Olivia Fendrich / The Mossy Log
Afrikan Diaspora Club (ADC) is one of the newest affinity groups on campus. The group facilitates events, discussions and projects that highlight Afrikan culture.
ADC stylizes their name using the word “Afrikan” in contrast to the anglicized spelling “African” because many indigenous languages and people on the continent spell “Afrika” using a “k.” This spelling honors crucial cultural heritage that is often erased in Western vernacular.
Though ADC has existed for roughly three years, the club has recently undergone recent changes in leadership, bringing in a variety of students with high hopes for the future of the club.
The new leadership team consists of President Michée Brika ’26, Vice President Olympia Gumede ’28, Events Coordinator Hlelelwe Dube ’28, Social Media Manager Alvin Kilenga ’27, Treasurer Christianah Olufade ’26, Secretary Asobo Penn ’26 and Human Resources Officer Josephine Tezura Mziray ’28. The Mossy Log attended a leadership meeting in Fowler on Feb. 18 and interviewed all members of ADC’s leadership team.
“Our mission and purpose is to provide a place of community for Afrikan descendants or Afrikan-identifying people on campus,” Brika said. “So we encourage student engagement, activity, discussions, and we really wanna promote global citizenship, to really start acting and learning more about our Afrikan heritage and culture. So like growing and learning together and having a beautiful cultural exchange of the diaspora — that’s kind of the goal of the club.”
The club has hosted a variety of events for the Lewis & Clark community, including one with Tulinambo Mushingi who served as the U.S. ambassador to Angola and the U.S. ambassador to São Tomé and Príncipe from 2022 to 2024. Mushiningi’s work in the Department of State was largely involved with Africa, as he previously served as the U.S. ambassador to Burkina Faso from 2013 to 2016, and a joint appointment as U.S. ambassador to Senegal and Guinea-Bissau from 2017 to 2022.
“So, the first event we had in the fall was the ambassador visiting,” Penn said. “He’s a friend to the club. He frequently visits us and engages with our students. We shared food and drinks and discussions together. We were outside on the patio, not too far from here. We had some people here who are on leadership turn up to the event, and we just had a good time. People met the ambassador and it gave them a chance to connect if they didn’t know about the diaspora.”
Although ADC was founded in 2022 by John Mbanda ’25 and Vasty Jean-Francois ’25, the new leadership has intentionally brought in a number of first year students in the hopes of establishing roots that set the club up for a longer legacy. The club’s vice president, who is a first year, has a strong vision for the organization’s future.
“The Afrikan community is very small at LC, and I feel like, because it’s so small, their voices deserve to be very much amplified in the community. So my goal’s really just to have Afrikan Diaspora people to excel in the community, and to be seen and be known. And not only to be seen, but also have a lot of cultural exchanges with other people to get to know other people and their cultures,” Gumede said. “I think we can call it Afrikan excellence. That’s how I’m thinking about it.”
Dube said that although community engagement is a big part of the organization’s mission, ADC also serves as its own community.
“It’s comforting to know that you have a group on campus that’s like a second home of people who kind of relate to you. As much as it’s important to also interact with community that aren’t necessarily the same on whatever level, it is kind of also comforting to know that you have those people that understand where you’re coming from and understand the things that you experience,” she said.
Olufade echoed similar sentiments.
“I’ve been here since the start of the club. I’ve served as the treasurer since the start. I know originally we wanted the Afrikan community to be seen and heard on campus, and that resonated for me because I’m one of the Afrikans here who grew up born and raised in the States, but like my culture is still very important to me, and I don’t think you can separate me from my culture. So having a space and avenue to have my culture celebrated and known was what this club was for me,” Olufade said.
ADC’s leadership is working on organizing a number of events in the coming year. For updates about their plans, you can follow them on Instagram @afrikandiaspora_lc.
“As the rookies of the affinity clubs, we’re still up-and-coming, but our goal and purpose this year, with the solid team we have here, is to cater more to our community. There is a hunger for what it looks like to be together in unity and celebrating Afrikan culture, and even other cultures. There is a hunger for us to have a place that’s our own here on campus because we do cherish each other and we do cherish all our experiences from everywhere,” Brika said. “When people think about Afrika, (and) the Afrikan diaspora, they only think of it one way. We have many different cultures, different languages, with different backgrounds and stories, and this club really aims to celebrate that.”
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