Five Colleges, Incorporated: Africa Day 2006

Home > Archive > Africa Day 2006

Five College Africa Day:
Come Celebrate, Learn, and Help a Child Heal

In cooperation with the Smith African and Caribbean Student Association (SACSA), the Five College African Studies Council will hold a day-long benefit Celebrating the Black Child, on November 4 at the Smith College campus. Proceeds from the festive event will specifically benefit an African child who needs an operation to heal burns he suffered during the recent war in Uganda.

Events get underway in Smith College's Scott Gymnasium at 12:30 p.m. with live drumming and panel discussions, followed by a benefit dinner and Jam Show in Sage Hall, and wrap up with an Afro-Caribbean party in the Mwangi Cultural Center at 10:00 p.m.

The afternoon sessions will feature two panel discussions: "Contemporary issues in Africa: Discussion with visiting scholars from the Ivory Coast, Kenya and Nigeria" and "From the Five Colleges to Africa: study abroad, internships, activism and research from students' perspectives." The panels will be interspersed with presentations of African drumming, a dramatic skit about learning Swahili, and an introduction to Five College African Studies faculty and graduate students.

Highlights of the evening include a benefit dinner of African and Caribbean foods followed by a two-hour cultural extravaganza with dramatic performances, music, and a children's fashion show.

As a way to recognize the many innocent children who have been victimized by the 20-year war in Northern Uganda, the Smith African and Caribbean Student Association is using this event to raise funds to benefit one child, Opiyo Ivan, who is eight years old and a recent victim of the conflict. Opiyo had been living on the streets of Gulu, where he had come after fleeing rebels who had ambushed his village. He was so badly burned that, while his bones continue to grow, his scar tissue does not. Unless he can be operated on, he will become a total invalid. Proceeds from the dinner and the show that follows it will be used to help bring Opiyo to the United States for that vital operation. The Opiyo benefit fund was conceived by Jeannette Quinn, a Smith Ada Comstock student, who met him while in Uganda.

Schedule of Events for Five College Africa Day

12:45: Welcoming remarks

1:00: The Five College West African Music Ensemble

1:30: Meet the Five College African Scholars

2:30: Five College Language Students Swahili skit

2:45: All about Africa and African Studies at the Five Colleges

4:30: Benefit dinner with African/Caribbean flavors ($6, or more for extra donation; includes show)

7:00: SACSA Jam Show ($3 without dinner; Sage Hall)

10:00: SACSA Afro-Caribbean Party ($3; Mwangi Cultural Center)

Sponsored by SACSA, Five College African Studies Council, the Five College African Scholars Program, Amherst Anthropology Department, Amherst Black Studies, Mount Holyoke College African American and African studies and English departments, Atopani fund at Hampshire College.

For more information, call 585-6359 (SACSA publicity) or visit www.fivecolleges.edu/sites/african

Photos available upon request. Contact Robyn Cutler at (413) 256-8316.

Page created 10/08/06

web site design by gravity switch, inc.