Educational Tours
Some children will cross an ocean for the first time because of this.
A ten-day immersive journey to Ghana, West Africa, for middle school students. Not a field trip. A rite of passage.
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Educational Tours hero
Young people in Ghana mid-experience, not posed at a landmark — use 2019 Back2Africa trip photography if it exists.
Your students will not be tourists. They will be received.
There is a difference between visiting a place and being brought there by someone who belongs to it. Mahiri Fadjimba Keita has lived, studied, and built relationships across West Africa for decades. When he arrives in Ghana, he is not a visitor with an itinerary. He is family coming home, and the young people traveling with him are received as his. That distinction changes everything about what a child experiences. It is the difference between watching a ceremony and being welcomed into one.
For many of these students, this will be the first passport in their family. Not the first trip abroad — the first passport. Some of their grandmothers have never left the state they were born in. That weight is part of what makes this a rite of passage rather than a vacation, and we do not treat it lightly.
Before Departure
In the months leading up to the journey, Mahiri delivers a preparatory curriculum to enrolled students, their families, and interested faculty — the cultural context of West Africa, the Mande peoples, the instruments, and the meaning of what the students are about to undergo. Families arrive informed and invested. Students arrive ready to receive what is being offered.
Ten Days in Ghana
Immersion in living tradition — the workshops where drums are built, the practitioners whose families have carried these rhythms for generations, the ceremony, the land, and the historically significant sites that connect the diaspora to its origin.
The Homecoming
The journey does not end at the airport. Farafina Kan organizes a formal celebration and community reception welcoming the students home. Families, school staff, and community members gather to witness and honor what these young people have done.
In Ghana, Students Will
- Visit the artisan workshops and forests where sacred drum woods are sourced, and watch instruments built by hand.
- Learn the history and spiritual architecture of the djembe, dunun, sangban, and kenkeni from practitioners whose families have carried these traditions for generations.
- Participate in traditional ceremony — including a formal rite of passage extraordinarily rare for young people from the diaspora.
- Study the dance traditions of Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire.
- Visit the sites that connect the African diaspora to its origins.
- Live and learn alongside members of Ghanaian communities, building relationships that outlast the trip.
- Come home changed — with a passport stamped, a story to tell, and an identity deepened.
The education starts before the plane does.
Applying for a passport. Sitting for the photograph. Understanding what a visa is and why a country requires one. Reading a departure board. Making a connection in an unfamiliar airport. Calculating what time it is at home. Converting currency. Being somewhere where you are the one who sounds different. These are not incidental to the trip. For a young person who has never left their city, they are among the most durable things they will take from it — a set of competencies that quietly tells them the world is navigable, and that they are the kind of person who can navigate it.
Who Leads This Journey
Mahiri Fadjimba Keita
Founder and artistic director of Farafina Kan, certified professor of Tam Tam Mandingue International, and a student of Mamady Keïta, Famoudou Konaté, and Djimo Kouyate. He has lived and taught across Brussels, Guinea, Asia, Mali, and Ghana. He leads the cultural curriculum and the drumming instruction.
Nkenge
Mahiri's sister and a dance instructor of long standing. She leads instruction in the dance traditions of Mali, Guinea, Senegal, and Côte d'Ivoire.
Diallo Sumbry · The Adinkra Group
Ground logistics and accommodations in Ghana. Diallo organized the Back2Africa Festival with the Ghana Tourism Authority and has been bringing members of the diaspora home for years.
At a Glance
Duration — Ten days
Destination — Ghana, West Africa
Who — Middle school students
Target — Summer 2027
Group size — Minimum 15 confirmed students; target 20
Included — Passport and visa guidance, accommodations, meals, ground transport, cultural programming, preparatory curriculum, and the homecoming celebration
Cost per student — NOT YET SET. This page cannot convert until pricing is confirmed.
We build this with you, not around you.
Farafina Kan works with public, charter, and independent schools across the Washington region. We will meet with your leadership, present to your families, handle the logistics, and deliver the preparatory curriculum on your calendar. Request the full proposal and we will walk you through it.
Questions are welcome. All of them.
Sending a child across an ocean is a serious thing, and no family should do it without every answer they need. We hold information sessions for parents and guardians well ahead of departure, and Mahiri makes himself available for individual conversations.