Friday, March 19, 2010
Lagos Black Heritage: A festival of reconnection, revaluation

Mudiaga Affe


Inspired by the spirit of convergence for which the most populous state in Nigeria remains pre-eminent, Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has said that the forthcoming Lagos Black Heritage Festival would be an event of reconnection, revaluation and re-vindication.

[img]http://odili.net/news/source/2010/mar/19/punch/images/pix2008092514295328[1].jpg[/img]
Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka



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Speaking on the festival tagged, Memory and Performance in the return to Source, Soyinka said, in a statement obtained by our correspondent in Lagos, that the event would celebrate the creativity of Lagos within a "Carnivalesque of tradition and contemporary dance."

The LBHF, which holds between April 3 and 9, 2010, is an initiative of the Lagos State Government.

According to Soyinka, the LBHF is a seven-day cultural manifestation during which hundreds of performers will animate the ancient city of Badagry and cosmopolitan Lagos in a blend of the traditional and the modern.

On the theme of the festival, Soyinka, who is the Festival Coordinator, explained that for over a millennium, African indigenes South of the Sahara were hunted, bartered, and sold into slavery by European and Arab slavers often with the active connivance of Africans themselves.

"Millions perish even before their destination along the Trans-Atlantic route and the Indian Ocean route to Iraq and Persia, now known as Iran. For centuries, and even till date, many could neither recall nor manifest the slightest interest in their antecedents.

"By contrast, especially since the latter half of the twentieth century, hundreds of thousands of descendants of victims of this execrable commerce have embarked on the return journey home - some in search of their true origins, others in the spirit of symbolic pilgrimage, and yet others to reclaim and resettle in their ancestral space. Whichever way, for many, this has proved emotional, but with fulfilling experience," he said.

He said that it was in fulfillment of this yearning for the healing of dislocated sense of identity that the Lagos State Government instituted, with the support of the United Nations' Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, the Black Heritage Festival in the symbolic town of Badagry.

The playwright said the Lagos State Government plans to serve the discerning palates from within the country, the continent and the Diaspora of the Caribbean and Americas.

One of the highlights of the Lagos-Badagry 2010 is a painting competition featuring artists drawn from Nigeria and the rest of the world.

An international jury will decide which of the 25 finalists will be rewarded in the Gold, Silver and Bronze categories which go with the award of $20,000, $15,000 and $10,000 respectively.

http://odili.net/news/source/2010/mar/19/804.html

I HOPE THIS FESTIVAL WILL ALSO CLEAR DOUBT ON AFRICAN TRADITIONAL RELIGION BY BRINGING RENOWN PERSONALITIES FOR THE CHILDREN HERE TO KNOW THE CORE OF THE BLACK HERITAGE.

There are other Black Heritage Festivals in the US, and this one in Lagos looks like it is going to be great from all the events beginning from today.

The Admin should put it on the homepage.

Hi Men,  Hope This Black Heritage thing will be black enough for us to see the beauty and glory of our colour, and the lifting of our soul by exposing the the good part of our heritage.  We want this to be the beginning of a new dawn for the traditional faith which is misunderstood by black people of today due to the condemnation by crusaders and jihadists. All we  know is that the  faith of our  ancestors will never die and this is the best of time to expose it to those who know only the material or physical culture of the land.
Bilad el Sudan