntu on Friday, May 20 made the Blue Mountains-Penrith region the biggest fundraiser so far in this year’s African Children’s Choir Australian tour.
The performances — in Lawson, Katoomba and Penrith, as well as Springwood — raised more than $22,000 for education in Africa.
The shows surprised even local organisers with their careful balance of spectacular athleticism, pitch-perfect harmony, a cappella groove, thunderous drumming, and delicate melody from traditional instruments.
To that complex mix Ubuntu added touches of humour and a lot of engaging pathos.
“I’m Amanda from Uganda!” declared one of the African Children’s Choir graduates, pausing as the inevitable giggles rippled through the hall.
Then Amanda Rachael said she was studying international governance at university and aimed to become the kind of leader who would help build peace and prosperity in her continent.
Ntege Kenneth said he would be an engineer and wanted to bring the Opera House and Harbour Bridge to Africa.
He was a small child when his father died of AIDS. “I was no longer my mother’s son; I became her brother,” he said. Without the African Children’s Choir, he might have been trapped in a life of poverty and crime.
The shows were musical theatre, African style. They included several costume changes for dances from Uganda and Kenya, where Ubuntu members come from, as well as Rwanda and South Africa, where the African Children’s Choir also works.
Hands, Heart and Feet’s powerful drum and dance performance at Springwood High School included some on-stage audience participation that delighted everyone in the hall, setting the mood for an evening of fun and optimism.
Rhythms Stix joined Hands, Heart and Feet to set up African drums for the audience to use at Ubuntu’s workshop in Lawson Public School hall, as they have done for previous African Children’s Choir tours.
Support acts by host choir Crowd Around, the Mudlarks women’s choir and the remarkably polished choir from Nepean Creative and Performing Arts High School, the Vocal Company, were valued local contributions to Ubuntu’s Blue Mountains-Penrith tour.
African tour leaders said their performers have larger audiences in Australia when local support acts come on board.