MONROVIA – The 13th anniversary of the Liberian School of Arts and Dance (SLAD), founded on October 1, 2007, was celebrated on Saturday, October 31, 2020.
Report by Samuel G. Dweh, Freelance Journalist
The place for the celebration was a community named Point-Four, a suburb of a Town named New Kru Town, about fifty miles from Liberia’s capital.
“We’re celebrating SLAD’s 13th birthday thirty days behind time, due to financial problems that had been with us in a long period,” the Organization’s Founder/Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Emmanuel B. Lavela, explained to me. “However, we organized a training Workshop on the main celebration day: October 1,” he added.
Founded on Ghana’s refugee camp, SLAD focuses on four areas as platforms of nationbuilding: Traditional Dance, African Dance and Drumming, Arts & Craft, and Drama.
The major preparation phase was collection of cultural costumes and other materials, done at the residence of SLAD’s Director, Joseph G. Tapson, at 8am, in a section of Point-Four named “Florida”
“We told all members of the junior dancers’ group to come in plain white T-shirt, but you came in another kind of white,” SLAD’s Director of Training, Jericho C. Toblah, complained on a Lacoste T-shirt on a male member in an assembly of fifteen male and female under-18 here for Parade—the first activity of the celebration. Jericho was removing cultural costumes in a rubber bag and setting them into pairs on the floor. A total of twelve drums—made from animal skin and hallowed wood—were two yards away from the costumes bag.
“Maybe he couldn’t get the right white T-shirt,” a male adult member, in green shirt defended the junior member.
For the 17th celebration attire, everybody wore a Jeans trouser, but each adult member was in green T-shirt.
An opened SLAD’s official Register on the floor beside a costumes bag gave information about various categories of stage performances: “Acrobatic Dance”, “Bassa Dance”, “Krahn Dances”, and “Ballet Dance”. A total of 28 names were under all the dance categories.
Training Director Jericho complained about an important cultural item absent in the costumes bag: “The gamble seeds for the dancers are not enough to cover the total number of females for the parade,” he announced, referring to cowry shells (called “gamble seeds” in Liberia) tied on a rubber band to be worn around a dancer’s head.
When message about assemblage for parade came out, two adult members made different cautionary remarks.
“When you are dancing on stage, smile throughout. Frowning will cause our guests’ loss of interest in your performance, and this will spoil SLAD’s public image,” Mary Weah, a member of SLAD’s adult dancers’ group, reminded the junior dancers.
“We will pull out of the parade line anybody who misbehaved and punish that person after the program,” SLAD’s Director issued a cautionary warning.
Parade started at 1:00pm—instead of “12:00pm” stated in the official communication sent to guests.
The procession was led by two masked dancers symbolizing traditional leadership. The first, in green-and-white costume, named “Gbaingbey” (popularly called “Gio devil” by most Liberians) of the Gio ethnic group of Nimba County, situated at North-East Liberia. It was over eight feet tall, made possible by each leg resting on a wooden leg. The other, in red-white-blue attire, named “Nafelay”, of the Vai ethnic group of Grand Cape County, followed.
Each danced to sounds of drums and metal trumpets.
Behind of the group of masked dancers, drummers and trumpeters was a line of kids (under-9) including Choice Tapson, Bill Wilson, and Dorcas Washington. The trio was a symbolic representation of SLAD’s ‘nursery unit’—being trained to replace retired or dead adults.
The cultural procession went through the Point-Four’s main street and ended at 1:45pm at the chosen venue for the in-door program.
Giving the Brief History of SLAD, after drumming performance, as “Introduction” of the program, CEO Emmanuel Lavela said the institution was founded on his vision of culturally entertaining residents of and visitors at Ghana’s refugee camp.
A short period later, he met a white Arts and Culture teacher married to a Malian, who became SLAD’s first foreign supporter.
“Back in my Country, Liberia, I said to myself: ‘If I can succeed on cultural education on a refugee camp, why can’t I do the same here?’” the SLAD founder said.
Currently SLAD’s presence is in one tertiary institution—African Methodist Episcopal (AME) University—and several High Schools, Mr. Lavela disclosed.
He, however, lamented on financial constraints, which, he disclosed, have been hampering many of SLAD’s cultural education of Liberia.
He concluded with appealing for financial support from the general Liberian populace and International Arts and Culture promotion Organization.
The Guest Speaker of the occasion, Ms. Rose Kingston, narrated her personal stories challenges and successes in the cultural dance business.
“I was nine years old, in 1990, when I learnt cultural dancing on Ghana’s refugee camp,” the Guest Speaker began her personal story. “One of my parents used to tell me dancing is for street people. When I was in school in America, I earned ‘F’ in each of the academic subjects, but I always made ‘A’ in Performing Arts as a separate Course in the school I was in.”
On success stories of her chosen profession, she declared: “Dancing took me around the World and built house for me.”
Ms. Kingston, who earned degree in Performing Arts, is now the proprietress of Josephine Clark Academy, a Ballet Dance-teaching school,
She pledged US$300 to SLAD for the sustainability of its cultural education programs.
During Remarks segment of the occasion, the president of the Liberia National Tourism Association (LINTA), Mrs. Mai-Bright Urey, praised Emmanuel B. Lavela for carrying on his refugee camp-born vision over a decade.
She appealed to parents to support their children’s love “cultural dance”, adding it is among nation-building activities.
“My Institution will support SLAD’s programs with five hundred United States dollars,” declared the LINTA leader, wife of Mr. Benoni Urey, founder of All Liberian Party (ALP), a popular political organization in Liberia’s political arena.
Other SLAD’s partners made remarks, concluded with cash contribution or pledges.
One of SLAD’s partners, A Dya Zu zu (pronounced Ai Jia Zu zu—with accent over the ‘A’ and ‘U’ in the original spellings), was represented by Mr. James Dwalu, former president of the Liberia Association of Writers (LAW)
The occasion had Fundraising Rally component, coordinated by Mr. Eddie Gibson—Filmmaker and former president of the Liberia Movie Union.
The 13th anniversary celebration was spiced with various traditional dances and acrobatic displays by SLAD and its institutional partners, as well as cultural dances and comedy by soloists.
SLAD’s trainers to schools were honored with certificates.