Ubuntu-themed lunch kicks off Black History Month

Hundreds of community members and University of Toledo students and staff gathered Feb. 7 to kick off Black History Month with a soul food luncheon.

The event, which took place in the auditorium of UT’s Student Union, featured performances from the UT Gospel Choir, a guest speaker and soul food.

Merida Allen, a member of the Black History Month celebration planning committee, said the theme of this year’s celebration is the South African proverb Ubuntu, or “I am because we are.”

“To me it means that I don’t stand alone in my success and in my challenges,” Allen said. “I am who I am because of my community, because of my ancestors, because of my support system.”

She said it reflects American history, and helps students realize and understand that their success was built upon the foundation of someone else who supported them or helped them in one way or another.

“It’s something that I personally live my life by. I’m very legacy-driven, and want to make my family proud in the things that I do in life, and I do the things I do always with them in mind to know that I stand on their shoulders,” Allen said.

Senior Vice President for Student Affairs Kaye Patten Wallace said she reverses the phrase to “You are because I am” because she has had that kind of support in the past and wants to give that to others.

“We’re all in this together,” Patten Wallace said. “What I do, what happens to me, impacts you and I can make a difference in your life.”

According to Allen, students should remember, “there’s someone who’s rooting for you. There’s someone who had a hard time before you, whether it’s a friend or a teacher, someone’s there part of your ‘we.’”

Guest speaker and UT professor Willie McKether said a way he incorporates the meaning of Ubuntu in his life is through service.

“I give a lot of time in mentoring young men, in church, and trying to be a good role model for others, always fighting for what’s right, for those who don’t have a voice,” McKether said. “That’s my personal commitment to this notion of me being the person who’s now giving.”

In his speech at the luncheon, McKether discussed the importance of service and remembering those who came before these generations. He said that many people go through a “wilderness experience,” or a period in life full of struggle, and without that struggle, people would not be where they are now.

“One of the last questions that I asked people is how they want to be remembered. Almost all said, ‘That I helped somebody. That I made a difference in somebody else’s life.’” McKether said.

He said he would like to see future celebrations reflect the flipped motto, “We are because I am.”

Patten Wallace said McKether did a great job, and that his speech “really puts a different feel in the sense of…talking about members of the community who are here or who are related to people who are here and people can identify with our he-roes and our she-roes.”

McKether said he was nervous about being the keynote speaker at this event.

“It can be nerve-wracking because, as a professor, I’m used to lecturing in the classroom and to do something like this, this huge, this important, it’s intimidating, but I feel honored and privileged to have been asked to do it,” he said.

McKether had attended previous Black History Month celebrations held by UT, so he knew what the atmosphere would be like.

“I found it’s a very warm and engaging crowd, a very supportive crowd,” McKether said. “It’s been a great day.”

The Black History Month kickoff is an on-campus event that has occurred for 40 or 50 years, according to Allen.

“It has evolved over time, you know, this being a month where there is so much to reflect on and to celebrate,” she said. “We thought it would be very important to have something of this nature where more than just UT are attracted to; we wanted to attract it to the community as well.”

Patten Wallace said the event has gotten “better and better” each year, and the difference comes from the new collaborative efforts of the Toledo community and UT.

Tiffany Fulford, president of the Black Student Union, had not been to the event before, and was impressed with how it turned out.

“There’s a lot of people from the community that came out,” Fulford said.

Fulford helped to inform people about the event by speaking with the members of BSU as well as working with the Office of Excellence and Multicultural Student Success.

Allen said the event has been publicized more to the public recently than in years past.

“It was always open to the public,” Allen said. “This is the second year really partnering with community organizations to help publicize it more and make it a more large-scale event.”

Allen said the event has an average of close to 500 people in attendance.

“We set up for about 450 [people],” she said. “Our RSVP [for this year] was for 449.”