FESTAC festival seeks to unite Africa — Grace Mumo

Grace Mumo is the CEO of FESTAC Africa Renaissance and the Group CEO of Inspire Africa Connect. She discusses her experience planning the festival’s most recent edition in Kenya with TOFARATI IGE, and other issues.

when was the first time you got to know about the Festival of Arts and Culture, and how would you assess the impact it has had so far?

Our chairman, Yinka Abioye, is from Nigeria, and he has always talked about FESTAC. So, as an organisation, it is not new to us. We have often preached about unifying Africa, and we feel privileged that we were able to pick it up and engage with the Africa Union to see how we could resuscitate the programme after 45 years of been dormant. We are honoured to be the ones running the programme, and we have chosen to be very inclusive, and do things differently from the previous editions. For example, the first and second editions in 1966 and 1977 respectively did not include children, and was highly focused on culture. But, with the structure that we’ve put in place, we are not just focused on culture, we have diversified to cover three key areas— the youth, women and people with disabilities.

The second aspect is in terms of impact. This means that the host city and country that we take the festival to benefit from the impact of the festival and the legacy we leave behind. We partner with health practitioners who carry out free screenings throughout the seven days of the festival, including dental, general health and cancer.

Organising a festival like this is not a mean feat. How would you describe your experience putting it all together, and how it eventually played out?

When one is doing something that one is passionate about, one won’t feel fatigued. Other people may be tired, but when it’s one’s ‘baby’ involved, one would do it with a lot of passion.

Since we have been organising the event, I have learnt a lot, because every year comes with different lessons. For me, the biggest draw is the fact that we need a highly focused team that is dedicated solely to events management. This is to ensure that the different aspects of the programme are well curated and managed, with each of them having well tailored project managers that can run with them from end to end.

We try to partner with people that are passionate about what they do. FESTAC is a very intensive project, and can only do it out of passion. It is not just about the money, or just executing a programme for seven days. One needs to have one’s heart in it; otherwise, one won’t be able to record the kind of success we have achieved.

Considering that you are Kenyan, how did you feel that FESTAC 2024 was held in your home country?

I don’t view myself as a Kenyan; I am a Pan-Africanist. I have probably worked in Nigeria and West Africa more than I have worked in Kenya. I have lived outside Kenyan more than I have lived in the country. I live in South Africa at the moment; but I was born and raised in Kenya. I have even lived in South Africa more than I’ve lived in Kenya.

Back to your question, the festival coming to Kenya was very personal for me. I actually fought for that. There were other countries (been considered), but I wanted to contribute something positive to my beloved country. My parents and other family members live in Kenya. My children live in South Africa but I work across the continent, and that’s one unique aspect of me.

But, even though it it’s in Kenya, it’s not in my home town. We brought the festival to Kisumu, because it is the epicentre of arts and culture in Kenya. It was very important that we embraced the culture of Kenya, and we were well received in Kisumu.

Would you say that your childhood gave you a Pan-African mindset and vision because you lived in different places?

I grew up like every other person. It was an average background and my mum did everything. I was raised by a single mother and there were six of us (children). She did her best to ensure we all got the best education. However, it is not all about what one’s parents give one. It is also about the choices one makes. One’s parents can give one education but if one doesn’t improve on that, it will all go down the water. For me, it is not about my childhood, but the fact that I was determined to succeed. I left Kenya to study in South Africa and that has opened many doors. I chose not to be stuck in South Africa where I studied, but to be Pan-African and explore the continent. I have travelled to 33 countries in Africa, and that’s how I learnt about different cultures, ways of doing business and interpersonal relationships. I have had the opportunity to engage with people from different countries.

A lot has been said about the potential of tourism in Africa, but not many people or governments are actually doing something about it. In what ways do you think a programme like FESTAC can promote intra-Africa tourism and trade?

That is actually one of the key drivers of FESTAC. As Africans, we don’t travel well enough within our own continent. Some of the reasons are that plane tickets are expensive. If I am flying from Kenya to Uganda, I would pay around 900 dollars. If I’m flying from Bujumbura (a city in Botswana) to Nairobi, I would pay about 1,800 dollars for a two-hour journey. That is just crazy, if you just ask me. Meanwhile, if I want to go to London (United Kingdom) from Nairobi, it would cost around 500 dollars. As far as I’m concerned, those things don’t make sense, and they serve as barriers to trade.

The second biggest barrier to intra-Africa trade is the visa requirement to travel across the continent. There should be no reason for that. We actually had a taste of that when planning the festival. We had to get electronic travel authorisation documents for our delegates to travel to Kenya. That is a huge deterrent for anyone. So, one of the things we are looking at is for FESTAC to encourage Africans to travel and discover the continent. People are coming from outside Africa to explore because the continent is so rich in mineral resources. That is why a platform like FESTAC helps people to navigate and understand the continent better by travelling to different places in countries instead of just the capital cities. We are trying to take the festival to more interior cities, as long as they have the capacity to host the festival.

This year, we focused on global cultural integration, and we had global cultural trade platforms. We wanted as many companies that were in Kenya to come to the festival in order to connect with people and promote their, goods and services through music and fashion. That is where we are able to discover our richness and diversity, which is very unique.

What kind of support do you think the government ought to give a festival like this, and how well has that support been coming from different African countries?

A project like FESTAC should be fully supported by the government. It is unfortunate that one appears to be swimming alone. They want one to put one’s two legs but they don’t want to support one because they want to see how far -one can go. I believe a platform like this needs to be embraced by the highest levels of governments. The economic boost the festival offers can be a game changer for any country within seven days. It is also drives a lot of traffic for tourism purposes. It is imperative for governments to commit resources to ensure the success of such a festival. FESTAC can only be sustainable if it is supported financially. There are musicians to be paid, stages to be built, exhibitions to be promoted and sport events to be. Governments should look into how they can draw maximum leverage from the festival to drive growth for their countries.

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