Choreographer and actor, Seyi Oluyole, will be sharing her perspective on how to inspire African children to succeed in the latest episode of the popular television magazine, CNN African Voices Changemakers, sponsored by telecommunications giant, Globacom.
The edition features Oluyole and a South African choreographer, Gcina Mhlophe, two Africans doing very well in the field of creative dancing and storytelling.
Oluyole, 27, who is also a film director, will showcase how she has used her love for choreography to positively influence street kids and rechannel their energies towards positive ends.
Oluyole, a graduate of English and Literary Studies from Covenant University, founded a non-governmental organisation named The Dream Nurture Foundation to cater for poor children and adults in need of mentoring.
She also provides educational opportunities for them through the NGO. Similarly, her dance academy, Dream Catchers, uses dance as a major tool in getting indigent children back to school in line with her belief that “every child deserves to succeed irrespective of their background”.
Aside from this, Oluwole has also been involved in screenwriting for first-rate television series such as Tinsel, Hustle and Gbera, a short film which she directed. Her commitment to the cause of children has attracted the attention of world music star, Rihanna, who recently tipped Oluyole’s mentees for stardom.
The other guest in the edition is the 60-year-old Nokugcina Elsie Mhlophe, a South African dancer, actress, storyteller, poet, playwright, director and author.
Mhlophe uses storytelling as a means of recounting the tales of subjugation during the apartheid years and the gains of freedom which the Rainbow Nation currently enjoys.
Mhlophe was born in KwaZulu Natal into a humble background, working as a domestic servant in the early part of her working life. She later progressed to a newsreader at the Press Trust and BBC Radio, and subsequently became a writer for Learn and Teach, a magazine for newly-literate post-apartheid South Africans.
Mhlophe has performed in theatres in Soweto and London. A good number of her works have been translated into German, French, Italian, Swahili and Japanese. She has won the Obie Award for Performance as well as the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award.
She continues to traverse Africa and other parts of the globe, giving storytelling workshops on folklore, historical information, current affairs, songs and idioms.
Catch CNN African Voices Changemakers on DSTV on Friday at 9.30 a.m. and on Saturday at 12.30 a.m., 4.30 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. Other repeat broadcasts come up on Sunday at 5.00 a.m., 9.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m. with more repeats on Monday and Tuesday at 5.30 a.m. and 6.30 p.m. respectively.
