Africa: Unity Emerges at Pan African Fiesta

THE second Pan African Cultural Festival of Algiers was a resounding success, proving that there is still unity and diversity in Africa.

• Held under the theme “African Culture Renaissance”, the three-week long festival which is probably the biggest cultural festival on the continent after the Senegal Biennale, had all the markings of a world class event.
• The first ever Panaf was held in 1969 but was only revived this year to coincide with Algeria’s 40 years of independence.
• Represented at the festival were all the 53 African countries.
• The summer season provided the perfect atmosphere as artists and the audiences took deep sunbathing while sipping on still waters generously provided by the hosts – Algerian government.
• The Algerian government must be commended for realising that there is unity in diversity and most importantly for committing billions of dollars into culture.
• Algiers was more than prepared to host the festival as it delivered one of the best cultural festivals to be seen in Africa with all the logistics in place.
• You talk of five-star accommodation, transport and various activities that were lined up everything went well from start to finish.
• For journalists, they were accommodated at a magnificent hotel called Hotel El Aurassi that has splendid panoramic view of the mountainous Algiers and the breathtaking Mediterranean Sea.
• The more than 2 500 artists that gathered for the festival had a blast at the newly opened Artists’ Village where besides exchanging notes and instruments they would take a swim in the salty waters of the sea.
• The experience of Algerian hospitality is worth noting as the people are full of love for their fellow Africans. Of course, Arabic culture is different from the rest of the continent but the fact that they managed to tolerate cultures especially those of people from the south.
• People from the south love to sing, dance and they do so with a bit of gusto.
• If only other African countries see the value of culture in uniting people perhaps Africa would be more united than it is now.
• There is amazing talent on the continent and yet there is little that is done to either recognise or tap it.
• It is sad still to note that Africans are not the consumers of everything that is rightfully theirs — you talk of rich mineral resources and the artistic talents it is all appreciated by other people.
• In Zimbabwe, it is only now that culture is recognised as a serious unifying force with the creation of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture.
• Add to this, we have a Culture Fund of Zimbabwe Trust, which is primarily spearheading the development of the arts in the country.
• To many artists, the festival provided the much-needed networking of ideas. Yes, the artists could be seen exchanging everything from national flags to national dress.
• Some had the occasion to see other renowned musicians like Salif Keita, Youssou N’Dour, Ismael Lo, Mory Kante and Manu Dibango perform on stage.
• For the more adventurous they even exchanged contacts maybe for later engagements for instance — collaboration as was the case with Rute Mbangwa and Malawian contemporary musician Ben Michael. The two went as far as writing a duet, which will be recorded sometime this year.
• As for journalists, naturally there was to be some kind of a gathering, which gave birth to the formation of Panaf journalists’ network.
• Zimbabwe was represented by Terrence Mapurisana in the interim committee that is scheduled to meet later in September this year. One of the key issues of the network is to promote culture journalism.
• Over and above, the Panaf strengthened bilateral ties between the countries. The festival was beneficial to the various governments represented and individual artists.
• The Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, Stephen Mahere reaffirmed that the Panaf was indeed beneficial to the country and the artists.
• He said recommendations would be made to the Government and the artists to try and find ways to take culture to greater heights.