LEWISTON —Traditional and contemporary fashions from Africa will be the focus of Bates College’s Inside Africa Fashion Show Friday, Feb. 10, at Olin Arts Center Concert Hall.

The event, open to the public at no cost, will begin at 8 p.m. at the arts center at 75 Russell St. 

Besides students modeling apparel from 10 African nations, the program includes a dance from the Congo, a performance of Ghana’s popular Azonto mime dancing and a rendition of the South African national anthem by the Gospelaires, a choir composed of singers from Bates and Lewiston-Auburn.

“I thought it would be interesting to invite Bates and the community to see Africa,” said Nicole Kanu, who conceived the idea and will host the show. A first-year student from Little Rock, Ark., she is the daughter of a Nigerian couple.

“Many look at Africa as one country and fail to realize that it is a continent that contains many countries,” she said. “The Inside Africa Fashion Show will take the audience into Africa and focus on some of the smallest differences between countries, in their attire. This show is about Africa today.”

The show will follow a plot depicting a student who is backpacking through Africa. “Each stop she makes shows her a different aspect,” Kanu said. At the show’s conclusion, the backpacking student will bring Africa back to America as models demonstrate how to mix and match American and African apparel.