Pan-Africanism and the Black Festivals of Arts and Culture: Today’s Realities and Expectations

Abstract

The first two editions of the Festivals of Blacks arts and culture which owed much to the ideologies of the Pan-Africanism and Negritude that preceded them, no doubt laid legacies that have continued to serve as strong reference points in the discussion of Africans and African descent relationship. Apart from providing an unusual forum that brought to light the diverse contributions of Blacks and African peoples to the universal currents of thought and arts, both editions drew attentions to the expected relationship between the continental Africans and their offspring in the Diaspora. The events reassert the African identity thus creating the platform for continental Africa and the Diaspora to move through the borders of nation state and the psychosocial borders of racism which is central to all Pan-Africanist freedom movements. It is however worrisome that forty eight years after the maiden edition of the festival (FESMAN) and thirty seven years after the second (FESTAC), the achieved cultural integration is yet to translate into much expected economical, political, educational, philosophical and technological advancements of African nations and that of the Diaspora. This paper therefore attempts a review of the Black Festivals of Arts with a view to highlighting how the achieved cultural integration through the arts could be further explored for today’s realities and expectations.