Decor

• Cover tables with traditional African fabrics, such as Kente cloth.
  
  Use cowrie shells for centerpieces and in your flower arrangements. In West Africa, cowrie shells symbolize fertility and are an important part of wedding celebrations.
  
  Incorporate Adinkra symbols into your shower. This picture-writing, from Ghana, is used to represent specific concepts, so choose one or two that reflect your wishes for the couple. Try Akoma (a heart-shaped symbol), which stands for patience and tolerance, or Osram Ne Nsoromma (a sun shape over a curved line), which represents harmony in relationships.
  
  

Food

• Set out a bowl of kola nuts. You may have to work to track down these slightly bitter, caffeine-rich nuts --- ask a specialty food store to order them for you if you can't find them for sale in your area. Many African weddings, including Nigerian weddings, feature kola nuts, which symbolize that a couple is willing to work together in their marriage.
  
  Incorporate four flavors into your shower snacks to pay homage to the Yoruba ritual that celebrates the different emotions of marriage. Choose something sweet, something spicy, something bitter and something sour to reflect the different moods of marriage.
  
  

Activities

• Invite the guests to help decorate a broom for the couple's wedding ceremony. Jumping the broom is a tradition from the days of slavery, when newly married couples jumped a broom to signify their commitment to each other. Set out paint, artificial flowers and any other decoration that seems right to you, and let guests make a special broom for the couple to use at their wedding.
  
  Borrow from Kenyan tradition, and invite a mehndi artist to come and paint henna designs on the bride's hands and feet.