LEWISTON — As students waited in the Montello Elementary School gym Friday afternoon, loud drumming came from a side room.

From that room came two men dressed in colorful West African costumes, drumming and singing. After making their way around the gym, they stopped.

“Good afternoon!” bellowed the group’s leader, Abou Conte of Guinea.

“Before we get started I want you guys to say: ‘waw waw!’”

“Waw waw!” students repeated. “Waw waw means ‘yes yes’ in the Senegal language,” he explained.

Niancho Eniyale, a group of drummers, dancers and singers from Senegal and Guinea, performed at Montello, brought to the school by L-A Arts.

The performance was especially relevant to Montello, where 35 percent of the student population are English Language Learner students, most from Somalia and Kenya.

The goal of the performance was to bring a bit of Africa to the school. The group delivered.

Before more dancing and drumming, Conte gave students a pop quiz, asking them to name some African countries.

Kenya and Somalia, students answered.

He stumped them when he asked how many countries are in Africa. Students guessed 24, 50 and 53. Conte told them Africa has 54 countries.

After several song and dance numbers, the performance further livened up when students were invited to the floor to do some African dancing. The majority of students sprang from their seats, so many that they were divided by age into two groups.

Led by a performer chanting, “and one, and two, and three and four,” students shook their hands, waved their arms, jumped, kicked and turned to the beat of drums.

Teachers were surprised when they were called to dance.

“Two lines,” the performers directed. “Women in the front. Men in the back.”

The teachers proceeded to move as instructed, one foot in the front, then the other, arms up in the air, then turn. “Left, right, left,” a dancer told them.

Students gave their teachers generous grades for their African dance. Yusuf Mohamed and Khalid Ibn said they’d give the teachers grades of 99 and 100. Hamza Ali said watching his teachers dance “was funny.”

The Somali students said the drumming and dancing was fun and similar to their culture. “It made me feel good,” Ali said.

Joshua Vink, director of Arts in Education for L-A Arts, said he was asked by fourth-grade teacher Linda Atkins to sponsor the program.

“We believe that every school and student is enriched by exposure to art from diverse cultures,” Vink said. On Friday students learned by watching and listening to the artists, and getting up and experiencing it personally, speaking and singing the music of Senegal.

Conte, spokesman for the dancers and musicians, said they wanted to give students “a taste of Africa.” In Senegal and Guinea “stuff like this we do every day,” Conte said. “We always dance and sing. There’s a big history to African drum and dance. That’s very important.”

The performers noticed enthusiasm from students. “It was beautiful to see the African kids come together and want to dance and participate,” Conte said.

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