TECUMSEH — This November, the South African Volmoed Youth Drummers Project (VYDP) will be touring Indiana, Michigan, and Illinois.

On Tuesday, Nov. 19, they will be in Tecumseh leading a free community drum circle at Adams Park next to Tecumseh City Hall at 3 p.m. and performing at 7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, 211 W. Chicago Blvd. 

A freewill offering will be collected at the church. The church can be contacted at 517-423-3470.

The VYDP is part of the Volmoed Youth Leadership Training Programme (VYLTP), which began in 2016 at the Volmoed Retreat Center outside Hermanus, South Africa, for young men and women from Zwelihle and Mount Pleasant townships. 

These young people learn how to make drums out of discarded pallets, play, entertain, and create an income from the drums they create. They perform in schools, hospitals, corporate events, worship, and other venues. 

In the rebuilding of the new, post-apartheid South Africa, these young people from their country’s most impoverished townships create community, are psychologically and spiritually empowered and deal with issues of ongoing racism and youth unemployment.

In 2024, a group from Tecumseh and Fort Wayne, Indiana, walked with these young people through their township, visited their workshop, and drummed with them.  The group was moved by their commitment to each other, their skill in drum making, their personal dreams and vision as well as those for their country, and their infectious, joyful spirit.

Traveling with the 10-member drumming group are:

• Rev. Edwin Arrison, an Anglican priest, VYLTP director, and friend and colleague of Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
• Rev. Rene August, VYLTP leadership facilitator, Anglican priest, and reconciliation trainer dealing with poverty, injustice, and inequality.
• Bevil Spence, VYDP teacher and founder of The Drumba Project, which uses drumming and percussion as a tool in the therapeutic and educational process.
• Siyabonga Vonco, leader of the VYLTP drummers and singers.

Among the supporting organizations are the Desmond Tutu Centre for Spirituality and Society, South African Christian Leadership Initiative, South Africa’s Anglican Church and Methodist Church, and United Congregational Church of South Africa.