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Afroenthusiasts - summary
Between 7th and 17th of October we had an opportunity to participate in and extraordinary event. For the first time Simba Friends Foundation together with Kenyan-Polish Forum and Motto Café organized a festival of African culture - Afroenthusiasts 2006. For 10 days the participants could learn more about African music, art and cuisine.
A valuable aspect of the festival was the presence of non-governmental organizations dealing with Africa - their representatives informed about the activities undertaken by them, encouraged to join the network of development organizations, showed pictures and reports from their projects. We would like to thank Polish Humanitarian Action, My Africa Foundation and Nile-Vistula Association. We are glad to create space for African issues on the field of the third sector together with you.
The festival would lack its inimitable atmosphere if it wasn't for the photo exhibition by Kamila Kadzidlowska and Ola Szymczyk. We express gratitude for rendering their pictures taken during journey through Kenya and Tanzania. By courtesy of dr Eugeniusz Rzewuski and Katarzyna Slowik we could present Tanzanian painting style tinga-tinga, with its inimitable colors and patterns. Mrs Jolanta Koziorowska, curator of African exhibition in National Ethnographic Museum, gave a lecture on African art - it was an opportunity to get to know more about the character of these distant and exotic styles.
Throughout the festival we could also listen to real African music, not only records but live as well. The opening day of the festival was a real success - the drum concert by Mamadou Diouf with Mohammed Mbow and Ania Patynek gathered more than 130 people! Despite little space that Motto Café can offer it appeared enough even for dancing! The atmosphere that accompanied the event was really great, guests and organizers enjoyed the evening, which eventually lasted longer then planned. Additional attraction was the ballot organized among the audience - the lucky winner left home with a beautiful photography from African safari. The picture was donated by the author - Gonia Zduńczyk, photographer who specializes in covering African wild nature.
The second day of the festival, on Sunday, the focus was on children - for them we organized games, contests, face painting and other attractions, all connected with Africa. Kids could also listen to some African tales red by volunteers and try some traditional east-african sweet cakes. Following festival events comprised of stories from African travels, NGOs presentations, documentary films, art and culture of Africa. The students' organization from the Warsaw University - CONSENSUS - organized a discussion with experts: Abdil Abel Aati from Sudan, dr Adeyinka Bankole from Nigeria and Pawel Średziński from Poland. The debate was led by Jan Banasikowski.
Tuesday was dominated by Kenya and Kiswahili. There were many participants interested in learning some Kiswahili and their age differed from youngsters to their parents. The graduates of the Department of African Languages and Cultures, Bartek Łoziński and Kamila Kadzidlowska (both working for Kenyan-Polish Forum, co-organizing the festival), introduced basics of this common east-african language. Ryszard Czajkowski, well-known traveler with his heart devoted for Africa, told the audience about his adventure on this continent. And presented two of his documentary movies from Kenya. Then other Polish traveler, Henryk Górski, presented his photos and reminiscences from his stay in Kenya.
The organizations, that presented their activities during following days of our festival were: Nile-Vistula Association, My Africa Foundation, participants of GLEN program coordinated in Poland by Polish Humanitarian Action and of course representatives of the Simba Friends Foundation. Dorota Kozarzewska, the founder of My Africa Foundation and the owner of Moremi Africa travel bureau, told gathered audience about the beginning of her interest in Africa and the passion for wild animals.
One of the most interesting among the festival events was a short afro-dance performance by Kamila RosińskaEla Gajdel accompanied by Kuba Pogorzelski. Their show in Motto Café encouraged many to take part in afro dance workshops, which have taken place on Monday, in the Centre of African Culture. The opening of the Centre took place on Sunday, 15th October, and gathered representatives of African embassies and well-known to the festival audience Mamadou Diouf with his band. The initiator of the place meant to connect enthusiasts of African culture is Eric Onepunga Yongo from Democratic Republic of Congo, who carried on drum workshops as one of the festival events. The same day in Motto Café Krzysztof Błażewicz gave a lecture on the culture and society of Ethiopia and presented a documentary movie.
Finally, we had pleasure to present a sequence of documentary movies by Michał Fajbusiewicz, the well-known journalist of Polish National Television. It was really a great pleasure to watch films tasting Ethiopian meals served by Motto Café. That was the last event of our festival and currently we begin to consider organization of its next edition!
We would like to thank all the participants and coorganizers of our festival! and |
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Polski
