Culture

Ebola reaction among African community in the East Bay

Nigerian Independence Day is Oct. 1, but for U.C. Berkeley Nigerians the party took place a few days later, at a hall near campus. It was a party crowded with people and colors from Nigeria and the rest of the African continent. You saw young Nigerian women in their bubas, the Nigerian blouses; their iros, wrap skirts; which in Yoruba usually worn with gele, the head wrap.  People sang the national anthem.  The smells of the broiled beefsteaks, platters of…

Oakland Zoo raises money to help trapped chimps

The Oakland Zoo held its fourteenth annual public gala on October 7 to raise awareness about chimpanzees accidentally caught in traps in Africa. The event, which took place in the Marian Zimmer Auditorium and was attended by more than 100 people, featured a silent auction to raise money for the Budongo Snare Removal Project, located in Uganda’s Budongo Forest. “The chimpanzees could lose their hands, limbs, or get infected,” said Amy Gotliffe, conservation director at the zoo. According to wildlife…

OPD squad car of fallen officer revamped into Oakland’s first police low rider

“This is Jose,” said Captain Steven Tull of Oakland’s Police Department (OPD) District 4. “He doesn’t think about himself — he thinks about others.” Jose Ortiz, a longtime community organizer in the Fruitvale district, smiled humbly as he was honored in many testimonies delivered by attendees at his appreciation event last Saturday evening inside the gym of the Manzanita Recreation Center. Ortiz’s business partner Big Lou Feliciano and members of his Street Inspiration Low Rider Car Club were joined by…