discussion
Ethiopian-Eritrean Students Association Leads Discussion on Tigray Conflict
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In a virtual discussion hosted by the Ethiopian-Eritrean Students Association, speakers talked about the Tigray conflict and its global implications.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/ethiopia/)
In a virtual discussion hosted by the Ethiopian-Eritrean Students Association, speakers talked about the Tigray conflict and its global implications.
During my six-month sojourn in Ethiopia, I had the joy of working with an nongovernmental organization (NGO) by the name of the Ethiopian Education Foundation and living in the capital city of Addis Ababa. Every morning at 7 a.m., the managers and I maneuvered around the hostel making sure our students were prepared for class; breakfast, consisting of bread and bananas, was eaten and the usual suspects attempting to play hooky were dealt with. After a chaotic morning of fifty students eating, clamoring and readying themselves for class, I was free. The students left by 7:40 a.m. and I was out the door by 7:41. I twisted and twirled down the unpaved streets of the residential neighborhood surrounding our hostel.
If you’re like me, you’ve often wondered how “authentic” some ethnic cuisine in America truly is. For example, is Panda Express poorly done Chinese food, or is it just cultural appropriation? Well, I went on an investigation to find out about one of Ithaca’s own!
“There’s very little teaching about African countries, much less about African women, so we often show African women as victims,” Van Allen said.
In a dimly lit Duffield Hall on Saturday evening, students lined up for a “night market” to sample cuisine from Ghana, Ethiopia and Nigeria and enjoy the diverse culinary culture of Africa. “The purpose of the Africa Night Market is to expose the Cornell community to different African cultures because there is misconception that we’re all kind of the same,” said Maame Ohemeng ’20, organizer of the event and president of Ghanaians at Cornell. “We have different foods, different music, different people and it’s a way to bring us together and expose us to that.”
Dishes offered included — among many others — jollof rice from Ghana and Nigeria; waakye, a Ghanaian dish of rice and beans; and tibs, a type of grilled beef from Ethiopia. Ohemeng said the food was cooked by members of the community. The home-made quality of the buffet presented a logistical problem for the organizers, as they experienced difficulty trying to get the student volunteers “out of their comfort zones” to cook for the Cornell community.