The first song of The African Student Association’s ‘A Night of African Vitality,’ played just by world-renowned Zimbabwean musician Thomas Mapfumo’s five-piece band the Blacks Unlimited, got the audience swaying and clapping their hands. A few people ventured from their seats to dance in the aisles, but the atmosphere
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intensified when Mapfumo himself came out. Soon, almost everyone in the Erb Memorial Union ballroom was dancing in a jubilant frenzy as Mapfumo’s energetic music intoxicated the room further with each song. Eventually, audience members aged four to 40 were up on the extended catwalk dancing and spinning with delight. Mapfumo’s set was slightly shorter than intended due to a prior concert engagement in California, but its music coaxed audience members to their feet in a fluid swarm of movement.
ASA officer Asmeret Kiflezghi, co-emcee of the group’s third annual culture night, was pleased with Mapfumo’s performance. “Seeing everyone get up on stage was just exciting,” said Kiflezghi, “and makes me feel like all the work we put in was worth while.”
The action-packed event was open to the public at no charge.
Herbert Rawlings, a University senior and ASA publicity coordinator, said, “From the beginning, we knew we didn’t want to limit this event to just students.” This was partly due to Mapfumo’s fame but also because ASA “wanted to allow everyone to learn about Africa, to get a different perspective. Africa is not just poverty – it’s mostly promise.”
The night held many more crowd-pleasing events in addition to Mapfumo. The ASA also put on a fashion show that represented each region of the diverse continent. Models, mostly ASA members, strutted out onto the specially constructed catwalk in both traditional and contemporary outfits. As music from each region blared and the crowd cheered, each model made the outfit stand out by adding a personal touch; some danced while others used cell phones as comical accessories.
Preceding these two events were poetry, a dinner, a slideshow, dancing, and a skit. All of these events showcased various African cultures and interconnections. For instance, the Arab Student Union presented a belly dance in order to illustrate the distinct culture of Northern Africa that is often left out of Africa’s general identity. The complimentary dinner composed of food from different regions was also a testament to Africa’s diversity.
This diversity is exactly what event co-emcee and ASA officer Nana Dickson wanted the audience to see.
“I wanted people to know (Africa’s) not all dirt roads and poverty and people with distended bellies,” she said.
Dickson also wanted people to see that “there are Africans at the U of O and we have quite a nice community here.”