Joanna Orban
Staff Writer
The African Student Association club started as a small club who wanted to work together to take care of African students on campus. As time went, and after the club hosted their first African Night, the club started to grow.
Today, the club has 30-40 active members. The African Student Association is well known for its African Night, an annual event that helps educate the ISU and wider community about different African cultures.
On African night in 2019, the ASA had a segment where they talked about the different flags of each African culture.
They also had traditional storytelling, dancing, and music. In addition, they had several vendors, including one who came all the way from Zambia with authentic fabric.
“It’s a way for us to celebrate ourselves and our differences. It’s not just a night of fun,” said ASA president Ifunanyachukwu Thelma Anih.
The ASA hosts many events throughout the year, such as an ASA get together. The event is less formal than African Night as it is mainly to welcome new African Students to campus.
The club also has an African Attire Day where members are encouraged to wear traditional dress to help remind them of home.
“We educate the community through African Night and they educate us through campus activities and all the stuff we can get involved in as a club,” said Anih.
Having diverse clubs, such as the ASA on-campus benefits both the club members and the wider campus. According to Henry Evans, a doctorate in education, the ASA is an important part of the ISU campus.
“It’s important because we want to reflect the diversity in the world and we want to expose our student body to a diverse perspective,” Evans said.
In addition to being the faculty advisor for the ASA club, Evans is also the Associate Director of the Office of Equity and Inclusion and the Diversity Resource Center on campus.
“The purpose of the ASA group is to bring Africans together for that hospitality so they don’t feel left out or feel like they don’t belong somewhere, especially for new students who are coming straight from Africa,” Anih said.
In New York, Ekow Barlow was part of an active ASA club and he was excited to find one in Pocatello when he moved.
“I enjoy being around and doing whatever I can to make this club successful and feel as if they were home and also know that they have a bigger family here away from home, who is here to support and help out in any way,” Barlow said. “This has been the goal of the people before I came here to when I was president to the people in the club now.”
Anih, has been a member of the club since she came to ISU in 2017. “I had a friend who helped me when I came here, he went out of his way to help me. It was difficult for me to adapt, and then he came and opened up this world of different Africans and I felt much more welcomed and much more comfortable. It was just that feeling of hospitality and family,” Anih said.
Anih’s tenure as president of the ASA is coming to an end as this semester closes. As she is going into her senior year, she is not planning to rerun.
Anih is not the only student who values her membership in the ASA.
Donald Nyamekye described the feelings he gets from this club with the Swahili word Umoja, which means unity.
“Umoja is what African Students Association is to me. Always bringing us together in happiness and greater spirits. It is the bell in our ears reminding us of home and honoring our roots every day of our lives. Proud to be apart of the greatness of this club, forever,” Nyamekye said.
