After a two-year period of inactivity, the Nigerian Student
Association is returning to UCLA.
Four students ““ Ada Nwokafor, Akanimo Udi, Obi Iroezi and
Elliot Olaniyan ““ are responsible for the return of the
organization.
“We had a voice on campus before, and now we are trying to
bring it back,” said Nwokafor, a fourth-year psychobiology
student.
The group became dormant soon after hosting a Nigerian cultural
show in February 2003 when scheduling conflicts and a change in
leadership proved detrimental to the organization.
The association was originally founded in 1999 by three Nigerian
students wishing to educate the UCLA community about Nigerian
culture.
The organization began with the goal of uniting Nigerian
students and demonstrating their diverse heritage.
Its main objective is to promote the culture of Nigeria for
friends of the Nigerian community and for Nigerian students who are
less familiar to get connected with their own cultural roots,
Nwokafor said.
Nigeria, a country slightly larger than twice the area of
California, borders the Gulf of Guinea in Western Africa.
With over 137 million people, Nigeria is Africa’s most
populous country and is composed of more than 250 ethnic
groups.
In 1999, a new constitution was adopted in Nigeria involving the
transition from a military government to a civilian one.
The elections of April 2003 marked the first civilian transfer
of power in Nigeria’s history.
At UCLA, NSA has already organized some events and is planning
future ones in an attempt to teach students and faculty about the
country of Nigeria, and its rich culture and heritage through
events that will display the customs of the people, including the
way Nigerians dress, address their elders and the traditions
surrounding marriage.
Most of the current members of the association are of Nigerian
descent and were born in the United States, but whose parents are
originally from Nigeria, Nwokafor said.
“We want to keep the Nigerian spirit alive on the UCLA
campus,” she said.
“We wanted to restart NSA because we didn’t just
want it to die out like that. There is a need to have a community
of people who you can relate to culturally, spiritually and on a
whole new level. We just wanted to have that pride of being
Nigerian students again who are making a great difference in UCLA
and in America at large,” Nwokafor added.
The African Studies Center provides sponsorship for the NSA and
other Africa-oriented organizations.
“As a condition of sponsorship we like to be informed of
their programs and we like them to come in and ask for support and
help. We try to assist them in any aspect whether it be locating a
venue, navigating the university’s bureaucracy, and in some
instances we are able to assist financially as well,” said
Azeb Tadesse, the center’s assistant director.
As well as providing services for nation-focused groups like
NSA, the center also supports topic or action-oriented groups like
the Darfur Action Committee and the African Activist
Association.
“We provide support for any students who show initiative
towards activism,” Tadesse said.
The process of starting an organization on campus is “very
easy,” said Kenn Heller, the associate director of the UCLA
Center for Student Programming.
Heller said it usually takes three students, staff or faculty to
form the group, and that registration could be completed within a
day depending on whether the organization is either independent or
officially recognized, he said.
Registrations are valid for the academic year. If a member
doesn’t register their group by Oct. 31, they are removed
from the center’s database and are no longer eligible to
receive any resources, including use of rooms on campus, Heller
said.
There are a total of 739 organizations at UCLA.
Organizations like the NSA allow students to maintain contact
with their cultural roots.
“America is a very diverse nation (that) has all kinds of
ethnic groups and cultures and sometimes we get lost in the whole
pool. It is kind of difficult to maintain that connection,
especially here in school because we are bogged down with studying
and other media influences that we don’t even have time to
remember our origins or roots,” Nwokafor said.