It’s not Heritage Days yet but it felt like it yesterday at the Africa Day celebrations at Africa Centre, located in the Wellington area on the city’s north side.
The two-day event kicked off Saturday for the first time in Edmonton, said Tesfaye Ayalew, the executive director for the Africa Centre, which spearheaded the event.
The event, which gets support from the city, works like Heritage Days except it features cultures, crafts and dance from across Africa.
“Africa is a continent rich in culture, in dance and in creativity and we are trying to showcase that this year,” he said.
Ayelaw said there are over 25,000 Africans in Edmonton with different languages, traditions and faiths and the event brings them together to network with each other.
Fenote Chuchu, an Ethiopian fashion designer who made the outfits for the models who stole the show yesterday said her design mixes traditional and modern African styles, with a European touch “because we are in Canada.”
Model Nassim Gibril said Africa Day will go a long way in presenting a different side of Africa far from the poverty and the wars covered in the media.
“We can do a lot of (positive) things with our culture,” she said.
