Leather purses, long flowing garments colored in bright hues and intricately carved masks and stools from Africa covered three tables in the International Center lobby Wednesday.
"We bring the beauties of Africa to people because not everyone gets to go," food industry management junior Alassane Beye said.
"Everywhere you go in Africa, you see bright colors because it's always sunny."
For the past two years, the African Students Union has had vendors from around the state selling African apparel.
Beye, a Mali native, said the sale brings Africa to MSU and allows the group to showcase the heritage of its continent as one of the events during African Culture Week.
Local merchants, such as All Around the African World Museum, 1136 Shephard St. in Lansing, sold statutes, masks and clothing created by a master carver in Ghana.
"I thought it was important to contribute to my culture and allow people to know more about the museum we have here in Lansing," said Raheema Muhammad, a representative from the museum.
The museum also sells fertility masks and statues that represent the beginning of life and the birth of children and unity heads that bring peace to the home, Muhammad said.
The unity heads are three interconnected people with arms looping through one another, and the object is carved from one piece of wood.
"We should get a bunch of them and give them to everyone around the world," Muhammad said.
Finance junior Fatoumata Toure is a native Mali resident. As she stood in front of a table covered with clothing from her own country, her own bright African ensemble radiated.
Her yellow colored top with wide flowing arms and a matching tapered skirt is less traditional compared to many of the items she was selling, she said.
Toure said she doesn't wear these bright African outfits every day.
"People don't really know these types of clothes, she said. "When you're walking down the streets people look at you and that is because they don't know about it."
One item, a white Boubou, is the everyday, multi-purpose outfit from Mali, Beye said. The white, free flowing gown is comparable to the American business suit.
"We're bringing Mali to the students," Beye said, adding he doesn't get to wear his African garbs as much because of the weather.
"We get to show what are culture is all about."
For information on the week's events, contact Ama Koram at (517)353-2152 or Chris Ifeanyi-Nwanzeat (517)214-9107.
