Student club shows unity in action during Afro Night Out

The songs, group dances and poetry recitals performed by the members of the student organization Afrikiya gave the audience for Afro Night Out plenty to cheer about – and reflect upon.

Ellis Edinkrah ’25 (left) and Lo Vodo ’25 were emcees for Afro Night Out in October 2023.

Dozens of students, Afrikiya members and non-members alike, came to the Trone Student Center for the event, built around the theme of African unity and designed to further one of the goals in the group’s constitution: to “build a bridge between Furman students from Africa and other Furman students in general.”

Within the first few minutes of Afro Night Out, students from a dozen different African countries had carried their nation’s flags to the Burgiss Theater stage. Many of them were joined by non-African members of Afrikiya who felt a connection to a particular country, said the organization’s president, Tanya Masvimbo ’26, a computer science major from Zimbabwe.

“With the theme, we were thinking about how we have managed to unite on campus, even though we’re from different parts of Africa,” she said. “There’s a contrast between how unified we are (in Afrikiya) and how disunified our countries actually are in reality.”

Cultural engagement

The campus provides fertile ground for that unity, said Masvimbo.

“There’s an open-mindedness and willingness to learn more about things you don’t know about at Furman,” she said. “It wasn’t just Africans dancing at Afro Night Out. We had Americans and people from all other places dancing with us, and that’s because they were open-minded.”

Afro Night Out directly aligned with Furman’s mission of “advocating respect for all people and actively welcoming perspectives from a wide variety of backgrounds, cultures and beliefs,” said Franklin Ellis, associate dean and director of the Center for Inclusive Communities and special assistant to the president for diversity and belonging.

“This event allowed for our domestic students to gain a stronger understanding of the rich cultures that our international students bring to campus,” he said. “It embodied a liberal arts and sciences education as it offered students the opportunity to engage in learning about other cultures, which allows them to think broadly.”

Unity in motion

Tyler Pearson ’26 dances to amapiano music from South Africa during Afro Night Out in October 2023.

Music and dance have never been hemmed in by boundaries, with or without TikTok. A Kenyan can pick up the moves of the Shaku Shaku craze that started across the continent in Nigeria.

As the audience cheered for group dances choreographed by Afrikiya members and set to contemporary hits from South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria, it was also getting a live demonstration of African unity, said Masvimbo.

“It’s very difficult for all of us from different places to come together to agree on a song and on dance moves,” she said. “Working together to make those dances shows the ability to unify.”

“Africa is a gem,” said Liberian student Roger Abim-Karmon ’26, the organization’s treasurer, in the panel discussion moderated by Ellis that concluded Afro Night Out. “We all cherish it, and we love to share this gem with you. It’s not Afrikiya without you being a part of it as well.”

A lasting legacy

Toward the beginning of Afro Night Out, emcees Lo Vodo ’25 and Ellis Edinkrah ’25 led a moment of silence to honor Janet Kwami, Afrikiya’s first faculty advisor, who died in May 2023.

Kwami, an assistant professor of communication studies, was instrumental in revitalizing Afrikiya as a continuation of a previous student group, Baba Africa. Along with Laura Baker, an outreach librarian and Pathways advisor, she helped facilitate the organization’s first Cultural Life Program (CLP) event in March 2022.

“Her legacy and impact on this campus are undeniable,” said Baker, who sponsored the recent CLP with Ellis, prior to the event. “Afrikiya is but one example of her legacy. This vibrant student group is making its mark at Furman.”