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Ebony Night enlightens SCSU
Fifth annual celebration strives to clarify
 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor Tahira Naroth, playing the role of a bird, flutters around during the fifth annual Ebony Night Saturday in the Atwood Ballroom. Naroth took part of the Full House Dancers� story-telling
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 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor SCSU students and members of Council of African American Students recited the Black Panther Party�s Ten Point Plan during Ebony Night Saturday in the Atwood Ballroom. The theme of the event was �A Historical Perspective of the Black Panther Party.
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 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor SCSU student Bianca Rhodes speaks about the Black Panther Party and how the group stood up against racial injustice.
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 Media Credit: Christine Johnson/Editor Members of Full House Dancers, Azania Tripp, acting as a lion, and Sharee Dhuri, acting as a turtle, perform during Ebony Night. The Full House Dancers try portray different perspectives.
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Although Ebony Night attracted a small crowd this year, it was an eye opening experience for those who attended the Saturday night event.
The theme for this year's Ebony Night, "A Historical Perspective on the Black Panther Party," gave the audience a chance to rethink, reconsider and begin to understand some of the complexities of black American history.
The Council of African American Students emphasized the importance of unity and understanding, while entertaining the audience with story-telling in the form of dance, speeches about history and misconceptions, clips of a film, poetry, empowering songs and a presentation of the Ten Point Plan of the Black Panther Party.
The Ten Point Plan was the most enlightening segment of the evening for many. One by one, members of CAAS stated each point of the plan, which asks for freedom of black people to determine the destiny of their own communities; full access to employment; and an end to robbery of black communities by the capitalists (as black people were never granted the 40 acres of land and two mules they were promised as restitution for being enslaved and having a major portion of the population slaughtered). The list continued with a demand for decent housing; a request for access to fair, non-bias and accurate history and education; access to free health care for all black and oppressed peoples; an end to police brutality and murder; a desired end to wars of aggression; a guarantee of fair trials in the court system; and control of the basic human necessities within communities including land, bread, housing, clothing, justice, peace and technologies.
Kash Ahua, a junior from Nigeria learned something new from seeing the presentation of the plan.
"A lot of what I had known about the Black Panthers came from propaganda and I had assumed they were the (counterpart) of the KKK. It seems like the U.S. government has gone out of their way to discredit them," Ahua said. "Sometimes when we are told that the government makes decisions in the best interest of people, it seems like it's actually doing the opposite."
Seeing the humanitarian side and learning what the organization stands for gave Ahua a new respect for the Black Panthers and the unity it strives to achieve.
Ahua emphasized the meaning of unity with her solo entitled, "No Man is an Island."
"Nowadays the world is becoming more globalized and we need to learn from each other," Ahua said. "The message is in the song I sang. We need to feel each other's pain and learn not to try to just see things in a straight line, but instead learn to come together as one and see each other."
Yari Kifle, SCSU Alumni from Ethiopia would perhaps agree with Ahua's statement about the interconnectedness of the problems of the world. As a history major, Kifle believes it is both important for people to understand their own roots and cultures as well as those of others.
"Society is full of social illnesses (and greediness where people abuse labor and benefit from others who work hard) and people don't know anything about their history," Kifle said.
In the months since Sept.11, Kifle has experienced the interconnectedness of world problems, fear (or xenophobia) and ignorance on a personal level.
"Sometimes (because of my fair skin and curly hair) when I get on a bus people leave, and when I'm walking around campus carrying a duffle bag people look at me suspiciously," Kifle said. "Just because you come from Africa doesn't mean you'll have dark skin; there are many colors of people there."
Coming from the African continent and living in the United States, Kifle, who has been in the United States for the past 13 years and Ahua, who has been in the United States for the past three years identify themselves as black Ethiopian and Nigerian respectively. However, that concept is sometimes difficult for mainstream American society to grasp.
"I try to see people as people. Racial issues are really not a big deal back home (in Nigeria), but here people see me as African American," Ahua said.
Nevertheless, as an African, Ahua feels connected to blacks living in the United States. Ahua listed several parallels. While people in Africa had to fight for freedom from British and French colonizers in Africa, blacks had to fight for access to basic rights and continue to have to fight for freedom from various types of oppression (ranging from lack of access to housing to being stopped simply because of the color of their skin). Just as blacks have to struggle to find work, as a premedical student, Ahua says she'll have to work extra hard to compete to be part of the 1 percent of international students that will get admitted to medical school.
"People are people and all have different kinds of hardships," Ahua said. "We're better off to bring up and support each other."
Ebony Night is a way for Americans and others to get in touch with the reality of other Americans, Kifle explained.
"It exposes the culture, allows people to learn about politics in the true sense, feel the frustrations that some people feel everyday for things like getting pulled over, not getting an apartment, and learn about the dreams and hardships of other people," Kifle said before offering final advice to students who are carving their paths and expanding their horizons. "People need to respect themselves and each other; don't be someone that you're not and remember nobody's perfect."
Sharon K. Sobotta can be reached at: [email protected]
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