Africa Month events set to celebrate culture in Auckland

Africa Month is underway in Auckland, with a lineup of events throughout May that celebrate African and Black communities in Aotearoa.

Africa Day is commemorated annually around the world on May 25^th, but in 2022, Africa Month coordinator Adorate Mizero came up with the idea of dedicating the whole month to celebration in Auckland.

"I was really trying to think of more opportunities to celebrate our communities and to let people know who we are and what we do, and I guess how we celebrate,” she says.

Mizero says the month is a way to celebrate with community-led events and a way to encourage reflection on the diverse cultural heritage of Africa and the diaspora.

“It’s a great chance to uplift the voices of the African community in New Zealand, specifically Auckland, which has most of the African population.

“These programs are all led and created by members of the community, so that is like an added extra layer in terms of expressing themselves, their identities, and their cultures and heritage.”

The month’s events have a focus on inclusivity, accessibility, and education, and are free for anyone to participate in.

Mizero says that Africa Month will highlight a range of different identities through the program of events, encouraging education through literature and art.

“Education is one of the themes across the whole program, the whole month of programming, education specifically about not just the countries that are in the continent but also the African diaspora.

“There’s a lot of younger people now who have mixed ethnic heritage and have connections to ancestral heritage and connections to the continent, so [sic] making them feel included and identified in the programming that we do.”

Community arts organisation Black Creatives Aotearoa (BCA) will be running multiple events during the month, including the Black to the Future zine, the Rituals art exhibition, and the Black Ink bookstand.

BCA volunteer Bareeka Vrede says that art and literature are great ways to get people involved, and having a collection of books on display at the Central City Library makes it easy for people to find something they’ll enjoy learning from.

“If you’re not exposed to something in the first place, you’re not around it, then how are you going to know about it?” she says.

“The diaspora is so large, so there are so many different subsets and like genres that there’s going to be something for everyone.”

Africa Month events will be held across the Central City Hub, including at the Ellen Melville Centre, the Albert Park Caretakers Cottage, and Auckland Central City Library.