An African Evening with Fashion Show in Dortmund

An African Evening with Fashion Show in Dortmund

An African Evening with Fashion Show in Dortmund

An evening with exotic African foods, African music and a fashion show was organized by the Cameroonian Union in Dortmund/Ruhr-Area on Saturday November 8, 2003. With support from the Academic Foreign Office of Dortmund University and Fachhochschule, the event took place at the Gallerie-Treff on the University’s campus. Afrtopic was there and reports below.

The evening opened with a welcome speech by one of the organizers who explained the motivation and aim of the event. The event, according to the speaker is intended to provide people from other cultures in particular the German culture a chance to gain an insight into the African culture. Following the welcome speech, the speaker then called on the patroness of the event, the mayor of Dortmund, Marianne Wendzinski. Wendzinski informed the audience on how Dortmund being the Ruhr-Area’s metropolis, has attracted people of diverse nationalities since the beginning of industrialization. She stated that, with about 75,000 foreigners including a population of approximately 5,000 African descendants living in Dortmund, tolerance, understanding and integration should prevail. The efforts of the organizers to make the event a reality were commended by her and the guests were invited to make the evening a swell one.

The list of august guests included Cameroonian diplomats, the chancellor of Dortmund University, professors and African celebrities from the fashion and media sectors. Some of these guests also gave speeches to emphasize the necessity of such events in promoting understanding of African culture. The musical group called Sintch and Friends from Cologne provided a musical collage of Cameroonian (Makossa Bikutsi) and Jazz rhythms. Another group called Sam performed using the African instruments kora and balaphon. The culinary African dishes served included black-eye beans, fried plantain, fried rice and fish and other typical West African recipes.

The highlight of the event started at about midnight with a fashion show displaying the collections of the Ivorian designer, Nathalie Konan, who lives and works in Paris. Using modern fabrics, the fashion designer combined European styles with African elements. Some of the designs urban-like and could be worn casually while others fit into the classical jet-set party wear. Doing the catwalk, the beautiful models of African descent presented the designs in highly accomplished forms, which were acknowledged with long applauses by the guests. The dancing floor was declared opened after the show and dancing continued till dawn.     Afritopic 2003