Going on safari with SAFE BASE

SAFE BASE students visited the safari museum in small groups this week. This was the first week of the summer program. Each week features educational activities from 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday with a field trip on Thursdays. Students can still sign up.

June 4, 2021 - 1:35 PM

Fourth-graders look at a museum exhibit of native Africans dressed as antelope for a ceremonial dance at the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum in Chanute. Clockwise, front, Alicia Rodriguez, Karen Glukowsky, Brealynn Andres, Dominic Richards and Faith Warden in back.

CHANUTE — In Africa, interpretive dance is an education.

Natives dressed up in antelope costumes for elaborate dance ceremonies to connect with spirits they believed were linked to a benevolent god. They believed a god that was part-human, part-antelope taught their ancestors how to farm.

Dance teaches not just physical movement but also history and the ancient skills needed to survive in society, Conrad Froehlich, director of the Martin and Osa Johnson Safari Museum, told a group of fourth-graders visiting from Iola’s SAFE BASE summer school program.

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