Organizers of this year’s Pan-Afrikan Festival, which started Saturday and will continue until this Sunday, wanted to bring unity, peace and awareness to campus through the event, according to Paula Hagan, president of the Black Student Board.

Hagan said the purpose of the festival is to “have a celebration of African-American heritage.”

It focuses on educational and spiritual involvement to inform students about African culture, she said.

One of the group’s goals is to bring awareness to State about conflicts going on in Africa, she said, including those in Darfur.

According to Hagan, she wants to add peace to campus as well as encourage it across the world.

And the Pan-Afrikan Festival isn’t limited to African-Americans, Hagan said.

“Our main goal this year is to have a lot of student participation and student organization,” she said.

Hagan has helped include groups around campus such as the Association of African-American Student Educators, Helping Youth Prepare to Excel, Dance Vision, the African Student Union, Peace and others, she said.

AAASE’s involvement included a parody to the game “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader,” she said, in which they educated students from a local YMCA.

Hagan said she does have some regrets about this year.

“I wish we had more money to put on bigger events,” Hagan said. “Obviously I wish I had more time, but I really wish we had more money.”

Hagan said that the events they are putting on this year are big, but she wants these events to expand further, which she thinks she could achieve with more money to fund her program.

The group is already planning events for the Pan-Afrikan Festival for next year and concentrating on how they can put the festival together better, Hagan said, but they aren’t rushing anything so they can focus on this year’s activities.

Shariva Hope, graduate advisor of the Union Activities Board’s Black Student’s board, said that through the Pan-Afrikan Festival she wants to promote unity within African American community.

This would not just include those at N.C. State, but “anyone that is a part of the global African community,” she said.

She wants this to include everyone from the native continent, and everyone within the African Diaspora, she said.

Hope said that this year the Pan-Afrikan Festival has offered more student scholarships and has made sure that smaller organizations on campus were represented.

The groups that have not historically participated in the festival in past years, such as HYPE, AAASE and the Student Mentor Association now have the opportunity to, she said.