Middleboro students jump into Crocodile River programs, concert
Feb 9, 2023
Issa Coulibaly of Crocodile River points to marimba player Abou as he performs a solo during the group’s performance at Memorial Early Childhood Center in Middleboro. Photos by Rusty Gorelick
A student enjoys the concert from a prime viewing location.
Crocodile River performers showed students — and some teachers — new dance moves.
Students were excited to see the Crocodile River performers when they took to the stage.
Issa Coulibaly gives the guitar player the spotlight during his solo.
Students were impressed when this performer sang and danced with a bottle balanced on her head.
MIDDLEBORO — Children sang and danced with enthusiasm when the Crocodile River Music group played a concert and ran workshops at Memorial Early Childhood Center.
Students clapped along to the songs and stood up to dance to the rhythmic music; even Principal Jeremy Gobeil got his groove on.
Crocodile River Music performs music influenced by a plethora of west African cultures, and they host crafting, dancing, and singing workshops pertaining to those cultures.
Group members hail from countries including Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Tanzania.
The group’s name stems from the English translation of Bamako, which is the hometown of Crocodile River co-founder Issa Coulibaly and the capital city of Mali.
Coulibaly and his crew spent two days at the school.
“The kids have been wonderful,” Coulibaly said. “It’s been a great experience for all of us. We got so many shoutouts, like ‘that was the best thing ever!’”
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Crocodile River Music ran workshops about African song and dance, plus they helped teach math and engineering when they tasked students with figuring out the proper dimensions and knot-tying techniques to create a working drum.
The concert took place on Thursday, Feb. 9.
A guitar, a wooden marimba, and a collection of percussion instruments made the music. Dancers led the students, and the children were awe-inspired when one balanced a plastic bottle on her head.
Coulibaly founded the organization 12 years ago with Zach Combs, an American who studied music in Mali.
“It started as just the two of us,” Combs said. “Now we’ve grown to an organization of 13 people and we’ve worked with 200,000 kids in the US.”
Crocodile River is based in Worcester has performed up and down the east coast and would like to venture even further.
Despite those ambitions, Coulibaly said returning to Middleboro for the seventh time means it feels like home. The group’s visit was sponsored by Dennis K. Burke.
“We want to bring art, education, and music to the whole world,” Coulibaly said.
