By Hana Mazhar
GOMBAK, 11 April 2017: “Hakuna Matata”, an event held on 8 April in the Main Auditorium by the Sudanese and Somalian Club, was directed towards subsiding the misconceptions about Africa.
The programme started at 8:00 p.m, which was led by the recitation of the Quran. The event had many activities that urged the involvement of the audience. Since the programme was open to all students, many Malaysian and Arab students took part in the games.
The first few minutes of the event was a video presentation to the crowd made by the Club members themselves, to show the misconceptions people have about Africa. The audience then was required to ask any questions to the committee members and share their opinion.
There were good responses from the audience and they took part in a game called the “Kahoot game” where members of the audience were required to register themselves under a code given by the committee members. The group members were then declared and the committee asked questions to all the teams. Upon every correct answer, the team was rewarded with points.
The event included a talk session where members of the committee spoke openly about their countries – Somalia, Africa and Sudan. They answered any question asked to them by the audience.
The committee focused mainly on the common ideologies people have about Africa, some of which involved discussing how Africa is not a country but a continent and not all Africans are black. Africa is not just a home to wild animals. “It is not a jungle”. Africa has rural and urban areas and it is not just a homeland for poor people.
Light humour and entertainment kept the audience thrilled until the end of the show.
The closing ceremony took pleasure in song performances prepared by the committee. A band that prepared mashup songs was accompanied by a beatboxer. The female audience showed their excitement by singing along and clapping their hands. The male audience, however, danced to the beats.
“This was the first event in IIUM where the audience do not want to go back,” says Abdallah, a committee member of the Somalian Club***