It being our first time every attending UIU, we were pleasantly surprised by how massive the block party was. To the naked eye, the picnic probably looked like just a bunch of black people hanging out and making noise in a Park but to first generation Igbo children like us, it was a sea of Igbo pride.
We met a lot of cool people there, even ran into a few childhood friends from back home in DC that we use to do the electric slide with at African parties as children.
The UIU block party really opened our minds up to the different types of Igbo’s living all over the U.S. People came from all over to attend UIU. The most interesting person we met at the cookout, was a guy who said he works for the government, but also runs a farm that he owns in Illinois and plays the drums in his spare time. My sister and I were looking at they guy like “ Nna, ke kwanu ?“ lol
Food was served in an assembly line fashion, but we were disappointed that there wasn’t any Nigerian food. We were looking forward to some jollof rice drenched in palm oil but instead they severed Akata food like, chicken , pork and beans, hot dogs etc etc
After the block party, the Nkuzi Igbo and UIU Overview and Igbo History session began. Our favorite session from that evening was the Nkuzi Igbo which is where they taught the Igbo language and broken down Igbo names, everyday phrase and songs. We learned so much from the seminar, and got to get acquainted with fellow Igbo babes.
The night ended with an after party, but let’s just says we weren’t to fond of The DJ. Instead of dancing with girls, guys spent most of their time complaining about the DJ.
You simply can’t go from playing traditional Igbo gospel songs on the dance floor to Soulja Boy tell’um, to reggae, to swag and surf, and then end with Flavour.
My sister and I still come and slayed, NkemLife style. Honestly, our favorite part of the after party was getting dressed for the party. LOL
Check out all of our different looks from the Umu Igbo Unite 2016 Convention here.