SUNY Canton students celebrate Thanksgiving at the Alumni House

Nov. 22 — CANTON — The familiar aroma of a traditional Thanksgiving that wafted through the SUNY Canton Alumni House on Monday afternoon was backed by the spicy notes of West African cooking. Once the Director of International Programs at SUNY Canton, Katie Ba had concocted a crock pot of mafé, a Senegalese beef stew with a peanut and tomato sauce. For extra authenticity, Ba included some yucca, the root of the cassava plant. While Ba is from Canton and is the cousin of Erin E. Elassial, the current director of the International Program, her husband is from the West African Nation of Senegal, and she has visited many times. “I really spiced it up,” Ba said of the mafé.…