The Malian Cultural Center (MCC) celebrated the achievements of its students last Saturday with a Journée Internationale de l’Enfance party in Harlem.

The French Heritage Language Program (FHLP) awarded students who completed French classes last year with certificates as part of the event. Students also received free copies of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince translated in Bambara, a language spoken by the majority of Malian people. The French organization Succession Saint-Exupéry donated the books to the FHLP to give the students.

Center Director Assetou Sy, known as Madame Sy, said the FHLP classes provide students with an important connection to their heritage they would otherwise miss out on.

“You have kids who don’t speak French but who spoke it before, and when they come to the center, they speak French again,” Sy said. “We are very grateful to the French Heritage Program.”

Kids danced to hip-hop played by a DJ as parents and other attendees looked on and socialized, sipping complimentary glasses of traditional homemade jus de gingembre. The cultural center also sponsored face painting, balloon animals and organized games for the children. 

“It’s to promote kids having fun, but it also promotes culture and makes everybody come together,” Awa Sakho, who teaches FHLP classes at the center, said of the event. “Everything we do is to find a way to develop culture, diversity and how to live in an open community together.”  Sakho also teaches at the New York French-American Charter School and the Villa Française center, both in Harlem.

Both Sakho and Sy said everyone, not just Malians, are welcome at the MCC, located in the Bronx.  People from many different places including Guinea, the Ivory Coast, Senegal, Haiti and America participate in center events.

Sy called the event a great success, especially for its first year. “Maybe next year it will be even bigger than this,” she said.