Hello, Africa! is being held at Kwantlen’s Surrey Campus on Monday, Nov. 15. The event will be “an evening of African words, wisdom, song, dance, drumming, crafts, food and drink.” Photo by Jeff Groat

Hello, Kwantlen, Africa’s calling.

Hello, Africa! kicks off International Education Week at Kwantlen on Monday and features a keynote address from UBC sociology Professor Kogila Moodley.

“This event came about as a result of myself and two colleagues going to Kenya this summer,” said Joan Nesbitt, who is part of Kwantlen’s criminology faculty and is an organizer of the gala.

“The three of us went to Kenya to look at the feasibility of setting up international field schools there,” she said. Part of the grant that paid for the trip to Kenya included a community dialogue session back at home, leading to Hello, Africa!

Moodley’s address is titled “Gandhi & Mandela: Reconciliation in Divided Societies” and is expected to touch on themes of building dialogue between local communities in the developed Western world and the continent of Africa, or the global south at large.

Nesbitt and her colleagues are in the very early stages of setting up international field schools in Kenya and Tanzania, where Kwantlen criminology or sociology students may be able to go on exchange.

Monday’s event is meant to highlight the importance of exchanges and of sharing educational resources between communities. It is sponsored by Kwantlen’s criminology department.

Moodley, according to the Hello, Africa! program, is professor of sociology at the University of British Columbia, where she was the first holder of the David Lam Chair in Multicultural Studies.

A young child smiles, at HEALing Arts base in Congo, where volunteers for the organization have been doing aid work since 2006. (Photo from HEALing Arts website)

Contemporary music performed by talented young musicians will help the cause for healing in Africa, Friday, Nov. 21, at the South Delta Baptist Church, 1988 56th St., in Tsawwassen.

The evening will feature singer/songwriter Jeremy Johnson , a Kwantlen alumni, performing music from his new album, Form the Words. His album includes the nationally-acclaimed song Together, which was nominated for the Worship Song of the Year award by the Gospel Music Association of Canada. Up-and-coming artist Mark Thompson will also be playing original music from his recently released debut album Look Both Ways.

Since 1997, the Democratic Republic of Congo has suffered through a war that has claimed the lives of four million people, leaving the country devastated. Sexual violence is rampant, and the rape and torture of women and girls has become one of the most destructive weapons of the decade-long war.

The aftermath of these rapes has left victims with high rates of diseases such as HIV and AIDS. Because of their condition, many women and children have been ostracized by their families and fellow villagers.

The event is hosted by Farrago, an organization led by Kwantlen business student Adam Krahn, Alana Gentile, and other individuals working to help rising musicians and support local and global charities.

All proceeds are being donated to HEALing Arts Africa, an organization committed to helping and taking aid to the people of the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. Projects includes teaching women new skills and providing children with safe places to learn. Those who want to support HEALing Arts of Africa but who are unable to attend can make a donation online.

Tickets are $10 and are available at the door, by calling South Delta Baptist Church at 604-943-8244 or by visiting farragomusic.ca. For more information on HEALing Arts Africa, visit healingartsafrica.com