The African Students Association at Montana State University will host an evening celebrating African culture. “A Night in Africa” will take place at 4 p.m. Sunday, March 1, in Ballroom A in the Strand Union Building on MSU’s campus. It is free and open to the public. 

The event, the first of its kind by the student organization, will showcase different aspects of African culture, such as dance, music, fashion and food, from different countries represented by the students on campus. There will also be some talks, including one discussing the importance of dance to African culture.

The event will include a keynote talk by Wilmot Collins, the mayor of Helena and the city’s first black mayor since its incorporation. Collins will talk about African excellence and draw from his personal story of coming to the U.S. as a Liberian refugee.

Nnamdi Kalu, the secretary and public relations officer for the African Students Association, said that he, along with group president Sam Ojetola and financial secretary Edwin Allan, decided last summer to put together this event to share another side of Africa with the MSU and Bozeman communities.

“We want (visitors to the event) to come in and see a different type of Africa that is not just what the media says, but that there is culture, there is beauty and that it is a continent with so many countries and so many diverse cultures and experiences,” Kalu said.

The African Students Association's purpose is to showcase the mass influence of Africans throughout the world, while also providing a home away from home for students of African descent and those interested in African culture, Kalu said. 

For more information, email msuafricansociety@gmail.com.