What a night to have a really “quiet” edition of Africa Night. It was the carnival in Tilburg and the rest of the Brabant/Limburg regions of the Netherlands, so one was braced for a very playfully “loud” edition of Africa Night. We expected quite a number people to turn op in funny, colourful costumes. In the event only a few people turned up in their carnival costumes, DJ Aziz (looking great in his 50’s type Afro wig!) being one of those. Cleopatra was also in the house!
Of course there were a lot of visitors who adopted a cautious attitude. They brought their costumes, left them in their cars, came in to check if others were in their costumes and when this was not the case, heaved a sigh of relief that they have not made a fool of themselves! That was the “quiet” part of this Africa Night.
With the carnival, you never know what to expect. It could be a slow night or it could just be jam-packed. In the event, it was a night like many others. We had a full house and the DJ was in his elements. He was really on top of his game. A couple of people came to me to mention how quickly DJ Aziz has fitted in. It seemed to those people that he has been playing at the Africa Night for ages. Well, it was just his 3rd gig at Africa Night in Tilburg and he made the people dance like there was no tomorrow, so much so that even when we played longer than normal, the visitors were still yearning for more. A word of advice guys; show up on time, then you’ll have more hours of fun.
One of the things that make Africa Night really unique is the diversity of its patrons. There are young and old, big and small, white and black, tall and short. The diversity in the nationalities is even more striking. During this last edition of Africa Night, we lost count of how many countries were represented this mini United Nations. Apart from a very large Belgian contingent, there were also the Dutch of course. We also had “representatives” from The Antilles, Congo, Surinam, France, Nigeria, Mexico, Ghana, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Morocco and Poland just to mention a few. We think the only continent that may not have been represented on this edition was Oceania. But don’t even bet on that either. We’ve had Australians before. Maybe they were there but were incognito! All of these different people have one thing in common; they come to have fun and savour the atmosphere and we try to do our best not to disappoint.
It is always interesting how people find out about Africa Night. One guy (from Surinam) who came for the first time to this edition of Africa Night and lives in Rotterdam, actually heard about it the previous day when he was in Belgium! Of course a lot just stumble across it on the internet.
It was also a night of having some old-fashioned conversations with a couple of visitors, some old and some new. Like the one we had with “African Queen” (that’s her pseudonym). We had a very short and very pleasant conversation. She came this time with her Mexican friend and she could not believe it when told how long Africa Night has been going on. She lives in the neighbourhood and she just came for the first time last month and she was sold right away and that is why she came with her lady friend this time around. She wondered aloud about how it could have been possible that she had missed our show all these years. But from now on, she promised, she was going to do her best to be there every time. Can we get an Amen to that?
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