Djoniba Mouflet says branch out. Mouflet has come a long way from his native Martinique, French West Indies. Growing up poor in his homeland never discouraged Mouflet. His grandmother, who raised him in a home with no electricity and no running water, instilled in him many values he still keeps with him today. My grandmother used to say that it didn't matter whether we were poor or not as long as I studied the best.
Poverty is material.
At 16, Mouflet said all he did all day long was dance and drum. It was a childhood friend of Joneeba's who dragged him to her dance class, where it all began. He says somehow he was able to catch on to the moves quickly and after six months he had landed the lead in their production. After the show, Mouflet approached the mayor of Martinique, Aimee Cesaire, who had been in the audience, and told him of his intense desire to study dance in Africa. Cesaire granted him a scholarship to Mudra Afrique in Senegal, where he studied not only African dance but jazz, modern dance, theater and music.