The extension of Umoja's run at the Shaftesbury Theatre to May 26 is a remarkable achievement for an entirely unknown (in Britain, at any rate) cast performing a cross section of South African song and dance, from tribal to modern.
The links between the numerous songs and accompanying dances are provided by a Nelson Mandela type narrator figure, but the show really belongs to the singers, dancers and musicians - especially the drummers who conjure up the spirit of Africa through the primitive, powerful beat of human hands on massive drums.
The standing ovation that the first-night audience gave the cast has been followed by consistently enthusiastic responses at subsequent performances.
Umoja's strength lies not just in the extraordinary power of African song and dance - the tribal ones with bare-breasted maidens and shield-and-spea …p
