The African Union (AU) and Afrochampions have launched the Boma of Africa virtual festival to highlight and celebrate the integration of Africa.
The month-long festival is climax the African Integration Week, which is the few days between the original AfCFTA launch date [1st July 2020] and Africa Integration Day [7th July 2020].
Reflecting the rich mosaic of forces, trends, ideas, beliefs, histories, arts, sciences, innovations and passions charting the path to Africa’s inevitable destiny of unity and prosperity, the Partners have lined up an eclectic array of convenings and activities to capture as much of the spirit of Pan-Africanism as possible.
The festival, which has Afreximbank, OCP Group, and BADEA, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa as partners is aimed at reflecting the rich mosaic of forces, trends, ideas, beliefs, histories, arts, sciences, innovations and passions charting the path to Africa’s inevitable destiny of unity and prosperity.
Various activities lined up to as part of the festial include:
1. On July 1st, 2020, the opening ceremony involving leaders of continental institutions and other shapers of Africa’s collective vision shall be held virtually.
2. On July 4th, two of Africa’s most intellectually vibrant and innovative universities – Ashesi University and African Leadership University – shall provide alternative simulations of how Africa will look like in 2063 (the AU’s grand timeline for continental transformation) based on four different assumptions of what happens between then and now.
3. On July 3rd, some of Africa’s topmost intellectuals shall cross swords in a virtual debate on alternative visions of Africa’s present and future.
4. On July 5th, the AU and its private sector collaborators shall launch a technology platform to assist African governments in their efforts to reopen African countries without risking a surge of infections. On the same day, a program designed to take Africa’s emerging fashion designers global by partnering with global merchandising brands and e-commerce platforms shall make its debut. Last on the bill for this packed day is a feasibility study into an initiative that pairs children’s literature with physical toys and digital animation to water the content desert of authentic African stories for children and teens.
5. Friends of Africa need not wait for Integration Day to join the celebration. Since June 12th, the Boma has been accepting entries at https://africaboma.com/creative_art_challenge for the Creative Arts Challenge, an effort to identify Africa’s most powerful, undiscovered, creatives and artists to plug them into regional development agencies and multinationals so that they can help these African Champions communicate more authentically to a youthful African audience discovering or rediscovering their spiritual connection to Africa’s ancient culture. One Grand Prize in the form of a $50,000 grant investment is also up for grabs, alongside three other generous cash prizes, for those bold artistic minds that will outshine the rest in any of the Challenge’s eight categories of creative arts and sciences.
They can start by visiting The Boma of Africa website (www.africaboma.com) to register.
