The African Students Union hosted their 2025 annual Taste of Africa event on Nov. 13. It was a night filled with culture, food, dance and fashion. The event has been going on since April 2015.
This year’s theme was Abeye, which means “It shall be successful,” and was strung throughout the whole event.
ASU President, Janice Darkwah, says that the theme means “It doesn’t matter where you start from,” ASU President Janice Darkwah said. “You always get to the point of rising up and then finally meeting success.”
The main event of the night was the fashion show, where models walked on stage featuring fashion from several African designers like All Things Ankara, EZ Clothing and YBI Clothing.
All the fabrics used are African and the patterns are derived from African cultures and countries.Three different walks were featured in the fashion show with their own themes: root, rise and reign.
The executive board also wanted to incorporate audience engagement into the festivities. The main hosts would speak to people in the audience and even invite people to the stage in between the second and third walks during dinner.
The food was another very important part of the night. Coordinators wanted to choose dishes from each region or a number of regions, in order to represent all parts of Africa.
The delicious dishes included plantains, tikil gomen, North African meatballs, jollof rice, veggie and beef samosas, fish masala, a chocolate mango pound cake and more.
“My favorite part of the show was definitely the food,” Sadie Carroll, a student at the University of Miami, said. “The University of Miami is very diverse, and I think it’s really important to show everyone’s culture.”
Another key part of the night was the music, which was primarily a mix of afrobeats influenced by African artists and mixed by a live DJ.
Guests were able to enjoy the food, fashion and music while being surrounded by decorations that emulated African culture, like boards on the side of the room with African masks.
“We try to showcase that we are a group with impact and part of that is shown in Taste of Africa where our culture is literally flowing out of everything,” Darkwah said.
The night ended with the executive board going on stage in matching outfits tailored by African artists with material from Nigeria.
The executive board played a huge role in organizing the event, as TOA coordinators were in charge of coming up with ideas for the theme, logistics, outreach, food and modeling.
Darkwah reflects on the challenges of putting together all the pieces of an event of this scale, by getting all of the vendors, the decorators and the designers behind the scenes to work.
“My favorite part was probably the heart that they put into it, and how much effort and how much you can tell that they really enjoyed being there,” UM student Desiree Dowie said.
Following the final walk by the executive board, they joined the audience, which broke into a large crowd dancing and singing together.
“It’s an area for all different types of black people to collaborate and be unified. Also people from other countries as well,” Leeilai Hailey, a Taste of Africa attendee, said. “I think it’s really cool to see representation of African culture, black or not.”
While Taste of Africa is ultimately a celebration, it also brings attention to the struggles that occur in the continent of Africa like widespread conflicts, cost-of-living crises and healthcare challenges, especially in Sudan and the Congo.
“Iit shows it in a light where one might be more inclined to [learn about] African issues after attending something like this,” Darkwah said. “It brings more visibility to Africa, which in turn can bring awareness to the issues going on in Africa right now. I feel like that is also extremely important.”