Nana Yaw Osei Darkwa
Showbiz Africa, in collaboration with PANAFESt Foundation, has launched the maiden edition of the music and cultural festival dubbed ‘This Is Africa Festival Amsterdam 2020’ at the Hilton Hotel in the Netherlands.
The ceremony was well-attended by high-profile dignitaries, including Ghana’s Ambassador to the Netherlands, H.E Sophia Horner-Sam, her Deputy Head of Mission, Mr. M. Iddrisu, and the Ambassador of Burundi to the Netherlands, H.E. Gamaliel Nkurunziza.
Also present were the Ambassador of Sudan to the Netherlands, H.E. Mr. Kamal Bashir Ahmed, Mr. Mohammed Abdennasser Achachi, Economic Counsellor of the Embassy of Morocco, and H.E. Momar Gueye, Ambassador of Senegal to the Netherlands, among several others.
The festival, which is being organised to create a platform to showcase Africa’s rich culture and tradition through the arts outside the continent, is scheduled to take place in July next year.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, the International Relations Director of ‘This Is Africa Festival Amsterdam 2020’, Nana Yaw Osei-Darkwa, said the festival is a global exposition of African music, dance, food and fashion which primarily seeks to bring together arts, entertainment and tourism players of Africa and people of African descent for entertainment and networking to promote and enhance the unity of the great continent of Africa and to reach out to the rest of the world.
He indicated that the festival is a deliberate and proactive step to take Africa’s culture to the doorstep of the global community to drive traffic to the continent instead of the usual practice of sitting back and hoping the world community would come to the continent.
“This is Africa Fest Amsterdam 2020 seeks to create a unique window for the rest of world to engage Africa through tourism. It is also to complement the great effort of the Pan African Historical Festival (PANAFEST) held bi-annually to direct investment to the motherland,” he stressed.
Mr. Osei-Darkwa was full of praise for Rabbi Helevi Kohain, the Executive Director of PANAFEST Foundation, for his devotion and dedication of years of hard work creating a bridge for Africans in the Diaspora to touch base with the motherland.
Emphasizing the highlights of the festival, he hinted that the first set of headline artiste would be announced on February 2, 2020, to be followed by a media engagement in Nigeria and Burundi in March 2020.
By George Clifford Owusu