Africa has such a rich culture with a wide variety of peoples and customs, the media often has such a negative portrayal of Africa, but what do you want people to know about the continent? We’d like people to know that Africa has such a great variety of festivals that could easily rival the Glastonburys of Europe. There’s jazz festivals, hip hop festivals, drumming festivals, and some that bring together all these genres and combine art, fashion, music, poetry and more. What are the biggest festivals that everyone must attend in their lifetime? The biggest festivals in Africa that everyone must attend in their lifetime are The City of Stars in Lilongwe, Malawi, The Cape Town Jazz Festival, Harare International Festival of Arts, BushFire Fest in Swaziland, Sauti Za Buasara in Zanzibar and Mazawine Festival in Morocco. In the upcoming year, what events will you be attending? We kick-off season two of The Fest Gurus this month in Zanzibar at Sauti Za Busara, which will be from February 1316. Performers include Wumni. In March, we’ll be attending the CapeTown Jazz Festival in Capetown, South Africa where Erykah Badu is headlining, so we’re excited about that. It will be the 15th anniversary of the festival, so we’re sure it will be amazing. The dates are March 28-29. In April, there’s Kariba Music Festival on the shores of Lake Kariba in Zambia (Easter), then at the end of that month, we kick off what is known as ‘The Fire Fest’ route which includes HIFA in Zimbabwe, (29 April to May 4), Azgo in Mozambique (23- 24 May) , Safiko in Reunion Islands (May 23-25) , and BushFire in Swaziland (30 May-1 June). We haven’t finalized our schedule for the second half of the year, but I’m sure we will attend Lake of Stars in Malawi again, since we had such a great time last year. It will be held in September. We hope to also attend the 30th anniversary of Zaire 74 festival in Kinsasha, Congo. The original festival was held to support the memorable
‘Rumble in The Jungle’ fight between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman. It featured a ‘whose who’ of major African and African American artists at the time like Mirriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela, Cesario Evara, James Brown, Tabu Ley and more. Nelson Mandela recently passed, what impact do you believe this had on the continent as a whole, and do you think there will be any festivals in his honor? There were so many events held in honor of Mandela around the world. We can only speak on the impact he’s had on us. He once said “There is no passion to be found in settling for a life less than you deserve” and we definitely take that to heart. We are passionate about travelling and spotlighting the creative sectors of our continent, so that has stuck with us. He also said “The curious beauty of African music is that it uplifts even if it tells a sad tale”. We believe that! []
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