Africans Unite as Festival Draw Thousands

People from different countries scoop African artefacts at the Ajabu Ventures stand during the recently concluded 9 th Annual African Festival in Lowell Mass. AjabuVentures.com is a new and fast growing Finance and Media company that recently opened a branch office on 297 West 6th street in Lowell.

LOWELL, Mass. JUNE 27__Weather reports of a possible rainy day did not deter hundreds if not thousands of people from all over Massachusetts from attending the 9th Annual African Festival held in Lowell, Mass. last Saturday. Their gamble paid off, the storm clouds did not release, and indeed, the sun came out at just the right temperature.

Tents and vendor booths were already fully occupied by 11 AM, the official kick off time for this rapidly growing cultural event in Lowell.
 
Started 9 years ago by a few men and women residents of Lowell, the African Festival is slowly emerging as a must attend event in the Lowell annual calendar. It showcases the diverse, rich and vibrant African culture and is usually beamed live on local cable channels 7 and 95 by Lowell Telecommunications Corporation.

Many local business entities have found out it wise to sponsor this event.

This year, the Lowell African Festival attracted members of different African communities as well as white and African Americans residing in Lowell and other areas. AjabuAfrica.com talked to many people who came from many parts of New England like Worcester, Malden, Boston, Nashua, New Hampshire and many other areas.

“It’s so funny that this event has been happening for many years and we had no clue”, said John Ngugi, a member of St. John’s Anglican Church Traditional Choir from Worcester who performed a Gospel cultural dance from Kenya.

Youths from West Africa dance an African dance during the 9th Annual African Festial in Lowell

“I don’t think we will ever miss out again”, said Rev. Ekira Mureithi, Pastor of the Anglican Church in Worcester who had accompanied her dance troupe.” I wish other Kenyans would take a day off and just come to see what goes on here”, she added.

Lowell mayor, Edward “Bud” Caulfield, and deputy mayor, Rita Mercier, showered praise on the Africans in Lowell for their great spirit and work ethic. Mayor Caulfield thanked the organizers of the African Festival for coming up with the idea that helps recognize the presence and contribution by immigrants from Africa to the well being of the communities in Lowell.

“When I talk to the coaches, I get nothing other than good reports about the African kids in all our schools in Lowell. The coaches say these kids are humble, honest and hardworking “, mayor Caulfield said

 The mayor said that Lowell has traditionally been a city of immigrants dating way back in the early 19th century when the Irish, the French and the Greek immigrants arrived and built up most of the current infrastructure in the city.

"It s time the new immigrants like Africans contibuted the the growth of Lowell , said "Bud" Caulfield" .


The mayor said that out of the 104,000 residents of Lowell, the African community is estimated at about 4000 residents. 

“This is an important development in Lowell”, said the mayor. He said that his office will continue to make Lowell a better place for everyone and be supportive of the African immigrants and their children. 

The mayor said that recently, the city of Lowell signed a citation making the city of Lowell a sister city to the city of Nairobi, Kenya. A sister city is an important symbolic cultural milestone in the relationship between the people of two different countries that share something in common.
 
Hundreds of African men, women, youths and children from Cameroun, Nigeria, Kenya, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and Senegal attended with representatives from their countries giving short speeches about their countries.

Lowell mayor, Edward Cauilfield together with deputy mayor, Rita Mercier, read a dedication to acknowledge the African Community in the City of Lowell, Mass.To the extreme left is the president of the African Cultural Association and Festival coordination, Fru Nkimbeng from Cameroon

.  The event has in the past been dominated by West Africans and a few Kenyans but this year, the organizers did a great promotional effort, with a goal of bringing out more East Africans.  

However, there was still a loud and notable absence of Africans from Uganda and Tanzania.
 
The chairman of the Kenya Pastors Fellowship in America, Bishop David Karaya attended the event accompanied by Dr. Karimi Mumbui, a pastor of a large Kenyan community church in Lowell. Another Kenyan cleric who is in America for a short visit, Bishop Samuel Muya opened the event with Christian prayers while Imam Mohamed Barrie from Sierra Leone said the Muslim prayers. Mr. Kingsley Ndi from Cameroon performed the African traditional libation prayer.

Speaker after speaker extolled the great virtues, physical and geographical beauty and close knit traditional values from their respective African countries.

“When you plan your visit to Africa, make sure you go to Cameroun first because Cameroon is miniature Africa”, said Mr. Vigohti Tifah form Cameroon. “There are over 1000 different tribes with totally different languages in Cameroon”, he added.
 
Interviewing different people from different African countries at the festival, Ajabu Africa was shocked to find out that there are many village people and village names from Cameroon. Nigeria and Sierra Leone that are strikingly similar to those from Kenya  and other parts of East Africa. 
 
  “How did that happen? We really were the same people before communities migrated to different parts of Africa”, posed a young man from Cameroon while talking to ajabu Africa. 
 
Different African dance troupes and performers graced the event, with the youth dominating a large part of it, while vendors from everywhere did a roaring business selling out traditional African foods, drinks, arts and crafts and other services.

Rev. Ekira Mureithi , pastor of St. John Anglican church from Worcester and Joseph Njenga from Nashua, NH, enjoy an imported Kenyan soda popularly known as Stoney during the African festival

Morgana Mirage from Lowell performed an exotic Egyptian belly dance that had crowds holding their breaths, while Kenyan’s St. Johns Anglican Church from Worcester performed a vigorous traditional folk dance.
 
Young upcoming African rappers and Lingala dancers drew large curious crowds who held onto their plates of different African foods on sale at the event.

The keynote speaker, Mr.Torli Krua from Liberia, decried the lack of community service by the African communities in America and a further lack of unity and cohesion between different African communities in USA.

Mr. Krua said that America has been so nice to African immigrants by providing them with numerous opportunities for good education and a large living where now they own big cars and big houses. He said that it is therefore imperative for Africans to start giving back to the American society in order to keep the blessings flowing to Africa and back to America.

Torli Krua from Liberia delivers the keynote speech during the 9th Annual African festial in Lowell

“We can begin to give is by engaging in public service and volunteerism,” said Krua, who recently graduated from a public service institute in Boston.

“We must begin to be known not by our luxury cars, advanced professional degrees from Ivy League Universities or beautiful homes but by our service to advance human progress and our contributions toward the greater common good of humanity, he added.

In his closing remarks Mr.Krua said that Kenyans can run and win marathons but Kenyans can’t hide like Gambians do. Ghanaians can lecture but they cannot run fast enough to win marathons like Kenyans do.

The Cameroonians can inspire us with music and athletic prowess but Cameroonians by themselves cannot achieve what we can when we come together as Africans. Typical of the African Diaspora, Ugandans can only be found at events organized by Ugandans. As Africans, we cannot succeed if we continue down the path of blind dedication to ethnic and national loyalties.

“We must work together as a united African community, committed to serving others because those who serve are the greatest.” Said Dom Helder Camara, commenting on the power of working together said, “When we are dreaming alone it is only a dream. When we are dreaming with others, it is the beginning of reality. I hope we find a balance in service and working together”.

The president of the African Cultural Association and Festival coordination, Fru Nkimbeng thanked all the officials and organizers of this year’s event for the hard work and dedication that resulted in the success witnessed. He called on more Africans from different countries to participate in planning and implementing future events to make it bigger.

“Thank you all and we hope to see you back here next year”, Nkimbeng said as the event ended when darkness started creeping in at 8 pm.

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