If going to the club or the movies accounts for 90% of your social life, perhaps you should try opening up an account with Eventbrite (unpaid plug).

I found the Houston African Arts Festival (HAAF) flyer in my events suggestions and thought I shoud try it out.

Okay a little history. The two-day event was founded by Dr. Gracie G. Chukwu and it’s meant to promote African culture through art, music, dance, food and business. The event also raises funds for the Houston Africa Community International program that supports kids and teens interested in the arts.

So I arrive right about the time the band started playing African legend, Papa Wemba’s “Show Me the Way,” and from that moment on, I was sold. There were vendors selling African print clothes, jewelry and bags. There was a stall selling Ethiopian food, another selling Budlight beers and more vendors selling stuff I didn’t really care to see, mostly because I was drooling over this one vendor’s African printed bags.

If the Lingala band wasn’t playing, a DJ would blare Wiz-kid hits and the white people could not contain themselves. Oh by the way, the party was free and in a hip part of town so people would walk-in how they liked. First they would walk in like, “Oh wow, what is going on here, and next they would be attempting to dance “shoki” while drunk on malt (Oh I saw you white people).”

There was one Caribbean dancer who we were all dying to take pictures with, a performance by Myoa and Cy Jackson, and someone’s dad who jumped on the stage to dance with the band.

I loved that the event truly celebrated a lot of Africa’s cultural diversity because tbh, Nigerian culture is notorious for dominating African events in the diaspora and the rest of us 53 normally (secretly) get mad. So I’m glad this wasn’t the case.

Enjoy the pictures, Buba.