The University of Idaho Argonaut

The University of Idaho’s African Student Association will be putting on its second Africa Night in three years.
It has taken two years, but Africa Night provides audiences with a cultural showing of Africa, food and dance from its various regions.

“We want people to know about Africa,” said Tiecoura Traore, ASA president. “It’s actually not well known.”
When people are asked about Africa, some say it’s one country, while others mention the wildlife and some just mention Sudan, Traore said.

According to ASA member Steven Odubiyi, there are many cultures in Africa and many will be represented in the program.
There will be a slideshow of each country and a total of 52 flags will be displayed representing each nation within Africa.

“There are about 25 students from Africa on campus, and about 12 are really involved with Africa Night,” Traore said.
The 12 students involved with putting on Africa Night represent several African countries. At least four different dances from various regions of Africa and a professional drum group from Boise will also be part of the program.

“Africa drumming is very different than other forms of drumming and is even different within the different regions,” Traore said.
There will also be a dinner with various dishes and a fashion show.

ASA has gone through Sodexho for the food and will be using the Sodexho kitchens in Wallace and the Student Union Building to prepare it.
“We tried to get donations from WinCo, but we needed to order the food further in advance than we did,” said Roda Adlei, vice  president of ASA.
There was an event planned for last spring but it was postponed until fall.

“The last Africa Night was two years ago with WSU,” Traore said.
ASA is currently receiving some help from WSU students, but are not putting the event on in conjunction with the university due in part because they were not ready for an event in the fall.

“We started planning last year but really did a lot of planning in the last eight weeks,” Adlei said.
ASA is hoping for 400 people to attend.
The organization has titled their program “Tarafina” which means “African” in Bambara a native language in Africa.
Tickets are now on sale adults are $10, UI/WSU students are $8, children 6-12 are $5 and children under six are free. Tickets are also available at the door for $12. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. in the SUB Ballroom Saturday. Tickets are also available at the International Programs Office.

For more information on the event contact Traore at 596-1903 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or Adlei at (206) 334-6047 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it