Africa celebrated at La Fromagerie Feb. 19

Art, music and film inspired by Africa will be presented at La Fromagerie Elgin Feb. 19 at 7 p.m.

Artist, educator and filmmaker Chaka Chikodzi will be exhibiting a collection of Zimbabwean stone sculpture and showing a documentary entitled “Africaville Out of the City Project.”

“I met Chaka when he came up here to visit in November from his current residence in Peterborough,” said Hazel Eccelestone, owner of La Fromagerie Elgin, a cheese shop and arts venue combined, which is located at 5 Cedar St.

Chikodzi, a Zimbabwean who has lived in Canada for eight years, has worked with at risk youth from Toronto on his rural property, east of Toronto, teaching them the art of sculpture. They are the subjects in his short film.

Eccelstone said she loves the sculptures Chikodzi creates. “He makes it from volcanic rock he brings from his home country of Zimbabwe,” she said.

Chikodzi said in a press release that all of his sculptures are hand-carved, and “the stone is a volcanic rock that comes from Zimbabwe's Great Dyke.”

One of his sculptures, The Seer, represents the traditional and mystical knowledge of his village elders that the colonial system in his country repressed in the last century.

“It is about knowing the other side, the other reality, where we have not been to but where they have,” he said.

“Now that I have grown up I realize I did not take their wisdom seriously when I was younger because they had not attended school like myself.”

He said he found a lot in common with First Nations people in the Peterborough area.

“In art we have a lot in common. We use the same approach.”

Also appearing at La Fromagerie Elgin Feb. 19 will be the Resolutionaries, a group of young musicians from the Peterborough area who came together as a result of Chikodzi's art projects.

Their music is inspired by African culture, Chikodzi said.

“They play marimba music and some of their songs are hundreds of years old. But they are still able to get anyone off their chair to the dance floor.”

Chikodzi himself will play the marimba, a xylophone like instrument with keys that are hit with a rubber mallet. The style of musical instrument has been in use for thousands of years in his country.

Admission to the event is $60, and includes a sampling a wine and cheese. For more information, phone La Fromagerie at 675-1000. Tickets are available at Records on Wheels downtown. The art will continue to be available at the store for sale or viewing.