Through entertaining events and cultural conversations, the College of William and Mary’s African Cultural Society is dedicated to creating a space for African and African diasporic students on a predominantly white campus.
Along with their bi-weekly general body meetings, ACS hosts an array of events over the school year to celebrate African and African diasporic culture. Their fall benefit dinner raises money for a chosen charity with this year’s supporting The Person Center, an organization that works with refugee survivors of domestic violence. Multiple members noted the culture show, “I Rep Africa,” including poetry, dance performances and a fashion show, as their favorite experience of the club. ACS also runs long-term social programs like bigs and littles and a game of assassins.
The organization also has its fair share of interest-based offshoots. The Diaspora DJs radio show on WCWM plays African and African diasporic music, the ABCs of Africa team competes in intramural sports and Afrodite performs Afro-Caribbean dance.
“Just because it’s African Cultural Society doesn’t mean that you can’t come with whatever hobby you have and share that with the rest of the org,” ASC President Bemnet Legesse ’26 said.
Legesse joined the club as a freshman and was quickly drawn in by its inclusive environment. She served as historian last school year and president this year.
“I immediately made so many friends within the club, and it never felt like an obligation, never felt like a meeting, it was just I was literally hanging out with my friends once a week,” Legesse said.
Though ACS is specifically dedicated to African cultures, the club maintains a close relationship with the Black Student Organization. The two groups’ memberships have plenty of overlap — largely due to the small number of Black students at the College, Legesse pointed out — and are mainly differentiated by the separate events each is responsible for organizing.
“It seems like they’re two separate entities, but they’re really not; it’s one larger space. Our meetings are usually back-to-back, so people often just go to one, and then they walk right down the hall to the other. Just trying to make it clear it’s one big community, and RSO or not, a community is a community,” Legesse said.
ACS also collaborates and overlaps with other organizations for Black students, including historically Black fraternities and sororities, the Africana House in Landrum Hall and the Black Male Collective.
ACS club member Naomi Idemudia ’28 said the extent of this overlap has actually discouraged her from joining other identity groups, noting other club members can feel stretched thin by participating in multiple similar organizations.
“I wish there was more differences between the groups to make them more interesting,” Idemudia said. “It’s also nice to have different forms of community, but most people who are in ACS I know are also in BSO.”
Club member Henok Sentayhu ’28 heard about ACS on his first day of classes and joined to connect with other members of his culture at a predominantly white institution.
“It’s nice because there’s always a community. Wherever I go, when I see someone from ACS, there’s always like a conversation that starts, or we catch up with each other, and we’re always looking forward to the next ACS meeting,” Sentayhu said.
Legesse observed that, since her freshman year, ACS has seen decreased attendance. She added that, according to friends in other organizations, the trend of decreased turnout is common across campus.
“I think that there’s just less enthusiasm, and maybe people are just putting more time into maybe not MCOs, but more interest-based things,” Legesse said. “That could be it, too. Maybe just a cultural org is not as satisfying as maybe chess club or something.”
To increase attendance, Legesse hopes to host more fun, casual events. For instance, members consistently described a recent general body meeting featuring a game of “pop the balloon” as a highlight of the semester with notably high turnout. Attendees popped their balloons based on whether they agreed with an opinion statement.
“Maybe fun, stupid events are what people want right now,” Legesse said. “Things are getting too serious across the board, so I think people just want, when I come to this meeting on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m., classes are done, I just want to do something stupid and fun. As long as it’s not crazy stupid, I think that’s harmless. I think harmless fun is the solution.”
ACS members praised the engaging activities at the club’s general body meetings beyond just delivering announcements. Idemudia, who was brought to the first ACS meeting of the semester by hallmate Sentayhu, explained that the meetings have helped her build a network on campus amidst anxiety as a freshman.
“As a more introverted type of person, I kind of need an activity to interact with people, and they do a great job facilitating that most of the time,” Idemudia said.
ACS will be hosting a Feb. 28 screening of “One of Them Days” in Commonwealth Auditorium in collaboration with the Center for Student Diversity. ACS also collaborated with the CSD in planning recipes for Taste of Soul, held Feb. 19 in Sadler Center Court.
Meanwhile, Sentayhu and Idemudia hope to see more collaboration with other multicultural organizations on campus, including those outside of the Black community. Sentayhu cited previous large collaborative events like the International Mini-Mart held Sept. 27, where many multicultural organizations sold food on Crim Dell Meadow.
“We can share all of our cultures and our experiences, and really get to know each other, because we all have something in common, and that’s we’re people of color,” Sentayhu said.
Legesse underscored the particular importance of such a cultural community amidst recent alleged sightings of ICE in Williamsburg.
“Obviously, when members of your community are possibly under danger of deportation or whatever it is, you mobilize, and for that to happen, there actually needs to be community,” Legesse said. “I think these events are important because getting to see the same faces and not feeling so alienated or isolated on a campus that sometimes can feel that way — exams get crazy, you pile too much on your plate and then you forget that there’s other people that know you, that love you — I think ACS is a really good space for that, but so are all the other MCOs.”
Idemudia echoed this sentiment, calling ACS a safe haven and appreciating the club’s inclusivity of her mixed-race identity.
“Having an accepting community of people who look like you just feels nice, especially on a predominantly white campus,” Idemudia said.
ACS meets every other Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. in Washington Hall, room 201. Interested students can find information on the club’s Instagram (@acs_wm) and by joining the GroupMe linked in their bio.
