Suma Went Walking Audiobook: A Pan-African Symphonic Story for Children

I’ve commissioned an exciting new African musical piece for children to introduce them to the individual instruments of the African orchestra and accompany the story ‘Suma Went Walking’, written by my mother, Nana Dadson.

Each character is represented by an African musical instrument and theme, 10 amazing instruments in all!

Help us make the first pan-African symphonic story for children and bring a great new experience to schools in Africa!

Suma Went Walking was written by my mother Nana Dadson and published by Afram Publications in 2002.  It tells the story of a girl Suma who takes a walk and meets animals who compare themselves to her. She gets tired of all the different things she is and eventually goes home where she is always little Suma. The story is written in English and has been translated to 8 different African languages.

The idea of a pan-African symphonic story was inspired by Prokiev’s ‘Peter and the Wolf’ which I was introduced to as a child and loved. I wanted to make a composition that would bring the magic and excitement of African musical instruments to children and provide an exciting new way to engage them with the performance of African music in schools. We have a stellar ensemble of Ghanaian musicians:

Suma is represented by the ensemble of flutes (Atentenben and Odurogyra)  played by Dela Botri
The Elephant is the Fontomfrom Drum played by Dela Botri
The Bird is the Atentenben Flute played by Dela Botri
The Snake is the Odurogya Flute and Shekere played by Dela Botri and Worlali Konu
The Giraffe is the Prempensua & Gome Drum played by Dela Botri and Worlali Konu
The Mouse is the Seperewa played by Baffuor Awuah Kyeremanten
The Hedgehog is the Kalimba (‘Thumb Piano’) played by Worlali Konu

The Pig is the Talking Drum played by Dela Botri
The Tortoise is the Gonje played by the German violinist Thomas “Kwame” Woernle

What’s the difference between an ‘Antenben’ and a ‘Odurogya’ Flute you may ask? You can click on the links above to read more information, or watch a great ‘how to’ or demo video on each instrument.

We need $30,000 to make this dream a reality. We have funded the pre-production and composition work for Suma Went Walking, but we need your help to get the audiobook through recording, mastering, post production and out to our schools and the world through our innovative workshops.

If you are able to contribute to our audiobook, everyone on the team sincerely thanks you – you are helping bring our vision of digital transformation to the African publishing industry to fruition and also to enhance the performance of African musical instruments in schools worldwide!

Look out for full details on our Indiegogo campaign- coming soon!