Improving Understanding of African Culture

African food, music, dance and fashion filled the Union Ballroom during African Cultural Night at UW-Milwaukee.

The African Student Association and Sociocultural Programming co-sponsored the event. They saw a major turnout, as almost every chair in the ballroom was occupied. Due to the large turnout, the food ran out and more had to be made. According to African Student Association president Ali Yusuf, an estimated 250 people were in attendance at the February event.

The African Student Association is a student organization that is still in its infancy of about five years. ASA strives to bring African culture to the UWM campus and give people a better understanding of Africa in general. Yusuf says that most people generalize Africa as whole and do not realize many different unique cultures exist within the continent. Each act at African Cultural Night had a distinct culture from a certain area of Africa in attempt to address this uniqueness of cultures.

According to UWM’s Office of Assessment and Institutional Research, in the past two years, the university has seen a staggering increase in African American students. As of Fall 2014, there are 2,178 African American students attending UWM. This number encompasses undergraduate and graduate students. While this is a small fraction of the students, it shows that educating the campus about African culture needs to impact the remaining fraction enrolled.

By organizing an event such as African Cultural Night, Yusuf hopes to do exactly what their mission states: “To bring together students of African descent, and also focus on working to create a culturally enlightened community on campus by educating people about Africa and its culture.”

The organization usually has about three to four events a semester. According to Yusuf, ASA still has two more grants to use from SAC (Student Appropriations Committee) this semester. Yusuf hopes to get an African storyteller to come to campus and share some African folklore with an audience.

“I grew up in Nigeria and my family told me a lot of stories. Just a lot of different traditional stories that are supposed to be like folktales. You know, like lesson stories,” Yusuf said.

The event itself had four different performances. Two of them featured members of the African Student Association in a fashion show and in a group that danced to some modern African hip-hop songs. The fashion show in particular featured students and their different traditional clothing from many different African countries, as they were announced when they walked onstage. Each piece of clothing was very colorful and ornately designed. Countries that were included in the fashion show ranged from Gambia, Guinea, Eritrea, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Somalia, Godsend and Rwanda. The announcer also announced their year in school and their major, highlighting their education at UWM.

Milwaukee’s own Afro-Dance Theatre group Jam Ak Jam also performed at the event. Their name in Senegal’s Wolof language means “Peace and Peace.” They hope to show the essence of peace through their work. The group clad in yellow and black began the performance with great intensity from fast drumbeats to high endurance dancing.

The group of four dancers and three drummers performed continuously and did not stop to catch their breath once during the performance. To get the audience involved, an audience member came up to dance with the group. Even some of the drummers allowed members of the audience to drum a couple beats. The most notable part of their performance was when one of the dancers jumped onto a speaker that was on wheels. Emcee Miela Fetaw was appalled.

“He jumped on a moving speaker. East Africa doesn’t do that. Not on my side,” Fetaw said to the audience after Jam Ak Jam performed.

The band Kikeh Mato was also on the program for the night. Their funky music caught on to the crowd and got some members of the audience out of their seats to dance along. Two audience members in particular danced right in front of the stage, attracting many to the area to take videos and pictures. Kikeh Mato is from Madison, Wisconsin and is a seven-piece band made up of vocals, djembe, guitar, bass guitar and a drumset.

Lead singer Mandjou Mara named his band Kikeh Mato, because it means, “look at the moon” in his language in his native country of Guinea, West Africa. He believes that the power of the moon will provide comfort, inspiration and hope. As a praise singer, which is called a griot, Mara’s role is to do what the moon does: provide comfort, inspiration and hope. This is heard through the music of his band.

Junior Wyatt Tinder was in attendance at African Cultural and enjoyed the event overall.

“The whole event was great, but I think I definitely enjoyed Jam Ak Jam the most,” Tinder said. “They kept their energy alive throughout their whole performance and that was pretty amazing to see.”

Sophomore Shelby Whalen was also in attendance and enjoyed herself while at the event.

“To be completely honest, I came for the free food,” Whalen said. “But I stayed for the performances and they were great.”

In the past, the African Student Association has organized two fashion shows, but this year was considered the first African Cultural Night. With such a large turnout, Yusuf hopes to make African Cultural Night an annual event for the African Student Association.