UNITY DRUM THEATER

Unity Drum Theater was formed late in 2007 when it was first known as the Peace Academy Drumming and Dancing Group. The founder, Emmanuel C. Richardson started this group in his second year of senior secondary school. However after only four months the group was on the verge of collapse due to financial constraints for the purchase of drums and other equipment as it has already been mentioned. Despite these initial set-backs Emmanuel C. Richardson kept his vision alive, continuing to walk the path he felt was laid before him. As Unity Drum Theater grew, it came not only to welcome adults and young people, supporting them in being re-energized through immersion in their traditional cultural practices, but needy young children were also welcomed not only for drumming/dancing but also being taught traditional arts and crafts.(batik, tie and dye, paintings, beads). Unity Drum Theater not only energizes and reawakens a CAN DO attitude in young people, but gives needy children tools fo

My name is EMMANUEL CHARLES RICHARDSON, The founder and director of UNITYDRUM THEATER. African music and dance has been my life since I was born to the earth of Ghana in Africa. At the age of five my father started teaching me drumming but different from traditional drumming. My father was a great musician on the Ghana Cape Coast then. When I was nine years of age my dad and my elder brother took me to a group called the Twerampong Traditional Drumming and Dancing Group at the Cape Coast Castle. They knew where my source of motivation in life came from. I never knew I could dance but I always see the music in me as my passion. I humbly submitted to my leaders in the group and learnt drumming and dancing very well and everything else they were willing to teach me. When I was in junior high school my dad died and it was like I have lost all my life. But I never give up on what I do. I continued but stopped my formal group and became my own master by teaching foreign and local p