Jollof Rice Night brings together West African community at Nottingham Trent University

Nottingham Trent University held a dedicated event to celebrate and bring together the West African student community. The event was inspired by the traditional one-pot West African cuisine, Jollof rice.

The event was organised in conjunction with Nottingham Business School (NBS) lecturer of marketing, Dr. Rotimi Olaniyan, NBS Postgraduate Recruitment Executive, James Stephenson and Annabel Mitchell, Africa Representative for Nottingham Trent University.

At the event attendees were given a warm welcome by Rotimi, James and Annabel, followed by an alumni guest speaker. Bhapinder Ballagun, NTU alumni, shared her experience of living and studying in Nottingham and the impact it has had on her career. Bhapinder works alongside two NBS alumni, Kwame Chambers and Emmanuel Addae, who are co-founders of the successful Nottingham based clothing business, Glitch Anomaly. Bhapinder holds the position of Creative Director within the business and has extensive experience in the fashion and marketing field.

The event was aimed at celebrating the West African community and the accomplishment of past and present students of NTU. Rotimi Olaniyan commented on the success of the event in achieving this, “I am delighted that we were finally able to bring this idea to life and more importantly have it so well embraced by the West African students themselves. In living up to the University's ambition of being a great international centre for education, I feel it's important that international students continue to be guided and encouraged to make the very best of their time here while pursuing their education. I am hoping that 'The Jollof Rice Night' which celebrates that most cherished West African culture of food best shared with others, grows to become a strong personal development and pastoral care platform.”

Attendees were delighted to be a part of such an event. Chigozie Samuel, a current student commented “The Jollof Rice Night event was fun and inspiring. The name of the event was the first attraction for me, it felt like going home and I couldn't wait to attend. The event allowed me to meet so many students from West Africa, especially Nigeria, and I made some really cool new friends. I really enjoyed hearing from an NTU alumni about her experience and what she is doing now in her career. The people I met there, the food, and the music made me feel at home and I really enjoyed myself."

This is just the first of many events aimed at bringing together the diverse communities here at Nottingham Trent University. If you are interested in attending future events please visit our events page.