Newberry FL
February 22- 26, 2021
The Assistant Principal of Newbery Elementary School invited the CAS graduate students to speak at their Black History Month (Week). They presented to students from Kindergarten to the 4th grade. The students were delighted to hear them speak. They interacted with the speakers and enjoyed their BHM week sessions.
Felicity Tackey-Otoo
African Clothing / Wax Prints
Felicity presented at three elementary schools. She presented on the history of wax print and the selected meanings. She also explained the meanings of the proverbs behind the fabrics. She emphasized on fabrics that had the theme to advise and encourage the students to student and be diligent. The students were also intrigued on how fabrics are made, the process of making fabrics. They also watched a video on how kente is woven in a loom.
Felicity is a PhD student in Construction Management.
Bisola Ajibade
African Foods
In honor of Black History Month 2021, Bisola Presented a Talk titled “Watering your Taste Buds with Nigerian Delicacies: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner” on the 22nd and 25th of February 2021. She discussed the typical breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and drinks taken across different ethnic groups in Nigeria. At the end of the talk, the students were informed and said they would love to try, Fufu, Àmàlà, Pounded Yam, and Eba amongst others.
Bisola is a Master’s Student in German.
Raphael Iyamu
African Languages
The presentation covered language families in Africa and where they are spoken, some interesting ways in which some languages in Africa differ from Indo-european languages (e.g. English and Spanish) with respect to sound inventory, sentence structure and meaning structure.
Raphael is a PhD student in Linguistics.
Mosunmola Adeojo
African Music
The Sounds, Genres and Musical Instruments of Africa. Mosúnmọ́lá gave a presentation on African music to 1st and 2nd-grade students. In her presentation, she discussed how African music has evolved to become a combination of traditional and modern elements including traditional genres, traditional instruments, and modern styles of music. She explained the functions of African music– for social and political awareness, political activism, cultural and historical preservation etc. She also listed and defined the different genres of African music including Chimurenga, Juju, Fuji,
Highlife, Menzuma, Berber music, Semba, Palmwine music/Maringa, Soukous, Coupe decale, Ndombolo, etc. She played different songs to the excited children who danced while listening to the songs. Finally, Mosúnmọ́lá gave some examples of African musical instruments including the mbira, kora, ennaga, bata drum, kakaki, tar drum, ogene, sekere, djembe, etc. She ended both classes with students dancing to “Jerusalema” by Master Kg featuring Nomcebo.
Mosunmola is a PhD student in English.
Ayuba Kwari
Sight and Scenes Across Africa
Ayuba showed the kids some of the most beautiful places and scenery in Africa. The presentation went through some of the most iconic places in Africa, from monuments to natural wonders. The kids loved the presentation and asked a lot of questions. They all want to visit these places one day with their parents and friends.
Ayuba is a recent LLM Taxation Graduate.
Daniel Alabi
Remarkable black scientists and inventors
Daniel was able to elaborate on what it means to be a scientist and an inventor. Afterwards, he highlighted some of the notable black inventors and scientists, some dead, some still alive. The presentation was open for questions, and the students asked very pointed and useful questions. Some noteworthy question was about what age they can become scientists to which the answer was now, they can be scientists now.
Daniel is a PhD student in Electrical Engineering.