Eastern Michigan University’s African Student Association held its second-annual African Culture Show: Taking Back Africa, Thursday in Pease Auditorium.
“The purpose was for more awareness about African culture and bringing African culture to Eastern,” said Vice President of ASA, Pascaline Shuneh.
About 60 students attended and were welcomed to Pease by the sounds of African music. DJ Freshwaves was responsible for the introduction of the culture and providing sounds.
Chicozi Chi, a student at Wayne State University and D. Wade, an EMU student, hosted the show.
The show opened up with EMU I.M.A.G.E., which performed a piece about the different attitudes regarding race. After the performance the hosts asked trivia questions to the audience about Africa, such as where the longest river was.
The fashion show was next. Models danced to the African music as they showed off their outfits and dance moves.
After the fashion show, the ASA Dance Team was next to perform. The crowd became louder as they cheered on the team who danced to African music.
Djembe drummers played on stage afterwards.
Members of The Poetry Society reopened the show after intermission with a poem about culture and identity. The crowd was engaged, snapping and cheering during the powerful performance. A step performance from the Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity of EMU followed after.
“It was awesome,” said Ana Gromulka, a sophomore urban and regional planning major. “Super lively and colorful. The performances were very well done and I loved the fashion show.”
The show ended with the ASA dance team. They came out carrying two signs saying, “Every word we speak is rhythm,” and “Every step we take is rhythm.”
“The idea was to bring together Africans on campus to unify someone like you,” said Michael Gbadamosi, founder of ASA at EMU. Gbadamosi’s vision was to connect to people like him who had an African side of their family.
“I wanted to connect to my culture before it was lost. I wanted to find people like me and not lose myself, my culture and history. That’s why the organization started.”
You can find more events and information about the African Student Association on their twitter and Facebook pages.
