#97-01-25
For Release: 1/31/97
Contact: Peter Bailley

African drummer Abubakari Lunna will give a lecture/performance, "Oral History in Dagbon: The Role of the Lunsi in Traditional African Society," at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, Feb. 12, in Kresge Recital Hall, Ford Center for the Fine Arts at Knox College. The event is free and open to the public.

A native of the Dagbon territory in northern Ghana, Lunna is a member of the Lunsi, a hereditary guild of specialists who for the past six centuries have chronicled the history of the Dagbon people through singing and drumming. Lunsi also drum for festivals, rituals and social events. Lunna is principle drummer with the Ghana Folkloric Company, performing throughout Europe and North America, and working with numerous scholars researching Dagbon culture. He has been featured on a series of recordings Master Drummers of Dagbon and in several television documentaries. For many years he held a teaching appointment at the Arts Center in Tamale, Ghana.

The event is sponsored by the Office of Intercultural Life, Lectures and Concerts Committee, Dean of the College and the departments of sociology/anthropology and educational studies.

Founded in 1837, Knox is an independent, four-year, liberal arts college, located in Galesburg, Illinois, with 1,100 students from 42 states and 33 nations. Knox's "Old Main," a National Historic Landmark, is the only building remaining from the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas debates.