Uganda’s leading fashion house, ARAPAPA by Santa Anzo, will headline the Pearl of Africa Night at the 37th Annual UNAA Convention & Trade Expo, hosted at the Hyatt Regency, New Orleans.
The event that runs from today, Friday, August 29, to September 1, will be a marquee showcase, staged in partnership with Inspire Africa Group (IAG), under the theme “Brewed in Uganda, Styled for the world!”
The collaboration formalised through a Memorandum of Understanding positions coffee and couture as twin ambassadors for Uganda’s identity and enterprise. IAG will support the ARAPAPA Fashion Showcase as a signature diaspora moment, advancing its mission- to scale Uganda’s coffee revenues and footprint through value addition, exports, and coffee tourism.
ARAPAPA will unveil a limited-edition capsule inspired by Uganda’s coffee culture, “Coffee as Couture: Where Taste Meets Texture”, bringing warm, earthy palettes and textured storytelling to an international runway of diaspora leaders, creatives, and investors.
Pearl of Africa Night has traditionally celebrated Ugandan music and culture; with ARAPAPA at the centre-stage, fashion diplomacy takes the spotlight.
The UNAA Convention is the largest annual gathering of Ugandans in the diaspora, drawing thousands from the United States, Canada, and beyond. This year’s showcase also marks two milestones: 25 years of ARAPAPA and 30 years of Santa Anzo’s industry leadership.
Santa Anzo, the ARAPAPA Founder and Creative Director, said; “Headlining Pearl of Africa Night is both an honour and a responsibility. For me, it is the culmination of three decades of resilience, creativity, and belief in the power of African fashion. Fashion is more than clothes. It is a language of identity and diplomacy… When we take the runway in New Orleans, we are telling the world: Uganda is ready, powerful, and beautiful.”
Looking ahead, ARAPAPA and IAG will build a broader campaign linking coffee, fashion, and tourism, from diaspora showcases to experiences that channel visitor traffic and trade back to Uganda, including IAG’s flagship initiatives to grow value-added coffee and cultural tourism. This event is the 37th UNAA Convention & Trade Expo, Pearl of Africa Night, and is slated to take place from August 29th to September 1st, 2025, at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, USA.
