Children Drum Fiesta holds July

Preparations are in top gears for a successful hosting of the 2018 drum workshop for children.

Organised by Children African Drum Experience (CADEX), it is scheduled to hold from July 3 to 14 in Lagos. Time for the daily experience is 10am to 2pm.

CADEX is a platform for engrossing children in varieties of African drumming skills, rich African folktales to be performed stylishly by experts with profound musical accompaniment, poetry, drama and general musical skills.

According to the organisers, the programme becomes invaluable, particularly at a time when Westernisation has almost eroded African traditional values among children.

“The initiators of the programme have realised that children of this generation are becoming too exposed to western knowledge and would want to use this medium to creatively restore them to their African heritage.

It is a way of exposing them to African values and refreshing their minds on what they might have forgotten.

It is about impacting knowledge both in practical terms and in theory,” says Ayo Ajayi, head of organising committee.

The two-week programme aims to instill and groom artistic gifts in children within the age bracket, because often times, regular schools don’t give them such opportunity to express such talents.

It is to enable children express themselves artistically, to improve them in all facets for a more realistic outlook, knowing that life isn’t one way.

“It has been proven over again that children who imbibe musical skills at early age develop sharper intelligence quotient,” says Ms. Idono Onyibe who will serve as music instructor at the event.

Since African stories are known to be highly didactic, the children would have enough moral lessons to learn from the pool of stories drawn from different countries across the continent.