Territorial lines have risen as national boundaries in Africa, segregating the population as well as the resources of the African people for centuries.
Dele Adebamiji, speaking at the African Student Organization’s annual banquet Saturday night, encouraged each student to dissolve those boundaries and see one another as brother and sister.
“Africa does have the resources, but what will the children of Africa do with their resources?” Adebamiji asked the crowd of nearly 200 students and faculty at the International Cultural Center.
ASO’s fourth annual banquet, titled “Paying homage to the Motherland,” addressed this theme in its program of speakers. Student Government financed the event.
Abimbola Sonkubi, outgoing ASO president, said the banquet organizers planned the event as a way for everyone to have a good time and receive some encouragement as students begin the summer months.
As one way to pay homage to Africa, Adebamiji said the next generation of Africans must see themselves as a unified people.
“If we see ourselves as separate, we can never be united,” he said.
Sayi Liggonah, ASO treasurer, stressed the need for unification.
“Although we have different-colored skin and hail from different countries we are all from the continent of Africa,” she said.
Dawood Sultan, an assistant director of sociology, and Adebamiji asked students to be ambassadors for Africa in the United States.
“Do good work to yourselves, do good work to each other, do good work to Africa,” Sultan said.
Eugene Chimwaza, an economics sophomore from Zimbabwe, said one reason he attends the banquet every year is because people from different countries attend and enjoy the entertainment.
Nationals do not have anything in particular against other nations, Chimwaza said. But they will not go that extra mile except in extreme cases, he said.
“So many people are from different countries here; it’s good to show up and celebrate African heritage,” Chimwaza said. “Stereotypes are strong back home, but when you come here, they’re proven wrong. You go back with a different perspective.”
The banquet featured original poems by Sandra Arao Joyce Ameny and Don Akanji, accapella songs by the International Christian Fellowship choir, music by Aleric Celestine and Andrew Davis and a lively drumming exhibition by the Kumbuka Drum and Dance Collection.