When metallurgical engineering graduate student Padmore Amankwah talks about Montana Tech’s first African Students Day Celebration, he doesn’t begin with the jollof rice, the poetry, or the drumming. He starts with community—the kind he and 20 other African students are building on campus and want to share with the greater Butte community.
The Inaugural African Students Day Celebration will take place November 22, 2025, from 2–4 p.m. in the Montana Tech Auditorium. Organized by the African Students Association, the event will highlight African culture through poetry, drama, music, dance, a fashion showcase, and cuisine prepared in partnership with Sodexo. Everyone is invited to attend.
“It’s our first time hosting something like this as Africans at Montana Tech,” said Amankwah, a metallurgical engineering master’s student and president of the African Students Association from Wassa-Achichire, Ghana. “We want to announce our presence to the university community and share our culture. If you can’t travel to Africa, at least you can taste a little of it here.”
The event will start with poetry that will highlight the philosophy of Ubuntu, which originated in South Africa and emphasizes the interconnectedness of humanity through the idea of “I am because we are.”
There will then be musical performances, including music from Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, etc. There will also be a fashion showcase, demonstrating what Africans traditionally wear on important occasions and holidays. The artistic portion of the evening will wrap up with traditional African Jama songs, drumming, and warrior songs. There will also be curio giveaways for answering questions about Africa.
The party will then move to the Montana Tech Student Union Building for a dinner featuring African dishes. Sodexo’s culinary team will prepare a menu including jollof rice, an African staple that sparks friendly rivalries between nations over whose version is best.
“In Ghana and Nigeria, we tease each other about who makes the better jollof,” Amankwah said.
There also will be sobolo or zobo, an African spiced drink made from dried hibiscus flowers and flavored with ingredients like ginger, cloves, and pineapple and sugar.
Montana Tech currently has 17 graduate students from Ghana, two graduate students from Nigeria, one from Kenya, and one undergraduate student from Cameroon. The Ghanaian population on campus has grown significantly in recent years due to strong academic partnerships and faculty connections.
He hopes the celebration will give African students—not just Ghanaians—a taste of home, while also inviting others into their traditions.
“A lot of people at Montana Tech don’t even know one or two things about Africa,” Amankwah said.
The event is representative of the hard work African students at Montana Tech have put in over the past year to formalize advocacy for each other. Previously, students had a more informal coalition.
“We look out for each other,” Amankwah said, recalling the challenges of arriving in Butte without a car, a challenge many international students face in the snowy environment. A single Ghanaian student, Abdul Wasiu, with a car helped the others. Eventually, others obtained reliable transportation, which made things easier.
Amankwah enjoys cooking for fellow African students and offers barbering services for free as well. While the community of African students and their families is small, around 30 people total, they are tight-knit.
“As Africans we exhibit the spirit of Ubuntu, we always support each other,” Amankwah said.
Amankwah points out that metallurgical engineering graduate student Isaac Cobbinah has recruited several Ghanaian graduate students, simply by connecting them with information about opportunities here at Montana Tech.
“Back in Ghana, finding the first contact with a professor is very tough,” Cobbinah said. “We help connect good students—valedictorians, top of their classes—to the right people.”
Other students have found Montana Tech through longstanding relationships forged by alumni and faculty at colleges like the University of Mines and Technology in Tarkwa, Ghana. Despite recent visa challenges that have slowed more students from coming, the group hopes the new celebration becomes an annual tradition that helps showcase Montana Tech’s global community and attract more students.
Next year, ASA hopes to co-host the event with the African Student Association at Montana State University in Bozeman, which holds a long-running cultural festival that regularly fills auditoriums every winter.
“They’ve been doing it for eight or nine years,” Amankwah said. “We’re learning from them so we can build that same culture here.”
Amankwah also highlighted the involvement of the great team he has, and Associate Nursing Professor Dr. Olunike ‘Blessing’ Olofinbiyi, faculty sponsor of the Montana Tech African Students Association.
“She’s our patron,” Amankwah said.
To learn more about the event contact Amankwah at pamankwah@mtech.edu.