The sound of traditional African drums boomed through amplifiers in the Garden of Beginning as a haphazardly arranged parade of cars honked, crushing leaves underneath antique tires at a local Homowo festival Saturday.
Nearly 60 attended the festivities, peppered with live music, West African foods, an antique car show and a sweet potato pie contest.
"[The festival] coincides with the coming of the harvest in Ghana," said Femi Kako, an afrobeat musician, adding that the beginning of the African rainy season and end of famine are celebrated.
Coincidentally, rain fell on Gainesville's Homowo festival, with showers beginning shortly after the winners of the festival's sweet potato pie contest were announced.
In midst of the sun shower, a disk jockey's voice echoed, "These pies is missin' hot sauce."
The crowd was a cultural slurry, musicians and their audience were clad in blue jeans and tops of woven adire, a West African indigo dyed cloth. The attendees included about 10 African immigrants, Kako said.
Though closer than Africa, some vendors, like Fritz T. Lewis, traveled from Orlando. At his stand, Lewis, a bookseller, offered hundreds of books, which he said were all "items of interest to the black community."
Standing next to a large gold-framed portrait of President Barack Obama, Lewis expressed his appreciation of the event. "It brings the community together," he said.
Other vendors offered funnel cakes, chips, soda and candy, but along with these American treats festival-goers dined on plates heaping with traditional Nigerian cuisine.
For $6 dollars patrons were served light and fluffy "jollof" rice, red from the tomato it was cooked with, chicken drumsticks, leafy callaloo, a spinach-like vegetable dish, and sweet golden brown plantains, fried and sprinkled with sprigs of bright green herbs.
Attendees reported that the festival truly encapsulated their culture.
"It shows you what our culture is all about, our day-to-day existence," Kako said. "We are new arrivals, fresh arrivals, but African-American describes all of us."
As the antique car parade halted, Gedenimbo O. Atiba, a Yoruba Afrikan Priest spoke of the festival's significance.
"The African community is rising with their culture, customs and spirituality," he said. "We are in a period of awakening."
