African Community Festival returns to Marshall Roy

SPRINGFIELD — Marshall Roy Park will be filled with the sights, sounds and aromas of African traditions on Saturday, Aug. 8, as the African Community Festival connects cultures and generations.

The festival began four years ago as a community cookout to bring together members of the African diaspora living in Western Massachusetts. A year later, Naefia Padi founded the nonprofit Unity Hearts Foundation and rebranded the event as a festival.

“People typically see Africa as one place, not as a collection of different countries and cultures,” said Event Coordinator Evelyn Ansah. However, the continent is composed of 54 countries, each with unique aspects of its culture. Padi added, “Our aunties, our uncles, our parents, they wear a rich cloth.”

Ansah said there will be food from a variety of different African cultures, as well as American food, and include a traditional Ethiopian coffee ceremony. The festival will feature a friendly tasting competition around jollof rice, a common dish in many African countries, which is prepared differently depending on the cultural tradition. In the “Jollof Wars” contest, versions of the dish from Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Gambia will compete to be crowned the best.

The festival will provide music from Orchestre Moto, a live Congolese band specializing in rumba, soukous and ndombolo rythyms. Entertainment will include a Ugandan dance ensemble by AfroDiamonds, a Senegambian Kankourang masquerade dance and an afrofusion fashion show.

There will also be free face painting, family-friendly activities, cultural games, virtual reality experiences, a raffle, a marketplace and resource vendors. Additionally, Unity Hearts Foundation is hosting a backpack giveaway while supplies last for students ahead of the start of school. This year, the free festival will run from noon to 7 p.m. at the park, 162 El Paso St. It is sponsored by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority, Spark Good, Mass Cultural Council and Springfield Community Resources.

Referring to the region’s African diaspora, Ansah said, “We kind of live in tiny little pockets.” Because people live in those pockets, she said the festival provides a sense of wider belonging for many.

“It is a time we can come together and share our culture. It is very important to educate our children in this. We can bring our culture for them to see,” Padi said. Among the cultures represented at the festival are those from Ghana, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Sudan, Somalia and South Africa. “Last year, there was somebodies from Uganda. We didn’t even realize there was that many Ugandans in Western Massachusetts,” Ansah said.

Ansah, who was born in Ghana, but whose siblings were born in the United States, said the festival allows young people to connect with their heritage. “It allows them to know their cultures. I can see how attending the festival year after year, they have pride in their cultures,” she said.

While children may have grown up hearing stories about their family’s culture, it has a different impact when they can taste the food and listen to the music, Ansah said “For a lot of young adults, it is a way to better understand where their culture comes from,” she said.

“It’s so beautiful,” Padi said. She said she knows Black Americans, who do not identify as African, who were inspired to take a vacation to an African country after attending the festival. She said she would like to invite everyone in Western Massachusetts to attend the festival, regardless of whether they are of African descent.

“Experience different cultures,” said Padi. “One community, one love. That’s what Unity Hearts Foundation is about — to bring everyone together.”