African Diaspora Week
By Jennifer Mdurvwa
Last week, Loyola’s African Student Union (ASU) and the Caribbean Student Union(CSU) put on its fourth annual African Diaspora Week, sponsored by ALANA(African, Latino, Asian and Native American) Services. The African Diaspora is the movement of Africans and their descendants to other places, specifically the to United States. This year’s African Diaspora Week included a series of four events that highlighted certain aspects of African and Caribbean culture. African Diaspora Week was started in March of 2007 when the president of ASU at the time, Awoyaa Mensah, wanted to generate more awareness of Loyola’s cultural clubs. Mensah started this event as a way to share and celebrate African and Caribbean culture on campus, and it has been an annual event ever since. African Diaspora Week usually includes a series of speakers, movies, performances etc. coupled with African and Caribbean food. Though it was poorly attended this year, African Diaspora Week was a moderately successful event in past. When senior and current president of ASU Deborah Ashamu was asked about the success of this year’s events she said, “I was a little disappointed by the overall turnout but it was bound to happen with the number of other events going on all week.” She also hopes to see the tradition continue in coming years.
The first event of African Diaspora Week, on Tuesday night in Knott Hall, featured a movie that showcased Caribbean cinema. Following the movie, the CSU executive board led a discussion allowing the attendees to express their feelings about the movie. Wednesday night was Village Night in McGuire Hall West, which showcased the five different regions of Africa: North, South, East, West and Central. This event included interesting foods from each of the regions such as banana fries and couscous coupled with the best places to travel in Africa, such as the beaches of Malawi and the wildlife parks of Zambia. Village Night also showcased traditional and modern music from the various regions. Thursday night’s event was a coffeehouse, which featured video clips of African American poets and spoken word artists. The majority of the clips were of Jamaican born Stacyann Chin who is a spoken word-performing artist. Many of her works are controversial. Senior Chrissi O’Keeffe stated that she was “shocked by some of the vulgar things that came out of her mouth.” The event ended with a teaser of the 2009 documentary, Good Hair, starring Chris Rock on a quest to understand the hairstyles of African American women. African Diaspora Week ended on Sunday afternoon with a trip to Island Flavors, a Caribbean restaurant in Laurel, for a brunch buffet.
ASU meets bi-weekly on Wednesday nights and CSU on Monday nights in the Claver Multicultural Lounge of the Student Center.
Click below to watch a video of Staceyann Chin
Poster by Jennifer Mdurvwa
