Message from My Brothers

To my great suprise, I received an email from Black Eagle at the Judamy Dance Academy in Busua, Ghana. They have forwarded these photos showing a recent performace at a resort hotel in Busua.

Busua Stone Village

The old hippy haunt of Busua is a spot for welcome relief along the western coast of Ghana. Busua is a seaside village with a relaxed atmosphere, seafood and of course the calming effect of the ocean.


Two young men established the Busua Juadamy Primary School Dance Academy in March of 2004. They provide training and inspiration to young locals, and entertainment to travellers.

The group consists of boy and girl dancers and drummers. They belt out a rhythm on those African drums, and the girls gyrate and shuffle to the traditional African beat of ancient dances!

The artistic directors, Nii Loko and Black Eagle tell me the group can perform up to 125 different dances gleaned from all over the African continent.


They've both worked with a range of performance companies, including the Ghana National Theatre and the University of Ghana.

With the infectious rhythm to accompany the dancing, the performance it's a cultural explosion and it is impossible not to feel deep in your soul.


About 100 young kids were just looking on, enjoying the entertainment.






Black Eagle and Nii Loko have started this company

with the aim of protecting and enhancing the cultural traditions of their local area and Africa generally but they have also given some purpose and activity to the young people in the village.

Tourism is the mainstay enterprise here after agriculture, so they're also trying
their hand at being entrepreneurial as well by selling their performances to tourists and teaching these musical and performance skills to those willing to give it a go.


Since they are a new performance company they are still struggling to get costumes and other equipment together. Remember that 80 percent of the local kids here are illiterate and can't go to school because their families can't or won't pay the US$2.50 annual school fees, so they need some support.

Feeling inspired? Visit Busua, and give them your support,


or contact them directly:

Attn: Black Eagle / Nii Loko
Busua Juadamy Primary School Dance Academy
PO Box 4
Busua via Dixcove
W.R. Ghana.

They already make their own drums and batik shirts, but told me that just about anything would help, including a chainsaw and wood carving tools to help them make more drums!

The Stone Village is their own performance space at the end of the beach in Busua.




This is a space that has been carved out of some rugged beachfront bush by this group of very hard-working men. They have for drumming and dance lessons for visiting tourists and were great hosts, climbing up trees to fetch fresh coconuts and bananas.

We gave Black Eagle 40,000 cedi - about $4 - to prepare us dinner the night before the solar eclipse of March 29, 2006.

When we returned for dinner, we were shocked at the huge servings of wonderful Ghanian food. Nii Loko had prepared an amazing feast and served it up by candlelight right on the beach! Could there have possibly been a better way to spend the night before the eclipse?

It was truly refreshing to see some initiative and enterprise in a country where many (men) will simply put their hand out.

I say good luck to them, and they certainly are worth seeing if you're in this area of Ghana.

In the beginning
These guys obtained some awful scrub land at the end of the beach. They have worked so very hard to create a wonderful performance, dining and entertainment space.


These are some photographs that they placed in my care to scan and upload. These are original photos of their space when they were starting this enterprise.

Thanks to Martin Corben of the Australian Broadcast Corporation who wrote most of this text and contributed some of the photos (http://www.abc.net.au/northcoast/features/wheresmartin.htm).

I hope we have been able to convince you to visit the Stone Village at Busua in Ghana.