AFRO's "African Fast Day" To Aid Sahel Droughts

November 9, 1973 – The largest student-run publication at Harvard, The Harvard Crimson, published this article in November 1973. The article highlights the organizing of the Association of African and Afro-American Students (AFRO), a Black student organization at Harvard at the time. With the effort mentioned in the article, AFRO sought to aid the victims of the Sahel drought, which began just before 1970 and devastated areas of African countries such as Senegal, Mali, and Niger. During the time the article was written, an early projection was that over 6 million people would die from the drought by the end of October 1973. The crisis prompted student action, and AFRO developed an innovative way of using student participation to generate money to aid victims in West Africa.

As mentioned in the article, AFRO collaborated with an international organization called Africare which had previously coordinated relief efforts. The two groups worked together to sponsor what was known as “African Fast Day” on November 29. If students participated in a one meal fast and did not visit dining halls on this day, the money saved from not preparing those undergraduate meals would be sent to drought relief. In inspiring over 1000 students to participate, the college would be donating thousands of dollars to the victims of the tragedy. This plan was proposed to Harvard’s Committee on Housing and Undergraduate Life, and ratified that week, prompting The Crimson to publish this article.

Instead of pressuring the institution for funds, or raising money independently, AFRO’s method was unique within the history of student activism. In doing so, AFRO was able to use the institutional resources of Harvard to redistribute wealth to affected people. Their efforts also allowed for students to get involved in an accessible way; by only missing one meal, they could raise thousands for drought victims.

“African Fast Day” is also a significant example of the globalism of the era. Throughout the 1960s, decolonization efforts throughout the continent sparked a level of solidarity between colonized African people and African-Americans in the United States. This was discussed during our first weeks of class through our readings of Richard Wright’s White Man Listen! and Frantz Fanon’s The Wretched of the Earth. By the early 1970s, most African countries had newly gained independence, and were at a critical point of establishing themselves as independent nations, only to face the tragedy of the Sahel drought. Black students at Harvard saw themselves in solidarity with Black populations in West Africa, spurring them to get involved with this action. It demonstrates the Pan-African politic of the time, wherein students were dedicated to both domestic and international issues that affected Black people.

As student activism is increasingly criticized for the methods used to protest and advocate for issues, the unique way in which AFRO was able to do this work with institutional support was interesting to me. It reminded me of scholar Robin Kelley’s “Black Study, Black Struggle” about the long history of Black student activism in elite university spaces and navigating the line between being “in” the university vs. being “of" the university. By using the plentiful resources of Harvard in a way that benefitted the most marginalized, Black students demonstrated an incredible application of this idea. Perhaps this model could serve as an example of creative ways in which university resources could be accessed and redistributed to benefit our communities.