Introduction[]
(D.W. walks down a street with French signs.)
D.W.: Hey, I'm D.W. You probably know that already, but I bet you don't know where we are. There are cars, shops, signs... Could be a city anywhere, right? But it happens to be in Africa! We're in a city called Dakar in a country called Senegal.
(A boy that's D.W.’s age juggles El Boomerang on his feet.)
D.W.: This is my friend, Cheikh, and this show is all about him.
Cheikh: That's not entirely accurate. It's more about you and my cousin Brain.
D.W.: Well, that's true, but you're in it.
Cheikh: We should have a show just about you and me. We would call it Cheikh and DW.
D.W.: I like it, but how about D.W. and Cheikh? Anyway, tell it to Arthur. He's the show hog.
Cheikh: We'll work on it. In the meantime, welcome to our story.
Title Card: Hide and Seek[]
(Cheikh colors Senegal on a map of Africa.)
Cheikh (narrator): Here's my country, Senegal.
(Flashback: Cheikh and his mother wait front of their old home in Dakar while the father packs the car.)
Cheikh (narrator): And this is me a few months ago before I left for Elwood City.
Cheikh's Mother: You'll see, you'll make plenty of new friends.
Cheikh: Do you think they have my favorite foods like poulet yassa and couscous? Do they eat couscous in America? And do they have movies?
(A map shows the voyage from Senegal to North America.)
Cheikh: Do they celebrate birthdays? For my fifth birthday, can we go to the circus?
***
(Miss Morgan introduces Cheikh to her preschool class while D.W. is busy drawing a picture for him.)
Miss Morgan: Attention, boys and girls. Let's all give a big welcome to Cheikh, our new student. He comes all the way from...
(D.W. comes to the front and gives Cheikh her picture.)
D.W.: I know, I know! He's from Africa and he's Brain's cousin. Arthur told me all about you. Here, I drew this for you.
Cheikh: Thank you very much, but what is it?
D.W.: That's you and bunch of other kids getting on the hippo bus to swim to your school, which is inside a volcano. And those are lions hiding in the trees. Do you have special crossing guards that protect you from the lions?
Cheikh: I've never seen a lion in my life. Where did you learn this nonsense?
D.W.: Erm, movies and TV, I guess.
Cheikh: Well, it's completely wrong. I live in a city which is bigger than this one.
Miss Morgan: D.W., I'm sure you meant well, but you should learn about a place before you describe it.
(D.W. returns to her seat with her picture.)
Timmy: Ha! You don't know anything about Africa!
D.W.: I guess not, but I'm gonna learn! I'm gonna learn about the whole country.
Cheikh: It's not a country, it's a continent. There are actually 54 countries in Africa.
D.W.: Wow! That's a lot to learn... but I'm gonna do it, you just wait.
***
(Later that day, D.W. stands in front of a map in preschool looking at South America.)
Miss Morgan: Africa's over here, dear.
(D.W. looks at Africa while Cheikh smiles.)
***
(D.W. lies on the living room rug studying various books while Arthur lies on the couch eating popcorn and reading.)
D.W.: This is gonna take forever! All these books are making my head spin and I don't even know how to read!
Arthur: It was hard for me to learn about Turkey when I was writing to Adil and that was just one country. Maybe you...
D.W.: Don't say it!
Arthur: Don't say what?
D.W.: That it's too hard for me and I should just give up. That's what you were going to say, right?
Arthur: No. I was gonna say you should get a little help from someone who knows more than we do.
(He picks up the phone.)
D.W.: Oh, sometimes you do have a few good ideas, Arthur Read.
(She throws up a piece of popcorn. Arthur snatches it away and eats it.)
Brain (on phone): Hello.
***
(D.W. sits at the table in the Powers’ house. Brain paces while numbers and letters start spinning around D.W.’s head.)
Brain: Learning something about all 54 countries is a tremendous amount of information. We could assemble it in the form of a graph. Perhaps using a hierarchal approach. We'll need a cataloguing system to inventory our documents. Then we'll create a template upon which we can build our research model. It'll be as simple as learning your ABCs.
(D.W. shakes her head free.)
D.W.: Oh, so you mean we'll make a song? That's how I learned my ABCs.
Brain: Um, no, that's not what I meant. But that's a much better idea. Let's do it!
***
(Brain and D.W. start singing. There is a map of Africa on the wall and Brain holds a big globe.)
D.W.: Fifty-four things, fifty-four
Things to see and to explore
Brain+D.W.: In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
(A political map of Africa appears. Real-life videos and images are shown to illustrate the things mentioned.)
D.W.: The continent of Africa is deep and long and wide
With 54 countries to keep my song diversified
Brain: There's rhythmic beats, new things to eat, and places you can go
And every day, a different way that you can say hello
For instance, meeng-gah-bou is "howdy-do" when visiting in Ghana
Dumela mma is how you say "Hello" inside Botswana
D.W.: The Muslims greet the folks they meet with salaam aleikum
In Gambia, Morocco and Sudan's hometown Khartoum
Brain+D.W.: In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa. See this when you go
Brain: Burundi's got the deepest lake and then the highest peak
D.W.: Juts up from Tanzania just next door to Mozambique
Brain: And carving through the continent there flows the mighty Nile
D.W.: Past Uganda, Eritrea and...
Brain: ...look out! A crocodile!
Namibia's wild Skeleton Coast is littered with wrecked ships
And Côte d'Ivoire has chocolate fields. I love my chocolate chips
Victoria Falls in Zambia, it makes a mighty sound
Zimbabwe shares the falls as well, there's lots to go around
Brain+D.W.: In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa life is all aglow
(Cheikh comes in with a picnic basket.)
