Few blacks attend African lecture
This is an open letter to the African and the African American students on campus. On Thursday October 30, 1997, the All African Student Association and the Ohio State French Club sponsored a lecture by internationally acclaimed music scholar, Daniel Avorgbedor of the OSU School of Music. Professor Avorgbedor’s presentation was entitled, “Common Threads: Resonances of Africa in Contemporary African American Performance Art.” He discussed African influences on Jazz, contemporary dance, rap and religious ceremonies in America. This lecture was in anticipation of the Oumou Sangaré concert, who is an artist from Mali having popular acclaim worldwide. She appeared at Weigel Hall on November first. The All African Student Association and the French Club proposed this talk to accompany the Sangaré concert. The lecture was held at the Frank Hale Black Cultural Center and its attendance was fair. Although the presentation by Avorgbedor was designed to be delivered to a predominately African American audience, not a single African American student attended. I had also anticipated more support for such an endeavor from the African students at Ohio State. My question is why was there no interest on the part of the African American students on campus to attend an event about Africa and how African influences have become a vital part of African American music, dance and worship. I saw this performance by Oumou Sangaré as an ideal opportunity to bring together diverse groups of students on campus who are interested in music, culture – be it French, Francophone, African, and African American etc., and performance art. The lecture was an attempt to gain insight into the relationships between these various cultures within the arts and to create a forum for exchange and discussion between OSU students of multiple backgrounds about these issues. It was an invitation to create a dialogue that received no reply. I challenge the African and the African American students on campus to account for this lack of participation.
Zara Bennettsenior, majoring in French
