It has been a pleasure to run the African Choir of Norfolk for the 4th consecutive year, and what a year it has been. Though a quieter year than usual due to funding and choir members commitments, we enjoyed performing again for the Grapes Hill Community Garden as part of their Refugee Week in June, and visiting Ivy Care Home again. It was our second visit there, and the residents enjoyed singing along and listening to us—some even joined in with shakers.
In October it was off to Bury St Edmunds for their Black Lives Matter concert at Bury Theatre Royal. Not all members could make it, and at the very last minute we were joined by Rosy and 11 day old Ocean on stage which was very lovely, and the audience enjoyed meeting her.
Our main focus this year was the gala performance at Norwich Theatre which we were all excited to perform on the main stage. We decided that with the pressure from our members of performing on a professional stage, it was important to focus on the songs we were already familiar with and strengthen our harmonies. This gave us the opportunity to choreograph a more theatrical performance and add to the storytelling within our songs.
It was important that all choir members felt comfortable on the stage, so we decided to visit the theatre at the beginning of November and choir members were able to have a feel of a bigger and grander stage. The audience was a mixture of new audiences through Norwich Theatre, and our usual audience who are used to dancing along to some of our songs.
Without funding we made a decision to be more creative with the costumes for the gala night and mix the three outfits we had used over the last three years. This gave us a chance to showcase Jacq’s talents as a designer and also a strong member of the choir. The gala had sold out well in advance to the performance night which we were all pleased about. Having performed in different venues since our first Gala in 2021, the Playhouse felt professional, with a tech team looking after our needs throughout the sound check and performance. They were able to use suitable lighting which reflected the joys, sorrows and experiences of everyday life in Africa alongside top professional microphones and staging.
Our WhatsApp group continues to be strong and is a positive platform of communication which we all still use to share information and support each other. This includes other members who no longer attend the choir, but like to keep in touch with what we are doing, or simply ask questions about helping to find accommodation, shops which sell African products or simply staying connected with us.
The choir met for our annual Christmas gathering to celebrate our successful fourth year, and it also gave the choir the opportunity to gauge what happens after year five, which is when the signature project for the Autumn Festival of Norfolk is due to complete in 2025. The general consensus was that everyone is confident that the choir must and will carry on beyond next year, with the aim to showcase our songs at a special gala each year. We also felt it was important to make ourselves more visible within our wider community of Norfolk by volunteering and putting on events which bring the wider community together. A meeting will be held in mid January to discuss what this might look like.
This year we are pleased to introduce two new members to the choir, Samuel from Ghana and Audrey from Kenya who have both added even more joy to the choir. Samuel joins young Kwaku on the drums, creating infectious drum rhythms which make it so irresistible to stand still, like we say, we are no ordinary choir. This contribution by both Samuel and Kwaku brings a valuable contribution to the balance we struggled to create when we first started, to attract any males to the choir.
I have come to the realisation that the choir is not just what we share when we perform on stage or meet in rehearsals, but is an important life line to our members. The common theme of belonging, familiarity of home and reminisce of family, friendships and the strong bonds that have been created over the years will carry us past 2025 and beyond, and I greatly look forward to this. When I look back to the time when I met up with the festival director Stash Kirkbride and he asked if I could lead the choir, I never imagined the joy this would bring to so many, including choir members and audience. This has to be one of the most rewarding projects I have championed in my career as an artist as we are now all proudly AfroNorfolk.
Our guest artist this year Obase Aboli added his unique sounds from his home of Cameroon and taught us and performed songs from his country. We look forward to working with some of our guests artists who have travelled us on this journey so far in 2025.
New Performance dates 2025
| Event | Date | Time | Location |
| Love Music Hate Racism, Charity Event | Saturday 25th January 2025 | 8pm | Friends Meeting House, Norwich |
| Out There Festival | Friday 30th May 2025 & Saturday 31st May 2025 | TBC | TBC |
| NSPCC Awareness Event | Saturday 7th June 2025 | TBC | Norwich City Centre |
| Norwich Playhouse Annual Gala | Saturday 15th November 2025 | 7.30pm | Playhouse, Norwich |
I shall leave this report with a statement from our latest member of the choir, Audrey, on what it means to her to be part of The African Choir of Norfolk.
“Finding the choir was like finding my community and with this comes the felt sense of belonging. It feels like being in the bosom of family. Where I can freely communicate using all the nuances that my heritage embodies, sounds are complete words..mmms, eee, and aaaa have meaning. Where a shared history means; I don’t have to give context to explain the story I currently giving…HOME! Where I feel safe to be myself, feel myself and be unapologetically ME.”