The Umoja club hosted a presentation on King Mansa Musa in the Multicultural Center on Thursday, Feb. 20 to celebrate Black History Month. Students got to enjoy pizza, play the Black Wall Street game, learn business insights and more.
Umoja Club Counselor Lateaira Hockaday explained the purpose of having this event.
“The purpose of this event, first and foremost is for Black History Month,” Hockaday said, “But it was to share the history of our people in Africa to our students and share that they are able to accomplish things beyond what we have learned before.”
Speaker De’Von Truvel touched on the importance of sharing the positive aspects of African culture.
“The event was themed after Mansa Musa who was an ancient African emperor and king of Mali,” Truvel said. “ I wanted to start there because the importance of sharing stories of royalty and sharing stories of positive Black cultures is important for us so that we can also see ourselves in that positivity.”
Umoja Club Event Organizer Kalynda McLean expressed her moments of joy from the Mansa Musa event.
“I enjoyed everything about this event,” McLean said. “I enjoy the reaction from the event, the arrangement that the students have, I enjoy working with the presenter and vendor, he’s fantastic. So, every part of this event is a joy, and I am grateful to be able to coordinate.”
Biotechnology major Larae Jorgoo shared her thoughts on what she learned from this Mansa Musa presentation event.
“I learned that when it comes to self-actualizing within the Black identity, it is important to also have community,” Jorgoo said. “As one of your motivations is being patient with yourself and then also understanding that you have to acknowledge your trauma and what you’ve been through in order to have sustained growth.”
Sociology major David Tucker expressed his great appreciation that he got to share his family’s unique and close history to Martin Luther King Jr.
“It was an honor to share with our guest speaker the photo of my great grandfather and Martin Luther King Jr. and share about how I advocated to do a report on my great grandfather for Black History Month, even though he wasn’t in the textbooks,” Tucker said.
McLean shared her hopes for what the event taught students.
“Well, it’s my hope that the students will learn from this event a little bit about history, a little bit about culture and learn how to start beginning to think about their future,” McLean said. “One of the goals of this presentation today was to learn a little bit more about financial wellness. And the other goal was to learn a little bit more about history since it’s Black History Month.”