Cheikh: Did you two just write that song? It's amazing!
D.W.: I'll tell you what's amazing - the smell coming from that basket!
Cheikh: It's poulet yassa - spicy lemon chicken. My mom thought you might like to try some Senegalese home cooking.
Brain: Your mom was right. Let's eat!
***
(Brain, Cheikh and D.W. have finished their picnic in the park and they relax in the grass.)
D.W.: Hey, maybe we should have a food section in our song.
Brain: Oh, definitely. There are so many delicious dishes to try from Africa. Poulet yassa is just the tail of the iceberg.
D.W.: You mean the tip of the iceberg? Tell me a few of them.
Cheikh: In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa there's lots of food they grow
D.W.: The Comoros has the coelacanth, a prehistoric fish
In Congo, they eat mwamba stew...
Cheikh: That stew's my favorite dish
Brain: São Tomé and Príncipe, they like their food with spice
D.W.: The fish in Mauritius is hot and delicious...
All: ...it's really very nice
Brain: Sahara in Algeria's a hot and arid land
D.W.: Vacation in the Seychelles and relax upon the sand
Cheikh: The Madagascar aye-aye taps on trees to find its lunch
D.W.: If you like grains, then you'll love Mauritania...
All: ...they munch rice a bunch
Cheikh: The farmers out in Kenya, they raise cattle, goats, and hens
D.W.: And Burkina Faso's called "The Land of Upright Men"
Cheikh: The cotton from Benin is in the clothes we wear to school
All: There's 40 words for "camel" in Somalia—pretty cool!
Hey!
Choir: Bembeya Jazz comes from Guinea
Baobab trees are stout, not skinny
Ethiopians eat teff, not "potator"
Equatorial Guinea's quite near the equator
One street in South Africa: two Peace Prize winners
In Togo, they eat fufu for dinner
Senegal's got a pink lake, Mali's got the Blue Men
The folks in Nigeria spice food with cumin
Cheikh: They do. It makes a tasty stew!
***
(Brain, Cheikh and D.W. walk home from the park.)
Brain & D.W.: Ha-ha! All right! Nice! Good job!
Cheikh: Do you think we're ready to be popstars?
(They cross a zebra crossing like on the Abbey Road cover.)
D.W.: I don't know about that, but we could try singing it for the class.
***
(The following day, Miss Morgan addresses her class who D.W. stands beside her.)
Miss Morgan: Kids, we have a special treat today. D.W. is going to sing a song she wrote about Africa.
D.W.: (gulps) (thinks:) Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
Timmy: I can't wait for the part about the hippo bus.
Tommy: Or the part where D.W. turns red because she embarrasses herself.
Timmy+Tommy: (laugh)
Cheikh: She's not going to embarrass anyone. Not with me singing it with her.
(He walks up to D.W.)
D.W.: Thanks for helping me. And I'm sorry I made that silly drawing.
Cheikh: I'm glad you made it. If you hadn't we'd never be pop stars.
D.W.: Cheikh, we're not pop stars.
Cheikh: Not yet, D.W. A week ago you knew nothing about Africa. Now look at you.
(Brain starts playing bongos as D.W. and Cheikh began dancing.)
All: Fifty-four things, fifty-four
Things to see and to explore
In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
D.W.: The world's biggest frog is found inside of Cameroon
In Chad, the lungfish yawn and wake up when it rains in June
Gorillas in Rwanda have a hooting sort of speech
Go to Gabon to see an elephant walk on the beach
Brain: Angola's full of dino bones; museum in the ground
Libya's got those Roman ruins, the coolest ruins around
And Egypt has the pyramids, the Sphinx, and King Tut's tomb
Malawi's got a town called "Livingstonia," I presume
All: In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa joy and beauty flow
D.W.: Tunisia's known for gorgeous gates and Swaziland makes glass
From old recycled bottles that the boys and girls amass
Lesotho's folks don't go outside without their fancy hats
The artists in Sierra Leone weave really pretty mats
Brain: The tunes they play in Niger, hey! They're vital and alive
The Hipco of Liberia, that style's gonna thrive
Cape Verde's got the morna. Man, I dig that swinging beat
Guinea-Bissau's gumbe just makes me want to stomp my feet
All: In my Africa. Whoa, whoa, whoa
In my Africa. It's almost time to go.
Cheikh: My Africa's an ageless land, I'm glad that you could see
This continent so full of life, you're all my family
Brain: And now we leave this loving place, its heartfelt family ties
Cheikh: A warm embrace...
Brain: A smiling face
D.W.: A bittersweet goodbye
All+Choir: To my Africa,
Djibouti, makuge hooray
Goodbye, Africa
All: Somalia,
Choir: Nabad gelyo, hey!
Magic Africa
D.W.: In the C.A.R.
Choir: Gue nzoni! Hey!
Lovely Africa,
Brain: D.R.C.
D.W.: Reviens, s'il vous plâit!
All: Mighty Africa,
Brain: Western Sahara,
Choir: Ma‘a salaam! Oh, yeah!
In my Africa
Preschoolers: (cheer)
(D.W. and Cheikh take a bow.)
Miss Morgan: That was wonderful, D.W. And now I'd like to introduce our newest student. Kids, this is Keith from Kalamazoo.
(Keith waves.)
Miss Morgan: Does anybody here know anything about Kalamazoo?
(D.W. raises her hand.)
D.W.: No, but I'd love to learn.