African Night is back on a Columbus stage this Sunday, Nov. 15, after a year off. Ohio State’s African Youth League is taking the show downtown to the Southern Theatre for the first time in the group’s 32-year history.
The return follows funding cuts and the closure of Ohio State’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion, which The Lantern reported had been the league’s primary funding source. Tickets start at $10.
A First Night Off Campus
The league, founded in 1994 by Brother Samuel Jefferson, has long treated African Night as an annual cultural showcase. Earlier editions stayed on campus. In 2019 the show was booked for the Archie Griffin Ballroom, with a program of spoken word, singing, dancing, a play and a cultural fashion show under the theme “New Beginning.”
This year’s move is a facility rental, not a CAPA production. The Columbus Association for the Performing Arts describes an independent organization presenting the night, and the league worked with CAPA on the off-campus logistics. CAPA frames it as a region-wide showcase of the diversity, creativity and unity of African cultures, with African student organizations from neighboring universities invited alongside Ohio State students.
Rebuilding After the Funding Cut
Losing that campus office as a funding source left the executive board rebuilding finances from scratch over the summer. President Chavel Andoh, a fourth-year data analytics student, sought guidance from alumni and past presidents, compiled a sponsor list and contacted businesses.
Andoh said the groups that came through were “organizations that genuinely recognized the value of our mission and were willing to invest in it.” The Lantern does not name those sponsors or put a dollar figure on the summer rebuild. What it does establish is that the show is happening without the office that used to underwrite it.
Sankofa, After Other Themes
This year’s theme is “Sankofa,” a Twi word from Ghana meaning “to go back and get it.” Andoh said the theme asks people to look to the past in order to progress. That reading sits next to a run of earlier titles the league has already used: “The Renaissance” in 2022, “Africa Without Borders” in 2023 and “Uhambo – The Journey” in 2024, according to the organization’s past-events page.
The through-line is less a single slogan than a format. Across years, African Night has mixed music, dance, spoken word or poetry, fashion and a flag ceremony or walk. The league’s stated mission also reaches past the stage: raising awareness of global issues, ongoing crises in Congo and Sudan, and injustices affecting Africans abroad.
Who Is on the Bill
The Lantern’s lineup names Ghanaian-American comedian Clifford Owusu as host and Ghanaian drummer Lenny Amoo, with a fashion show, live music, poetry and student-group dance performances. The Flag Walk is the set piece built around the continent’s range: each country walks out dancing down the aisle and onto the stage while a song from that country plays.
Vice president Nahana Lunfungulo, a third-year student in civil engineering and development studies, said the night gives people a community and a sense of belonging. Organizers are asking students and local residents to come with an open mind. The league’s own page still describes an earlier, on-campus version built from singing, dancing, spoken word, poetry and a flag ceremony — the same bones, now rented into a downtown house.
How to Get In
Tickets start at $10 and are available through the CAPA website. The Lantern reported the Sunday booking at the Southern Theatre; buyers should confirm the posted start time on that ticketing page before they head downtown, because published times have not lined up.
For a student group that spent the summer calling alumni and sponsors after its campus funding source closed, Sunday is the test of whether that phone work holds a room. The theme they picked already says the method: go back and get it, then put it on a bigger stage.
