ABOUT KASUMU

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Jamil Adéwalé Kasumu, affectionately known as “Baba Kasumu“, is the founder and Executive Director of Ade Jembe Fola. He has been organizing workshops in African Drum & Dance, Chess, Martial Arts, Computers, and Finance for in-school and after-school programs in western New York for over a decade.

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He is a highly skilled and talented drummer, as well as a patient teacher who has worked with organizations such as the Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, Musicians United for Superior Education, University of Buffalo,  Explore & More Children's Museum, and Buffalo Kwanzaa, just to name a few. View some of these collaborations in the gallery.

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Native to Nigeria, Kasumu is passionate about his community, and as the only African owned drum and dance organization in Western New York, he wanted to share his love for this African instrument, the Jembe, with the community.

 

Having played the Jembe since the age of 10 with the guidance from some of the world's renowned teachers and performing artists, it was his mentor Raymond Sylla from Dakar, Senegal that gave him the name Ade Jembe Fola, which roughly translates "Royal teacher brining people together".