Brighton school collaborates with Kenyan children on slavery musical

Downs Junior School in Brighton have celebrated the end of their school year in style as they teamed up with a Kenyan school to showcase a musical about the illegal slave trade.

Lizzie Jago from Braeburn School in Nairobi constructed the narrative for Albatross based on the life of her ancestor Bishop Charles Smythies. Set in the late 1880s in Zanzibar, East Africa it tracks the struggle to eradicate the black market slave trade.

The cast for Albatross is composed of pupils from both schools and it has clearly been a bonding experience for all involved, as Minnie, 11 describes. “In the playground at lunch times we all eat lunch together and it’s really nice to make friends with people from different countries and might live different lives from us.”

Downs Junior School’s music teacher, Anna Rusbatch composed the music and while nervous about the performances, she is very proud of the children. She said: “I am daunted, it’s a huge project this year, it’s been a long road and a lot of hard work from a lot of people.

So daunted but also thrilled because I know those kids are going to absolutely shine.”

Albatross is running between Wednesday 23rd July to Sunday 27th July at the Rose Theatre in Kingston for the International Youth Arts Festival 2014.

Latest TV’s Jay Legate reports.