On Monday November 3, 2014 twenty-nine UCA students joined Dr. Katelyn Knox, Assistant Professor of French in the Department of World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures for a celebration of sub-Saharan African culture held in EDGE residential college.
After preparing a feast of tomato, corn, and avocado salad, chicken and beef brochettes, peanut soup, rice, tropical fruit salad, and fried plantains, the group watched by Burkinabe filmmaker Dani Kouyaté’s Keïta! ou, L’héritage du griot [Keïta! Voice of the Griot] (1997), which is a modern retelling of the myth of Sundiata Keïta, founder of the Malian empire.
Though set in a time and place far from our own, the young Mabo’s struggles to find his own balance between recognizing his cultural heritage and affirming his individuality raised those very questions central to the EDGE mission: Where do we call our home? What roles do familial, regional, and national histories, cultures, and values play in our daily lives? And what discussions unite us as humans across geographical, historical, and cultural lines?