African Languages Club to host daylong festival with food, music, dance

After only one semester, the IU African Languages Club boasts 71 members. Students and faculty members holding an interest in African languages responded enthusiastically to the formation of the club, which on Feb. 27 will hold its first event, the Africana Festival.\nThe Africana Festival – a daylong festival featuring dancing, music and food from Africa at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center, 275 N. Jordan Ave. – will be held Tuesday, Feb. 27.\nIn fall 2006, graduate students Abbie Hantgan and Chris R. Green formed the African Languages Club to promote African languages and ethnology.\nThe club provides African language students a forum to practice speaking with other students and native speakers. Hantgan, the club’s president, and Green, the vice president, also decided to integrate culture and lifestyle into the structure of the club. The intent was to welcome interested students who were not necessarily studying African languages already.\n“We want it to be a breeding ground of interest for younger students,” Green said. “We want students to know that they don’t have to fill their language credit with just Spanish, French or German – that there are more options out there.”\nAfter spending 3 1/2 years in the Peace Corps, Hantgan said she decided to enroll at IU because of the African Languages Program.\n“IU has such an amazing African languages program,” she said. “But professors are constantly under pressure to bring enrollment up. Our club is dedicated to promoting the African language department.”\nIU offers four African languages: Kiswahili, Twi, Zulu and Bambara/Bamana, at three levels each. IU’s is one of the largest programs of its kind in the nation.\nFor students, the club offers a gathering place to discuss African languages and culture.\n“A lot of members have been to Africa,” said member and graduate student Summer Tritt. \nTritt, a student of Twi, said she wanted to be part of the club and its experience directly relating to Africa.\nIn addition to the Festival, the club will participate in other events in the upcoming weeks.\nThe African Languages Festival is scheduled for April 13 and will include speakers who will read African poems and proverbs. The club anticipates sponsoring its own coffee hour sometime in April in the International Studies building. There will be performances from each African language class, including dancing and singing.\nClub leaders said they want the club to connect with the community.\n“We’d like to go to the elementary schools and talk to students about African languages and culture,” Hantgan said. “In schools, they spend a day talking about them but never really go further than that. We’d like to raise awareness about African languages.”\nGreen said he became interested in African languages because of their declining popularity on the continenet.\n“I chose African languages,” Green said, “because after colonization, the countries would just choose the language of the mother country and not the indigenous language. Because of that, they’re slowly starting to die out.”\nAll interested students and faculty members are encouraged to contact group leaders for more information about meetings and events.\nVisit the African Language Club’s Web site.