By Yisu Kim, News Staff

A fusion of Africa’s traditional and modern arts took students back to the roots of the continent’s culture in a Northeastern African Student Organization (NASO) event in the Fenway Center Saturday.

The cultural gala, Africa Night, was part of the International Student and Scholar Institute (ISSI)-sponsored Africa Week, aimed at exploring the region’s beauty and diversity. NASO also recognized Africa’s struggles during the event by holding a fundraiser to support individuals suffering from famine in the Horn of Africa, which includes countries like Somalia, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Due to severe drought, nations in the Horn have been affected by a food crisis that has caused tens of thousands of deaths during the past eight months, according to a report from the Office for the Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs. To raise awareness about the famine and share the African culture with students, NASO’s performers presented fashion shows, dances, body paint and skits.
Christine Umeh, president of NASO and a middler communication studies major, said she wanted to share African culture with those less familiar with the region.

“There’s a huge misconception about Africa,” she said. “People only know what they see in television, like jungles and deserted areas, and that’s not the case. We wanted to show everyone that Africa has great fashion, great music, great food, great dance and just a great culture. We wanted to show the beauty of Africa.”

Modern and traditional African music played throughout the night as students tasted traditional African foods and watched performances. Four fashion shows highlighted the bold prints of African attire, and spoken word performers explained the history of African groups in their home countries and in America. In the dance routines, performers incorporated modern sequences and traditional elements of African dance to create a distinct artistic blend.

In one segment, performers walked the runway painted as flags of various African countries, including Nigeria, Ghana, Somalia, Kenya and Cape Verde. African students in the crowd cheered on the representatives of their home countries throughout the routine.

“My favorite part of the show was the body painting, because I’m Cape Verdean and they had one person being the Cape Verdean flag,” said Jennifer Galvao, a middler political science and international affairs major. “That was really cool to see.”

Joy Oshafi, vice president of NASO and a middler finance, accounting and marketing major, performed in the opening scene and in the body paint act.

“Performing felt amazing,” Oshafi said. “People’s reactions were great. We wanted to put the main countries represented by our student body so the audience could react to the commonality. We wanted to show everyone that this is how we see Africa, and this is what it means to us.”

Along with sharing their African heritage, the performers hoped to inform as many students as possible about the famine in the Horn of Africa, Umeh said. Working with Hearts for the Horn, NASO brought in speakers to inspire student involvement with the issue. Umeh said world awareness of the famine was low  because the Somali pirates terrorizing the seas and holding people hostage make countries less willing to send aid.

“One of our board members brought up that there’s been serious famine going on from 2011, and her family was being directly affected,” Umeh said.

The 2012 Africa Night had a higher attendance rate than it has in recent years, with more than 300 in attendance, Umeh said.

“The turnout was incredible, and really impressed me,” she said. “We’ve never had people go out around the block and wait outside for us. I was so happy that NASO was able to provide a good audience for our performers. I was really happy about the crowd because now people here know about NASO.”

Ultimately, the cultural gala allowed both African and non-African students to understand the beauty and struggles of the Horn, Oshafi said. Audience members filled the room until the show’s end, emptying the Fenway Center only long after the applause had faded.