Students will have a chance to showcase the many cultures of Africa on African Night, which wraps up African Awareness Week Saturday.

The week’s finale will take place at 7 p.m. in 117 McKay Hall. President of the African Student Association Bogadi Mathangwane, graduate student in agronomy, said there are a variety of events planned.

Mathangwane, a native of Botswana, said the theme of this year’s African Week is “Africa the One Continent, Many Cultures.” Mathangwane said when people hear she is from Africa they usually only think of countries like Nigeria or Kenya, or people consider Africa to be one big country.

“People need to know that Africa has many different countries,” she said.

African Night events range from samples of traditional African dance and food to a fashion show, Mathangwane said, and are open to the public.

Tickets for the event will go on sale Friday at the south table in the Memorial Union, and they will be available at the door on Saturday for $6.

The fashion show “will feature garments from different African countries, some even showing the differences in cultural diversity as far as the dressing code is concerned,” Mathangwane said. Traditional dances from different countries will also be featured, and only African music will be played throughout the night, she said.

Chitani Ndisale, freshman in pre-architecture from the Ivory Coast, said unity was a major goal of African Awareness Week.

Ndisale, deputy social director for the African Student Association, said African Awareness Week is meant to “create togetherness among Africans” along with increasing awareness about Africa and its diversity.

Keji Ojelade, senior in elementary education, said there are many misconceptions regarding Africa in the United States.

“People have an image of Africa as a jungle,” she said. “Everything in the U.S. can be found in Africa.”

A big emphasis was placed on learning about geography and other cultures when she was growing up in Africa, said Ojelade, a native of Nigeria, but neither of these topics seem to be as emphasized in the United States.

Both Mathangwane and Ojelade said many people – in addition to the media – see Africa in a negative light and lump the entire continent together rather than separating countries.

“There are 54 countries in Africa,” Ojelade said. “The culture is tremendously diverse in each one.”