Cheza Nami! (Come play with me)

To many students in the United States, Black History Month is synonymous with topics such as the civil rights and abolitionist movements, as well as exploring the lives of famous African-Americans who have helped shape the country into what it is today.

For Pleasanton-based cultural group Cheza Nami Foundation, the month represents a distinct opportunity to promote diversity and multiculturalism through interactive performances of traditional African music and dance.

Cheza Nami — named for a Swahili phrase meaning “Come play with me” — was founded in 2011 by Pleasanton resident Catherine Ndungu-Case, a Kenyan immigrant who wanted to provide a place for her children to learn about their ancestral home, as well as an outlet for fellow immigrants to share different aspects of African culture with their community.

“The whole idea was to have this kind of playful approach to exploring something sort of foreign,” Ndungu-Case told the Weekly. “So the main focus for us is to continue to be representative of our background, of our cultures, but to also contribute in a way that can be enriching and can make the community that we live in more vibrant.”

To achieve these goals, the group travels to schools and theaters throughout the Bay Area year-round for musical and dance performances where audience participation is not just welcome but enthusiastically encouraged.

The Cheza Nami dance ensemble itself is made up of artists who originate from all over the world, including Brazil, Congo, Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Zimbabwe.

Ensemble members — who are contracted through Cheza Nami’s volunteer administrative team — will practice together and work collaboratively to blend each performer’s unique cultural style into a group performance.

Using the talents of multiple artists found throughout the Bay Area who possess a diverse variety of backgrounds and talents, the group fuses together a large variety of African dance and music to create a new experience — while still practicing and preserving ancestral customs.

“We are creating new dances, we are creating new movements and we’re calling it sometimes it’s our fusion of cultures,” Ndungu-Case said.

“If you think about how the African-American community and the origins, many of them came from different countries in Africa and came here through slavery. But in a place where they don’t know each other, they can’t speak the same language, they don’t eat the same foods, and somehow this beautiful culture came out of that that has beautiful music. Think about jazz, at its roots that has beautiful dance,” she added.

While dances created by people of African-American descent may not be the exact same as those made in Africa, they all have the same roots, according to Ndungu-Case.

“Together we can appreciate the differences and bring that music together into say a 90-minute piece that shows really how diverse people can find a common song or common dance,” she said.

Performances provide these artists the opportunity to share their cultures and passions with the community, giving residents the opportunity to experience a truly authentic demonstration of the many different facets of African culture.

“I love to work with people from different countries,” said Ibou Ngom, musical director and performer at Cheza Nami. “They are all family and we love to share our own country with the students and play with them … (It takes) lots of practice to make it work, but we’re all professional. They are the best.”

Interactive, play-based learning is a key tenant of Cheza Nami. During performances, artists will bring audience members on stage to receive a hands-on lesson in drumming or dancing, and will intermittently teach audience members certain words from various African languages — there are estimated to be more than 1,000 languages spoken in Africa.

“Bringing the idea of African dance and culture to a non-African country, I wanted it to be very clear that we want to make a fun approach to education, but we don’t want to take out the idea that we also want to educate the community,” Ndungu-Case said.

Since much of African culture has been carried down through an oral tradition, Ndungu-Case added that traditions can be lost as immigrants assimilate to their new homes, and that this interactive approach to education offers the performers the chance to preserve parts of their own cultural heritage.

The opportunity to explore this interactive education is heightened during February, when Black History Month has schools and community members feeling particularly interested in learning about cultural diversity.

“We get very busy,” Cheza Nami principal artist Mandjpu Kone said.

“It’s a special month because not many people know about Africa, especially in the western world. So for us to present our culture, it means a lot to us. It’s not just that they tell the kids that Africa is just elephants and giraffes, right?” she laughed. “Doing this shows the rich culture that we have. It is very important for me to teach the kids.”

Ndungu-Case added that she is often approached by schools and other organizations to speak at events around African-American History Month — what she calls “multicultural or diversity season” — but often struggles to find her place in that context.

“I know my African culture and I can be able to represent that with a lot of confidence because it’s innate to me. But then, how do I put that into the African-American struggle, which I haven’t experienced having not grown up here?” she said. “And I want to be part of that conversation and I want to learn because for me equally as much as I want people to learn about me, I also want to learn about them.”

Ndungu-Case also said Cheza Nami takes advantage of this time of the year to open up a dialogue about the diversity of black people, saying that there are African-Americans whose ancestors historically came to the United States as a result of slavery, and a whole generation of people who emigrated from the many different countries found throughout Africa.

“We have one month where we can really focus on doing a deep dive. I think it should be something that is ongoing; you know, not just one month,” she added.

Residents interested in viewing a Cheza Nami performance in person can mark their calendars for the first Saturday in October when its A Taste of Africa festival returns to the Bankhead Theater in downtown Livermore.

At the annual event, Cheza Nami artists will be given a platform to perform pieces from their specific country alongside their individual groups that they work with year-round.

A festival unlike any other in the Tri-Valley, A Taste of Africa is a free family-friendly event that in addition to the dances and music found on the continent of Africa features an African Gojo hut exhibit, a reading library, face painting, photo booth and a variety of activities for kids.

Residents can learn more about the Cheza Nami Foundation and track upcoming events online at www.chezanami.org.

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