HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE N.M. – Students from Holloman Middle School participate in a drumming exercise Feb. 15. Mr. Karuna Warren from New World Drummers and Dancers brought the drums to teach the children about communication in Ancient African cultures. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Colin Cates/Released)
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE N.M. – Students from Holloman Middle School participate in a drumming exercise Feb. 15. Mr. Karuna Warren from New World Drummers and Dancers brought the drums to teach the children about communication in Ancient African cultures. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Colin Cates/Released)
HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE N.M. – Mr. Karuna Warren from New World Drummers and Dancers drums in front of the children of Holloman Middle School Feb. 15. He brought the drums to teach the children about communication in Ancient African cultures. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Colin Cates/Released)
by Airman 1st Class Michael Shoemaker
49th Wing Public Affairs
2/29/2012 - HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. -- -- There is an African culture more than 3,000 years old buried in Holloman's very own back yard. The remnants of an ancient civilization, their ideology and art, rests beneath the land Americans have only inhabited for a few hundred years.
The Olmecs, a race believed to have brought African civilization to Meso-America, were the forerunners of the Aztecs, Toltecs, Teotihuacan and the Mayans. They are known as the first society in Mexico that had a written form of communication as well as knowledge of agriculture and ceremonial architecture.
Stone heads, standing up to 12 feet tall and weighing in at up to 40 tons, are all representations of the African-American society that used to call this place their home, and they have been unearthed slowly over the past 140 years.
"Since 1862, archaeologists have unearthed approximately 17 stone sculptures that represent African-American features," said Karuna Warren, the director of New World Drummers and Dancers from Las Cruces, N.M., to the children of Holloman Middle School for this year's celebration of African American Heritage/Black History Month.
Warren laid out sets of drums on the floor in the gymnasium where the demonstration took place. These items were replicas of authentic tribal instruments that were used as a form of communication and art in many African villages.
He allowed the children to experience the sounds that would have only been heard in the deepest parts of Africa today.
"I bring the drums for them to experience the joy," Warren said.
Warren has been helping New World Drummers and Dancers spread the knowledge of southern New Mexico's deep African heritage for more than 19 years.
Born in 1941, he was raised through the strife and prejudices that ran rampant through this growing nation.
"I left and moved to Europe for six years when the riots started (in the 60s)," he said. "I had the Black Panthers trying to get me involved. I just couldn't (join them)."
Warren didn't want to be involved in the hatred that stirred between his countrymen. He never saw a difference between the color of one person's skin and the next. This was due, in part, to the household he was raised in.
"My great-grandfather was Irish," he said. "By him being white and blind, I got over the possibility of being racist."
These events helped shape Warren into the man he is today. That, combined with his longing to be able to teach people and bring smiles to their faces, made him the perfect choice for the Black History Observance Committee to come and teach the children of Holloman the cultures that influenced this state's history.
Black History Observance Committee co-chairmen, Tech. Sgt. William Irby and Staff Sgt. Justin Scott, had hoped to be able to spread the knowledge of African-American history and in turn have a celebration of the culture that it has become today.
Scott wants the community to understand that "African-American history month isn't just for black people. It is a celebration of black and African-American people, but it's for everyone."
