Monday, April 14, 2014

USIU CULTURE WEEK LIVES UP TO THE BILLING


#culture week

Fashion trends; beautifully dressed women; on-point guys; delicacies; outdoor fun and activities. All these went down this week, Tuesday 11-Thursday 13 march at the United States International University (USIU) Culture Week.

Gates opened as early as 9am each day. The exhibitors’ area and sponsors pitched tent all day. Each county’s tent was an affair to outdo each other. The after affair in each tent saw music meet fashion, great food and the country’s specific culture and what it has to offer.
But Thursday night; the most anticipated climax gala night concert is what everyone else awaited for.
The glitz? Check! The glamour? It was there in abundance. Oh, the cultural performances and the stars were aplenty.



The ceremony; held in USIU was everything you could wish for to honor the university’s finest and diverse continental and international cultures.
Not even Daystar University’s Culture Week was a match. Mind you both universities were holding culture weeks on the same week. USIU culture week went viral from day 1. “Selfie moments” of the event on social media created the much-needed hype and fuss.

The night’s host; radio girl Lulu Saini and the Luo Omera Teddy Eugene were on-point. Sure Lulu had a boo-moment from the crowd; but as the night went by-she seemed to have won back the crowd’s love.
Performances by Michezo Africa; GBS crew and the acrobats only spiced up the curtain raiser. On the decks; DJ No-ID of USIU 99.9FM and Joe Mfalme kept the turbo charged crowd on their feet all night.
And when Professor Buyu took the stage; he had a few words; “I declare culture week officially opened!” the same sentiments were shared by Mr Apidi; representing Coca-Cola who were also sponsors of the event, “let the happiness continue!”

The judges panel had Mr. Charles Mwakio, professor Scott, Mrs. Waturi and Mr Earnest- the panel given the task and mandate to officially declare the best cultural performance fort the night.
The performances were amazing but even so; the night had its fair share of surprises. The rain not to mention came pouring hard but that only saw the crowd get even more excited awaiting the winners. Both Tanzania’s and Nigeria’s performances were well choreographed; high energy, bright and colorful.
The Nigerians did not disappoint either as they flashed out their notes on stage in what seemed like a scene from a movie; as the crowd pushed forward to try and pick up the notes that were being flashed on stage.
Nigerians too dominated in the awards. India bagged the Best Exhibition award for the week. With 144 points; 10 points less than the 1st runners up; the 2nd runners up award for the night went to a surprise and off-rated Rwanda who were also shocked to receive the award.
Tanzania surprised, taking the 2nd runners up position and leaving two giants; Kenya and Nigeria to battle for the number one. Well; Nigeria held the bragging rights for the night as they were declared the overall winners for the night after their spectacular performance that left the crowd yearning for me and bowing to their performance shouting-“igwee! Igwee! Igwee!”




On Nigeria’s performance; the judges had this to say-“their originality scared us! Their performance: made us forget we were even judging! They had a fantastic performance and coordination.”
Taking the trophy award; the Nigerians gave the crowd a taste of their “skelewu dance” as they celebrated.
The event’s sponsors; Kenya Buzz, CBA Bank, BuyMore Kenya, Coca-Cola and the many others did a fantastic job and mad the event even more memorable.

For the fashion enthusiasts; the night was all colorful. Somalia bagged the best dressed male award; taking it from Nigeria who won last year; while Kenya Maasai lady bagged the best female dressed for the night.
So, to the organizing committee; Sonia, Nabil, T.J, Shazaan, Natasha, Fionah and Nalia; you are definitely on the right track and you have everyone’s attention now. You can fail only if you want to.

By Embukane Vincent Libosso.

Check out the pictures here-https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.611687435575298.1073741925.440804702663573&type=3

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