World Festival of Black Arts And Cultures

Thirty three years after the last edition, the World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures is to be held in December in Dakar. Staying true to the original concept, the festival will celebrate the diversity of black cultures. When he conceived the idea of a Festival of Black Arts and Cultures in the early 60s, poet and cultural theorist Léopold Sédar Senghor (who also served as the first president of Senegal, 1960–1980) sought the affirmation of the richness of black cultures and their important place in the world. It was an idea which defied the realities of the day: the African continent was just emerging from colonial rule and the black diaspora was facing widespread discrimination. In the United States, racial segregation was far from over and the civil rights struggle was just beginning.

A new humanism

Senghor saw the organisation of the festival as part of the creation of “a new humanism which would this time include the whole of humanity all over planet Earth.” The event was the perfect expression of the Negritude concept, conceived by the Senegalese president with other cultural thinkers a few years before, and defined by Jean Paul Sartre as “the negation of the negation of black people”. The World Festival of Black Arts (le Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres) opened in April 1966 in Dakar, in the presence of Aimé Césaire, Duke Ellington, Josephine Baker, Alvin Ailey and André Malraux, with 37 countries, including 30 African nations. A second edition took place eleven years later in Lagos, Nigeria, and then the project lay dormant until now.

The return of the festival this year in Dakar and Saint-Louis (10-31 December 2010) is linked to recent events. Eighteen African countries mark 50 years of independence this year, and the continent has been a global focus with the World Cup taking place in South Africa in June. The African Union gave the current Senegalese president its blessing to revive the festival on its original site, staying true to Senghor’s original vision. The organisers aim to promote the “philosophy of a creative Africa which is open to the world”, and to illustrate this the guest of honour is Brazil, a country with one of the largest black populations in the world (80 million). This third edition will celebrate, through multi-disciplinary events and exhibitions, the accomplishment of black artists, from the world famous to rising talents, in dance, craft, cinema, music, sport, literature and cuisine, and also design, urban culture, fashion and visual arts. Each evening will be dedicated to one of the participating countries (a total of 47 nations). Six conferences will be held, on themes such as “the contribution of black people to science and technology” and “Africa’s role in world governance” as well as discussions, film screenings and symposia.

The International Exhibition of Black Music

The International Exhibition of Black Music immerses the visitor in a history of black music via five rooms of interactive audio-visual experiences. The exhibition covers icons of black music, such as Miriam Makeba, Marvin Gaye and Fela Kuti and also looks at the traditional and contemporary music of North, East, West, South and Central Africa, plus a special focus on Senegal. African cultures which survived through four centuries of slavery have had a profound influence on the music of the world. Retracing the development of music with African origins in the Americas, the exhibition covers forms such as jazz, gospel, blues, hip-hop and salsa and comes right up to the present day with kwaito, baile funk and coupé-decalé. Using interactive technology, the exhibition offers the visitor the chance to trace black music’s epic history through an immersive audio-visual narrative.

The exhibition forms part of the World Festival of Black Arts and Cultures and will afterwards remain at Dakar’s Maison de la Culture de Douta Seck until 1 March 2011. It was conceived and produced by Mondomix and designed by the Brazilian architect Pedro Mendes da Rocha. This exhibition is a preview of the permanent Center for Black Music which will open in 2011 in Salvador, Brazil.

www.festivalartsnegres.com

http://mondomix.com/blogs/the-center-for-black-music.php

Bertrand Bouard / Benjamin Minimum

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