The University of Idaho’s African Student Association hosted its annual Africa Night on Saturday to a crowd of about 400 people, said Toluwani Adekunle, a UI student from Nigeria who helped organize the event.
Stephanie Rosen | Courtesy
Students from the African Student Association Idaho perform at Africa Night 2012 Saturday in the Student Union Building ballroom.
She said Africa Night is an event created to showcase the various cultures of Africa using dance, music, poetry and food to show the face of Africa.
“It is something I’m proud of as an African,” Adekunle said about being a part of the event.
She said the event is put on by the ASA and included African students not only from UI, but also students from Eastern Washington University and Washington State University.
Africa Night is different from other cultural events because its purpose is to show every culture from a whole continent, Adekunle said.
She said she was impressed with the amount of people who showed interest in learning about the African culture.
“I am actually very pleased to know that students at the U of I are interested in learning about different cultures,” Adekunle said.
She said her favorite part of the night was introducing all of the food available for students to try.
There was a large variety of African food, from soups — both vegetarian and meat based — and rice-based dishes, to African snacks.
Adekunle said they had a larger variety of food for people to choose from than previous years, and the people who came to Africa Night said they loved that they could choose from multiple dishes.
The event started in the Student Union Building ballroom and then moved to St. Augustine’s Catholic Center for food.
Adekunle said Africa Night was a great event, and that she encourages students to attend to cultural events because there is a lot to learn from different cultures.
Allison Griffith can be reached at [email protected]