Southeast Missouri State University's African Association will be hosting its first event as an organization called African Night at 6 p.m. on Friday, May 2, in the Multipurpose Room on the second floor of the Student Recreation Center-North.

African night will have music, dancing, food tasting and a fashion show. All of the entertainment will feature traditional African delights. Although the night is primarily featured around African cultures, attendees can expect some western influences to be present to promote unity among all Southeast students who come from various cultures.

The fashion show part of the night will feature conventional African clothing worn by members of the organization, who are also hoping those in attendance who are not affiliated with the African Association will dress up and join in on the show even if they don't wear African clothing.

"Anyone can dress up, it's up to who's going to attend the event, but we strongly encourage you to," Jimmy Kengara, president of African Association said. "If you have some fashion you can show, even some American fashion you can show, bring it."

African Association is hosting the celebration to help educate those not familiar with the traditions of African clothing, food, music and dance.

"The main goal of this event is to talk about African culture because we noticed American people do not know too much about Africa," Pacome Domagni, secretary and founder of the African Association said."We want to show people what really happens in Africa."

African Association would like to continue holding events in appreciation of African culture, but do not currently have anything planned as African Night will be the first event that has been planned by the newly founded organization. The successes of the first few events will determine when the other programs will happen.

"Definitely we are planning on doing something big during the fall," Kengara said. "And then we can plan on how we are going to do the events."

Kengara and Domagni would like to invite students of all cultural backgrounds interested in joining African Association to do so. For more information about joining, students can contact members at either African Night or through their Facebook page, SEMO African Association.