This week, justArts spoke with Lina Nurhussien, president of Brandeis African Students Organization, about their 5th annual Night for Africa. This year’s theme was Afrocentricity. 

justArts: Will you tell me about how the theme for the event was chosen and what the inspiration was?

Lina Nurhussien: It was actually our [Intercultural Center] Representative [who] came up with that idea [Jason Bideu ’17, Intercultural Center Representative]. … So my first year, we had “54 Shades of Gold,” kind of playing off “50 Shades of Grey.” Last year was “The Beauty Within.” This year was “Afrocentricity,” which is meant to, like, encompass African cultures and also cultures that were part of the African Diaspora. So it would include Afro-Latinos, Afro-Arabs — just saying that Africa is multifaceted and we felt that including that word “Afro” in Afrocentricity would best, I guess, display that. 

JA: Was there anything different that you did this year compared to previous years? 

LN: Well, we tried to include more off-campus acts. So, usually, it’s [Boston University] that comes, and Northeastern [University], and this year we had [Boston College] that came in addition to BU and Northeastern, as well as Wellesley. We wanted to collaborate with other ASOs — that stands for African Student Organizations, or alliances or unions or however they want to define themselves on campus. And we wanted to create that network just because we are located near the Boston area, and there are so many campuses around. ... So we did that this year — going to their events, [them] attending our events, just in order to make that connection. 

JA: Was there a particular number that you think stuck out? 

LN: I could get glimpses of [the show], but I never really got down to sit down and watch everything. So I can’t really say, like, a certain act stood out to me, just because when you’re backstage, you’re just trying to make sure everything is running smoothly. 

JA: Was there a specific message or a few messages you wanted the audience to take away from the event? 

LN: Well, I guess that could be answered by analyzing the program. The way we did the program is we kind of wanted to start out traditional, if that makes sense, or more serious, I guess you could say, and then kind of delve into modern themes. So the first act opened with poetry, for example, and then the second act opened with “We Stand With Mizzou” which was kind of a last-minute decision because that’s a recent thing that happened. And then afterwards, we would delve into fairy tales … like “Snow Black” and things like that that we had this year — modern Afro-Caribbean Dancing, or just contemporary dancing, singing, rapping, spoken word. So we sort of had that traditional and modernity—just saying that those two can overlap. It doesn’t have to be just one thing or the other because that is kind of the reality right now for most African nations, kind of figuring out how you’re going to exist.

                  —Emily Wishingrad