Sports Week Howard, Crawford | faring well in ACC ? ? ? ? Watson leads Demons' girls JV C9 See B1 t^^sm tob See CI Community _ Duke center named for Franklin ? ? ? ? Male choirs make joyful noise 75 cents W I NSTO N-S A L F. M GKFENSBOKO H IG H POINT ' Vol. XXVII No. 23 i5C ??" CAR-BT-LOT " *C012 TT ^ ~t FORSYTH CNTY PUB LIB ? J M WM M B I ? i 660 W 5TH ST # Q I I I I I not to t>e taKen WIHSTON SALEM NC 27J^27^j? Bj B B tUfchoice for African American News ,rorn ,h'* "t>ra,y Photos by Kevin Walker Griot Kwabena Dinixulu tells African-based tales to a group of youngsters. A Griot's Tale Ibraham students get one-man variety show to kick off Black History Month BY I KEVIN WALKER Mil CHRONICLE Kwabena Dinizulu spends most of the year traveling to schools and community centers all over the country. Adorned in; bright African clothes with his conga drum never far away, Dinizutu is like a one-man play, colorfully acting out stories and reciting poems that have underly ing moral themes. As a full-time poet and griot (African storyteller or historian), he works frequently, but his phone rings incessantly during February. National Black History Month. Dinizulu is no stranger to schoolchildren here. He has been a guest at several schools. Last week, he kicked off the first day of Black History Month with several lively performances at Ibraham Elementary School. He taught the youngsters basic Swahili words, first say ing them in syntax and then asking them to repeat them. He explained to stu dents the importance of the story telling in African culture, telling them that a good story to Africans is like medicine. "We believe a story told to us...will make our souls better." he said. Though not bom in the moth erland, Dinizulu received cultural enlightenment from the time he was a little boy growing up in Students at Ibraham Elementary School respond with laughter to Dinizulu's actions. The griot per formed for all grades at the school last week. Harlem. His parents were very much involved in "the movement." People like Malcolm X were fre quent guests at his house as a child. Dinizula has crafted his abil ity to bring stories to life over the last' 15 years, first by participating in open-mike poetry events, then graduating into storytelling. He had Ibraham students rolling in the aisles as with his overexaggerated facial expressions and wide range of voices. Dinizula shared with them a story about a woodsman who acci dentally drops his makeshift ax into a river and prays to the gods that it be retrieved. The gods answer, but first put the man to the test. He is presented with a silver ax from the bottom of river. The woodsman is tempted to accept it. but his conscience kicks in and he admits that it's not the ax he lost. The woodsman is then presented with a gold ax, but again, he admits that it is not his ax. The Woodsman is paid for his honesty in the end, and is given both axes as well as the one he lost. "There is a moral to this story," Dinizulu said td) his Indian-style seated audience. "The moral begins with one word honesty." The students, in unison, finished the moral "is the best policy." Dinizulu also told a story about a beautiful African Village St't Griot