African Students Unite to Form Student Union

By K.J. ENNIN

Recognizing the need for unity on campus, the school’s three African clubs have decided to come together to form one umbrella organization, the African Students Union this fall semester.

Bringing together the Ghanaian Students Association, United Nigerian Students Association, and the Ethiopian Students Association to form the African Students Union is the brain child of Afua Safo-Asante, the president of the Ghanaian Students Association and Mamadou Paye, a political science student at City College.

“Africans in the school and beyond are faced with the same kind of problems and stereotypes such as the lack of proper legal documents to further their college education and this union will serve as a platform to address issues like this that exist,” says Safo-Asante.

The organization was inaugurated October 30th has set as some of its goals to be an instrument for greater change on the African continent and to promote the image of Africa on campus.

Mamadou Paye, president of the union and a Senegalese himself, says an African students group that transcends nationality would be an avenue for students who have come to the country for education to meet students like themselves. It would also serve to keep Africans active in the school.

“As we don’t know much about the other clubs,” said Eva B. Manu, a member of the Ghanaian Students Association. “It will be a nice way to learn more about the other cultures on the continent.”

While inviting people of African and non-African descent to sign up for the club in the NAC plaza, Afua Safo-Asante emphasized that this group was for people from all walks of life “It shouldn’t be for only Africans but for everybody interested in the continent and its people,” said Safo-Asante.

Students involved in the union expect that there will be bumps in the creation of such an organization. There is an enormous population of Africans and non-Africans with sympathies for the continent at City College. However, the challenge lies in congregating them into a single body.

“Even though it is a single continent, the belief systems in the numerous countries differ,” Eva Many said. “Hence it will require a concerted effort to work it out and come together.”

There is an old African adage that says, it is easy to cut down a single tree in a forest but much harder to cut down the forest itself. Many groups speaking with one voice would more effectively represent their concerns, organizers of the group say.

“Through socializing with other Africans on campus, we can have people to talk to when we have any kind of problems on campus,” said Paye.

Africa is a continent that has seen its share of atrocities with disease epidemics and civil wars that have torn countries apart, thus, a student organization like the African Students Union serves as miniature footsteps that would lead to giant positive strides into the future of the continent.

“The goal of this Union,” said Olonso Gabbidan, Assistant Director at the Finley Student Center in City College, “ought to be to create a sense of identity for all students of African descent.”