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Online Meeting of the Local History Club

09 December 2023

The regular meeting of the Local History Club was conducted on November 10, 2023, and it was agreed that it would be hosted online. This format was chosen because the speaker, Nazarbayev University’s master's student Emmanuel Zakka (Nigeria), is currently studying and living in Astana. Valentina Barkhanskaya – also a master's student at this university and a recent graduate of our university – KSMU in the specialization "General Medicine" – was next to him as an interpreter from English.

The very idea of learning about the history and culture of Nigeria – a rapidly developing West African state – from a native of this country was proposed by our club's monitor, Adel Abenova, who is also a master's student at this university in Astana. Danil Abdigafurov, a second-year "General Medicine" student, created a colorful invitation for social media.

We learned from Emmanuel's bright and comprehensive presentation that the ancient Nok civilization emerged on the Jos Plateau in central Nigeria in the middle of the first millennium BC, marking the transition from the Stone Age to the Iron Age, followed by other medieval nations. On October 1, 1960, Nigeria gained independence from England after centuries of colonial rule.

We learned a lot about the culture of the people of modern Nigeria; for example, in the presentation we were shown a video of national dances, which spread rhythm and expression. Emmanuel briefly described and showed photos of his country's tourist sites, and even sang one verse of his national anthem at our request, which caused a loud applause! We were shown photos of young male and female students from Nigeria who, at the speaker's request, dressed in traditional clothing especially for our session! (see Figure 2)

Nigerian students in traditional clothing; photo by Zakk E.

In addition, he answered questions from the online audience and invited Kazakhstanis to visit his homeland as guests and tourists! At the end of the meeting, the participants – faculty members of the department, students, as well as master's students and residents of our university expressed gratitude to the speaker for the interesting story about the history and culture of Nigeria. Emmanuel Zakka and Valentina Barkhanskaya received diplomas from the Department of History of Kazakhstan and SPD in electronic format for active participation in the work of the Local History Club of the department, which they will be able to print out in Astana.

Head of the Local History Club A.B. Dolgopolov

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