26th Annual Africa Fest at McPike Park: The Fabric of Africa
Above: The Africa Fest Planning Committee - First Row - Djodjo Amorin (l-r), Salimata Daniko, Koso Weller, Vickie Ostien Second Row - Ray Kumapayi, Binta Ceesay, John Tembei, Andrew Gramling Third Row - Chris Jamison Below: Rahel Desalegne
by Jonathan Gramling
Ever since it was founded in 1998, Africa Fest has been the fabric that has bound together people whose roots are trace back to the 54 countries of Africa in a celebration of Africa’s contributions to the world.
“Back in 1998, we did the first one at the Monona Terrace indoors,” said Ray Kumapayi, chair of the Africa Fest committee and president of the African Association of Madison. “We had to get the awareness of folks to make sure they knew we were at the center and we were doing the festival. So we did a parade around the State Capitol so that people at the Farmer’s Market were pleasantly surprised. Then we went back to Monona Terrace for the event. That was a good way to introduce ourselves.”
For the next five years, Africa Fest was held at Monona Terrace until AAM took a pause in 2004 as AAM reorganized itself and the association along with its partner, the African Women’s Association, looked for an outdoors site to make the festival feel more authentic.
“We did the festival in 2006 at Warner Park,” Kumapayi recalled. “We were there until 2013. We looked at several parks. I was in charge of researching the different locations that could do the festival including the Dane County Coliseum. During a comparison of all of those locations, including places where you would have to pay to park, Warner Park came out on top. We weren’t well aware of the logistics that we would have to put in place. We got Frank Alfano & Associates. Frank was in charge of the Fiesta Italia, so he knew. He led us in moving the festival outside.”
For 2013, Africa Fest got an offer it couldn’t refuse, moving the festival to a more centralized location.
“The City of Madison Parks invited all groups that were interested in using the bigger park. They invited us to a meeting at the Warner Park Community Center. That’s where they discussed their plans, especially for what used to be called Central Park, which is now McPike Park. They revealed their plans for renovating Central Park. It looked very nice, so many of us moved from our little festival areas to Central Park for many reasons. Number one, the renovation made it very inviting. They had the stage on the street and a dance floor. The park was large and well-renovated. And so many of us moved out there to use the park.”
In 2025, Mother Nature wreaked havoc on the festival, but it also gave a ray of sunshine for it showed the importance of Africa Fest to many people living in Dane County and beyond.
“Last year, the rain took away some of the programs on the schedule that we had planned for the day,” Kumapayi said. “But we were able to salvage some. The major one that we could not perform was the Parade of Nations. The park was just too muddy. But we did what we could. Folks were disappointed that it rained basically all day. It was intermittent and windy. But in between the rain storms, people still came. It really said a lot about Africa Fest. People are in tune with it because despite the rain and the wind and everything that was going on, they still came to the festival. It gave us an insight into how people loved to attend the festival. People would get up from their homes and saw that it was rainy and windy outside. But they still drove to attend the festival. It said a lot.”
Africa Fest is taking another step up in its development this year — in part to make sure that all programming will be held. The 26th Africa Fest will be a two-day celebration on August 15-16 at McPike Park. Its theme is The Fabric of Africa.
They say that people travel on their stomachs and Africa Fest will make the trip worthwhile with the diversity of food offered at the park.
“We call it A Taste of Africa because there is food from different parts of the continent,” Kumapayi said. “We’ve had to experiment with the number of food vendors that we should have. This year, we’re going to be using the full park because of an increase in vendors. We’ll have 16 at the most. You want variety. You also want food vendors to sell enough food that they make some kind of profit. There’s a balance there and you have to work at it to make sure that you have the right number of vendors. At times, it’s good to see lines, people waiting to be served. When I do my walk around and talk to some of the people in line, I’ll say, ‘Sorry for the long line here.’ They say, ‘We don’t mind. It’s just part of the festival.’ They are meeting people and talking with them. I would say that 80-90 percent of the food uses recipes from Africa. But we do have Chinese and American too.”
Africa Fest also features craft and clothing vendors who line the park, bring authentic wares from Africa. There is the Big Tent where organizations and businesses have information booths. It also houses the Children’s Area.
“We want children to come to the festival with their parents and feel secure,” Kumapayi said. “We have a Children’s Area. It’s under the big tent. It’s supervised. It’s not babysitting. Kids are learning about different aspects of their culture. They are doing face painting, playing with play dough and are being told stories. They can stay there and enjoy themselves.”
