Who: Berkely African Students Association

What: ‘Spring Festival’

When: Friday, April 23 2005

Where: UCB International House (I-house)

The Story: Berkeley African Students Association (B.A.S.A) an organization formed all the way back in the 60s as a way to promote culture and a sense of unity of the African people and their supporters. The Spring Fest is an annual event that the organization has become well known for. This festival creates an opportunity to disseminate African culture throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. With the purpose of generating an venue to raise funds to donate to “charities that work in or with Africa.”

Repping Ghana, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, Brazil and more, there was a decent variety of Afro-cultures for the audience to savor.

The dances served not only as a way of entertaining but also enlightenment to the traditions and history surrounding the dances. Dance styles and themes such as Tokoe, Soukous, Afrobeat, Sovu, Samba, Saber, and Takada were presented throughout the night and the performances were enhanced even more with the live drumming accompanying some of them. Sounds of Femi Kuti

What is an African event without a Fashion show? Right, almost impossible. The fashion show was a freestyle, high energy presentation of traditional African clothing and styles, as well as more updated and ‘blended’ styles.

Other highlights of the night were:

Chinyere Mbagwu the current vice president of BASA who presented poetry (as well as performing in a few of the other dances) “reflecting the positive events and aspects of our beautiful continent.” A comedic play “The Fight for a Jewel, a love story based on African life. A guitar, mic and a chair served as props for Na na Boateng to perform his song in a local Ghana dialect with a motivating message for blacks in the Diaspora.

The night ended with a taste of African food and an after party.

*Photos by Onyi Onwudiwe