By Ebrahim Seid, Public and International Directorate
A reggae legend from Ivory Coast performed a music concert at Haramaya University Parking Lot on April 4, 2015. The concert was jointly organized by HU and the Alliance Ethio Françoise Dire Dawa, to mark the International Francophone Week which is celebrated throughout the world.
According to Brenegrene, deputy director of Alliance, the program was organized in Haramaya University to strengthen the partnership between the two institutions. She also added that the concert was a very good opportunity to the staff and students to celebrate with such a great music legend.
The Regge singer,Youkou Kla, is originally from Ivory Coast. He is a French citizen who has performed in many parts of the world including Jamaica and United States. YouKou successfully performed more than 12 songs at the Parking Lot with Leza Band from Addis Ababa.
The concert lasted for two hours and attracted more than one thousand people. Among the audience who attended the concert, Solomon Legesse, a post graduate student from the sociology department told HU online that such concerts are very crucial in entertaining the students as well as enhancing cultural exchange among countries.
A base guitar player, Addis Yohannes from Leza Band, on his part said that the audience was very disciplined and thanked the University for hosting the concert.
“It gave us a great pleasure to be part of this historic concert where the singer performed his music in French and English. The presence of events like this will foster learning cultures of other countries through music and entertainment,” Rediet Getachew, a 2nd year French Department student told HU Online.
Among the huge crowd gathered together at the Parking Lot to attend the concert was Awot Taeme, the president of HU Music Band. He was very impressed by the talent showed by the artist and learnt a lot from the concert. He said that such concerts have instrumental and important for the University as well as the art community to have fun and learn from each other.
According to Berengre, the deputy director of the Alliance Ethio Fransaise Diredawa Branch, there will be upcoming events to be held both in Dire Dawa and Haramaya University. She also recognized and appreciated institutions which put efforts to make the event a success.
Finally, Youkou Kla expressed his gratitude to the communities of Haramaya University for hosting the concert without any problem. He also added that he really loved the audience and the University.
Youkou performed songs of love, peace and life for the crowd gathered at Haramaya University.