One of the biggest attractions at the festival is the African Village Tent hosted by the African Women’s Association. In many ways, it is the soul of Africa Fest as they exhibit “The Fabric of Africa.”
“It’s 54 countries,” said Rahel Desalegne, a member of AWA. “I am from Ethiopia originally. And I left when I was 18-years-old. I went to Europe and then to here. Madison is the longest that I have stayed in one place. For me, personally, and for my family, it was really, really important still to keep that tie to the Motherland, Africa, particularly to our own country Ethiopia. So growing up, we have intentionally made sure that our children knew the culture, knew a little bit of their language and occasionally, we were fortunate enough to take them there and meet their grandparents and the extended family, just to make sure that they have connections because I think connections are very important.”
Just as there is diversity in foods across the continent of Africa, so too there is a great variety of fabrics produced in the many countries of Africa.
“There is no one fabric of Africa,” Desalegne said. “The fabric of Africa like the people of Africa comes in all different shapes. So if you go to East Africa, Ethiopia, for instance or Kenya, Tanzania or Sudan and then you go to Egypt in the northern African country, you have so many different fabrics and textiles that are so rich. The colors are different. The way that they were made are different. The colors that are used and the print are different. It’s really diverse.”
Desalegne offered fabric from her native land Ethiopia as an example.
“Ethiopian clothing like the one that I am wearing, is made from hand-spun cotton,”: Desalegne said. “It was woven by hand. And then made into a dress. In Ethiopia, the majority of the clothing is like this. But it comes in different forms. And now you have some modern styles. The main thing remains the same. So I recently learned that Ethiopian traditional clothes came from India. I recently learned that because I happened to get this book from the British Museum. During the colonial times, Ethiopia was one of the countries that the slaves also passed through. Their tunics came from India. And over the years, the Ethiopians introduced changes. So this one is just a regular fabric that is sewn into it. But there are dresses that have patterns sewed into them or embroidered into them. And the majority of them are like crosses because Ethiopia is predominantly a Christian country. And to represent that is just traditional. And then you have fabric in the eastern part of Ethiopia that resembles clothing from Somalia or Sudan.”
Blankets have a special significance in Ethiopia.
“There are the blankets called gabi,” Desalegne said. “And it’s made up of the hand-woven cotton. And I maybe have 10 of them in my home. It’s more like if you wear them under your comforter in the winter, you should have stayed warm. Also when you get married, that is what you get from your family, from your parents and from your in-laws. ‘We are holding you.’ It’s like a queen-sized spread similar to my dress, but much thicker. You are given that to tell you that, ‘You are still under our blanket and we are holding you close.’”
The African Village Tent will be have the fabric on display on Saturday only. It will be staffed by AWA volunteers who can answer questions visitors may have.
“We have fabric from all over Africa featured,” Desalegne said. “We also have cloth from various regions like Ghana, Nigeria, Mali, Kenya, and Tanzania. It’s unique to them. And then we also have printed material describing what these fabrics are representing. There are some fabrics that were made that even though we don’t have the fabric, in print, we have the fabric that was made to commemorate the election of Barack Obama. It’s a fabric that has Barack Obama, Michelle Obama and Nelson Mandela on it. Those are prints that we will be exhibiting educationally. We’ll also do some artifact pieces so that people can see them.”
Also at the heart of Africa Fest is the music and dance representing the diversity of Africa and the African Diaspora.
“We have people like Atimevu and Tani Diakite & The Afro Funk-Stars who are pretty popular,” Kumapayi reflected. “And of course every year, we try to ensure that we have youth groups. This year, we have Francis Madrano Afrofit. It’s like exercising to the music. People love it. Every year, we try to change the headliner. This year, we have a young Afrobeat band called HezDez & The Afro-Bongo Band. And we have performances sponsored by African organizations. We have The Masquerade Dance by the Nigerians. We have Bamendian Traditional Dance from Cameroon. We have Jimmy Sugar Cane. Being a two-day event, we have room to expand.”
On August 15-16, everyone who attends Africa Fest is African for the day. It is a warm, welcoming environment with an experience that will overwhelm the senses.
“When we chose that theme, The Fabric of Africa, we also thought of Africa Fest being the fabric that brings the African community together,” Kumapayi said. “The community is woven together to make it stronger.”
Come out to Africa Fest. It’s a unique experience that comes around only once per year. Don’t miss it.