Bizung School of Music and Dance

Guitar Workshop at the Bizung School

by Matt Wasowski

In all my years as a musician and teacher, I have never seen an entrance like that of the students at the Bizung School of Music and Dance.  While the rest of us prepared the performance space at the Youth Home and Cultural Center, setting up microphones and dialing the console, a driver had been sent to bring these young musicians across Tamale for their show.  About twenty minutes before the concert was set to begin, we began to hear the drums.  As the sound got closer, voices began appearing on the sonic landscape and soon, the students appeared about a hundred yards down the road.  They had been drumming and singing all the way from the school to the venue.  We could hear them coming from nearly half a mile away! 

This moment encapsulates my time at the Bizung School of Music and Dance so perfectly.  There is a hunger, passion and energy for learning that makes teaching a joy.  And that passion is reaching out into the greater community and touching the people of Tamale, Ghana.  You can feel this as soon as you set foot on the grounds at Norrip Village.  The sense of community is powerful as students show up early and leave late, establishing the school as an important social center as well as a place to study music and dance.  The sense of ownership is evidenced in how students eagerly set up for the afternoon classes by moving  instruments to the daily learning space, whether it be in the classroom or under the gigantic mango trees next to the school.  The sense of pride and respect emanate as students clean the school and rush to the car to help carry the guitars that had been restrung the night before.  The learning at the Bizung School is arts-based but it is reaching beyond that, encouraging all of the kids to be great human beings as well as great drummers, dancers, singers and guitarists.

More photos from Matt's workshop at the school are viewable on our Flickr page

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