A Very “Unique” High School

November 7, 2011 · Filed under General

Sargent Shriver once said, “Peace requires the simple but powerful recognition that what we have in common as human beings is more important and crucial than what divides us.”

I was recently invited to a small party/talent show at Unique High School, in my local town council, that brought this message home in a small way.  What proceeded was a series of somewhat absurd, definitely hormone-rific lip-syncs to songs such as “Golddigger”, “Love in This Club”, and one particularly moving rendition of “Baby, Baby” by Justin Bieber. At first I was a little weirded out by the sexy dancing and clothing choices (boys, pull your pants up! girls, are you wearing pants??) before I realized that…..they’re teenagers.  This is the same stuff that made up our talent shows.  Talent shows are unique platforms for pushing limits with your teachers and impressing your friends, showing off skills otherwise hidden inside.  And they DID have skills.  Skillz, if I may say.  Ugandan teenage hips are…flexible. 

Then there was one slightly frightening poem that I might have labeled “Down With Whitey” but that was focused on African pride and a return to African culture.  Though this included a call for women to return to the tradition of going to the bush to get their vaginal lips enlarged…overall it was a very bold and emotional appeal to her fellow African youth.  Very bold.

But finally, things got untraditional.  Or traditional, you might say, to be confusing but also correct.  The kids pulled out some AMAZING traditional dances, from two different tribes- the Banyankore and the Banyaruguru.  Now the only thing making my heartache was just how much more beauty and talent and heart was in these traditional dances than the lame crotch-grabbing involved in miming an Usher song.  Kids will be kids (I can say this as a mature 25-year-old), but it’s such a unique time to see the way Africa is changing.  These teens fight an everyday battle between new and old, traditional and modern, in their schools and their families.  I only hope that a little of both can survive together, or that they create something new!  And despite all of our faults…. Let Whitey Live!

Some things are universal..... though it was fun that one of the boys started with a red jacket that said "Steelworkers of America"

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Baby, Baby, Baby. Won't you be minnnne. Okay I really don't know Justin Bieber that well...

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These were the only photos I could take before the whole room became too dusty to take good photos--they were dancing THAT hard, barefoot in the dusty room

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The traditional dancing/music was so fun, however, if you play a wooden flute in an American HS talent show, you're gonna get beat up

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I don't know what would happen at an American HS if you showed up wearing the pelt of a colobus monkey.

 

 

Way more passionate than bobbing their heads to "Golddigger"