Edzo Dogbeda Mokli
Modostko Modostko (Foto: Margarita Valdivieso)
Edzo Dogbeda Mokli, called »Modostko«, is a professional artist and musician. He also works as a drum and dance teacher and makes musical instruments and jewelry. In Ghana, he worked as a tour guide and set up his own ecolodge (ecological hotel) in Ghana.
There he also gave workshops for women on how to recycle materials and make new recycled products. In these workshops, he taught them ecological knowledge and empowered them to generate their own income. Since then, he has been very interested in political education.
Modostko works on these topics: colonialism in connection with drumming, dance and art. He comes from Togo and lived in Ghana for many years. Both of these countries used to be colonies. Nowadays, in times of post-colonialism, colonization still has an impact on these two countries. His vision is to combine the topic of colonization with music and art. Moreover, during the decades of colonialism, his ancestors were able to communicate with each other through instruments with »talking drums«. This was their way of sabotaging the presence of the colonizers, as the colonizers could not understand the language of the talking drums.
What are his pedagogical approaches? Modostko wants to design his workshops together with the participants. This means that everyone is both a teacher and a learner and can share their perspectives.
He offers his workshops in English, French and Ewe throughout Thuringia.