A native of Brooklyn, NY and Spelman Alumna, drummer, dancer, choreographer, Omelika Kuumba is a cultural arts educator and co-founder and director of GIWAYEN MATA. She is the daughter of Phyllis McK. Bynum and Osban W. Bynum, Jr., The proud mother of Zanaida and Akumba Bynum-Roberson; she appreciates the support and encouragement of her family and mentors, Yeye Osunlade Fatunmise and Dr. Collette Hopkins.

Sis. Omelika studied modern dance as a child and later had learning experiences under artists including Kwame Ross, Ronald K. Brown, and Abdel Salaam. She has been taught by some of the best known performers of African drumming and dance in the U.S. and Africa such as Marie Basse Wiles, Assane Konte, Youssouff Koumbassa, Dr. Zak Diouf, and Taffa N’Daiye Rose. She had the pleasure of being a student of the renowned Mozel Spriggs while a student at Spelman.

She has had a multiplicity of professional experiences in the

U.S., Africa, and Europe with highlights being studying African drumming and dancing in Senegal, West Africa, performing at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, teaching choreography at Trollwood Performing Arts School in North Dakota, teaching music and choreography in Stuttgart, Germany and in Hastings, England. She is a professor of African Dance Forms at Spelman College as well as in the Physical Education Department at Emory University. She teaches in the Spelman College Children’s Drama and Dance Program, directs Ashietu, the Sisters Chapel African Dance Ministry, and is a guest instructor and choreographer at Onyx Dance School.

Professional recognitions with GIWAYEN MATA include Creative Loafing Newspaper’s Critic’s Pick Best of Atlanta Award for Best World Music Group. She received awards from Women of Multi- Ethnicity and Nationality and USA Magazine. She is listed in Who’s Who in Black Atlanta and received the Kuumba Tribute Award from the East Point/College Park Chapter of Delta Sigma
Theta Sorority, Inc. She is a member of the Atlanta Chapter of the Spelman College Alumnae Association, and a member of the East Point/ College Park Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.