By Lauryn Ojore

The USIU-Africa Spoken Arts & Debate Society (SADS) recently hosted 7 universities from Kenya the Ikenga Open Tournament. Ikenga represents the West African narrative that speaks to the strength of movement, embodying the spirit of team work, integrity, success and victory.

Representing USIU-Africa at Ikenga was the tournament's Chief adjudication panel made up of Chantelle Mukabi, Samuel Kagia, Fresher Awuor, Jeremiah Kashaka and Victor Mwendwa (Tournament Director), who were in charge of generating the motions and overseeing the running of the tournament. The society also took part with two novice teams and one Opens team. SADS competitively preserved their prowess and carried home a number of awards to their name.

Below is a summary of how the team performed at the tournament:

• Joshua Wambugu, (Applied Computer Technology, freshman) novice speaker, broke to the grand finale of the open rounds where he was ranked second and was awarded as the 10th best speaker overall;
• Brian A. Muchesia, (International Relations, Sophomore) novice speaker, broke to the grand finale of the open rounds where he was ranked 2nd
• Bienvenu Faraja, (IST, senior) novice speaker, broke to the semi-finals of the open rounds and was awarded 6th best speaker overall;
• Lauryn Ojore, (Criminal Justice Studies, Sophomore) novice speaker, broke into the semi-finals of the open rounds.

As a club, SADS has witnessed immense growth this year and has plans to continue building partnerships through empowerment and strength not only in Africa but all over the world through their associations.