Members of the African Student Organization perform Friday night as part of the annual African Night. The groups demonstrated dance styles from a variety of countries within the continent.
The groom and his family traveled from South Africa to Nigeria so he could marry her.
About 500 people from the OSU and Stillwater community came along too, as the South African groom and his Nigerian bride were characters in this year’s African Night.
The event’s theme was “Umoja,” which means “unity” in Kiswahili.
Showing how an African wedding works was the perfect way to give an example of unity within the continent’s culture, said Bola Jabitta, the African Student Organization cultural coordinator.
“If there’s anything that unites Africans together, it’s a wedding,” Jabitta said. “It’s the union of two different people. Even if they are the same tribe, it’s a different culture or background.”
An African wedding is never a small ceremony but rather an enormous and colorful celebration, Jabitta said.
This was portrayed throughout the night in the eight dances and also fashion shows.
The event got off to a late start mainly because many people were still buying tickets at 5 p.m. when the show was scheduled to begin, Jabitta said.
About 5:30, the lights of the Seretean Center dimmed. An eager crowd grew quiet as 10 students carrying candles walked along the aisles of the auditorium.
This was the quietest the crowd would be throughout the night, for clapping, whistling, cheering and shouting soon came with the dancing.
No dancers showed nervousness as they moved. Bare feet slapped against the wooden stage as they danced in unison. At the end of this second performance, the crowd wanted more.
Performers from the University of Central Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma also entertained.
Confident and maybe even a little cocky, six Sooners took the stage and never stopped moving.
They gyrated their bodies, did pelvic thrusts and impressed many of the women in the crowd, who showed appreciation through excited cheering.
Their high energy performance kept the crowd captivated as they, at one point, were in a circle, kicking and moving as though they were playing soccer before they turned and kicked the “ball” out into the audience.
Along with the dancing, fashion was also a large part of African Night.
During the first fashion show, women dressed in school uniforms, some with plaid skirts, others with ties, strutted on stage, giving the audience an idea of what attire at high schools in Africa is like.
The crowd had a good laugh after one confident young man decided to show off his clothes with a series of
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