African Festival celebrates faith and culture
Hundreds of people gathered at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Portland on Saturday, August 23, for the annual African Festival, a celebration of faith, friendship, and culture.
“The African Festival comes with many flavors to it. The first one, we want to welcome the new Africans in Portland, in the state of Maine. And then, the second part, we want to experience the different cultures of Africans within our community,” said Dominic Suru, originally from South Sudan. “The Church wants to create a welcome environment for all the Africans.”
“I’m really grateful that we have this opportunity to come together. It’s important. We need to spend time together, willing to grow in love and our knowledge about each other,” said Father Seamus Griesbach, rector of the cathedral and pastor of the other Portland Peninsula & Island Parishes.
The celebration began with a Mass celebrated by Bishop James Ruggieri, who wore a chasuble depicting the countries of Africa. During the Mass, embracing a custom in some African countries, a child was carried in a litter to the front of the church, where he presented the Book of the Gospels to the bishop. The offertory gifts were also presented by children who danced up the center aisle. Music for the Mass was provided by choir members originally from African countries, who sang hymns in Arabic, Congolese, Kinyarwanda, French, and English.
Following the Mass, people gathered in Guild Hall for the festival which featured music, dancing, and food from countries such as Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eritrea, Gabon, Rwanda, and South Sudan. There were dozens of homemade dishes to try, such as mapapou ya soso (chicken wings), mipanzi (Congolese pork ribs), and saka-madesu (beans with cassava leaves).
“This festival is like a mirror of our different cultures from Africa,” said Jose Kutemwesa, who is originally from the Democratic Republic of Congo. “We try to bring this here to America because America has become our second country.”
Proceeds from the festival will benefit the Sacred Heart Food Pantry in Portland and will also help Sacred Heart / St. Dominic Parish finance Catholic education for children from low-income and immigrant populations.
