This previous week, the Yale African Students’ Association (YASA) hosted its annual Africa Week — 6 days of speakers, film screenings and cultural demonstrates on campus to celebrate a lesser-acknowledged face of the world’s second-largest continent.
The theme of Africa Week this 12 months was “Africa 360: A Panoramic Perspective of the Continent.” The week — which lasted from Nov. eleven to 17 and featured speakers ranging from the founder of news outlet Africa.com to the king of the Akyem Abuakwa classic area of Ghana — aimed to encourage a new viewpoint on African life, mentioned Ameze Belo-Osagie ’16, vice president of YASA.
“Often when we have discussions about Africa on campus, they are typically related to growth,” Belo-Osagie mentioned. “We speak about safety and corruption, but we do not talk about culture, literature or background. We really needed to make the level that there are people making exciting contributions in a great deal of diverse ways, and we wanted to place that on Yale students’ radars.”
The week’s occasions had been geared toward the wealthy culture of Africa, rather than focusing solely on politics, mentioned YASA President Metabel Markwei ’15. For illustration, she explained, 1 of the most well-known occasions of the week was the speak given on Nov. eleven by Ngugi wa Thiong’o, a Kenyan author and former going to Yale professor, who Markwei named one particular of the “pioneers of African literature.” Other occasions incorporated film screenings by popular African filmmakers and a discussion about the complicated identities of Africans in contrast to African-Americans.
Beyond highlighting African culture, yet another objective of the week was to facilitate conversation among the different African curiosity groups on campus, Markwei explained. Despite the fact that all the occasions had been planned and executed by YASA members, YASA invited other organizations to contribute as nicely. For illustration, the Nov. 15 discussion about African versus African-American identity was moderated by Patricia Okonta ’15, president of the Black Pupil Alliance at Yale.
“Through Africa Week, we were trying to connect the dots to Africa on this campus,” Markwei stated. “The question for me was, what had been the wants that we could meet on this campus, and what are the gaps in the conversation about Africa that we can have? We reached out to other groups of interest to see if they wished to contribute to the innovative process of coming up with that discussion.”
Okonta mentioned she was pleased to join in the celebrations, as she felt a private tie to the topics mentioned, in spite of not becoming straight involved in YASA.
As a very first-generation American from Nigerian parents, Okonta explained, she is aware of that Africa holds hope and a promising potential.
“The events YASA supplied all around Africa Week and throughout the whole school year demonstrate methods in which the continent of Africa and its individuals both in and outside the diaspora are thriving and excelling,” Okonta said in an e mail to the Information.
YASA members explained they hope that the discussions prompted by Africa Week will increase greater awareness of how considerably the research of African life has to offer you. In addition to acting as a “signpost” to advertise YASA and the occasions it hosts throughout the school year, Belo-Osagie stated, she needs students’ newfound awareness to prompt them to consider taking an African Research class.
Even inside the walls of the University, there is much space for growth in African Research, she extra, explaining that Yale does not supply as numerous assets as she would like in buy to totally engage in African concerns.
“Discussion on Africa is not as widespread as it need to be, given the place Africa is taking in the world and how virtually everyone has a stake in Africa,” Markwei explained. “We as African college students don’t feel like sufficient African diversity is represented in Yale’s African Studies Division. That’s a gap that Yale can fill when compared to other universities in the U.S.”
Nonetheless, Markwei also expressed hopes that Yale is moving in the proper route, and believes that Yale will make wonderful strides in the quite close to long term. Belo-Osagie explained she is glad the theme YASA chose for the week worked properly in conjunction with University President Peter Salovey’s recent initiative to extend academic ties with African institutions.
“We are so enthusiastic to be at Yale at a time like this, so that we can push the African frontier,” Markwei said. “I consider more of the results of Africa Week will be felt by individuals coming to Yale five years down the line. These are the beginnings of what I truly feel is a huge wave of interest in Africa. It’s an awesome time to be a part of it.”
The week concluded with a cultural demonstrate on Sunday.
Africa Week zooms in on culture, new possibilities
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