The beat

NEWTON — The Performing Arts Center on the campus of Sussex County Community College was filled with the rhythms of the African Drum and Dance Ensemble Sankofa led by International Master Drummer Maxwell Kofi Donkor last Thursday morning. “Drumming is the food for the soul and the spirit; drumming heals,” said Kofi. In the Twi language of his native Asante Kingdom in Ghana, West Africa the word “sankofa” means “going back to the roots,” and it is what Kofi practices with his drumming. A mixed crowd of college students, home schooled students and the general public enjoyed 90 minutes of music played on various sized drums, a version of a maracas, made with beads loosely woven into a net on the outside of large gourds, and the Ghana version of an xylophone.