ABOUT
- GENERAL PRESENTATION
- OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
- GOVERNANCE OF THE COMPANY
- THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
- HISTORY OF THE EVENT
GENERAL PREENTATION
The African Capitals of Culture is a program led by United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa).
It aims:
The structuring, empowerment and networking of the cultural and creative actors of the African continent;
The development of public and private ecosystems that will make them culturally independent, and economically autonomous, sustainable and viable.
Created by Africans for Africans, the African Capitals of Culture aim to design alternative development scenarios for the continent and the world, based on unparalleled cultural depth and addressing the challenges of transition, which are the key to our common future.
The African continent must become the space for solidarity-based innovation, where secular traditions will blend with ongoing modernities to shape hybrid urban spaces capable of reinventing a conscious, committed citizenship that can set an example for all the world's metropolises.
Every three years, an African city will be declared African Capital of Culture. Twelve months of events, occasional or structuring events, will take place there.
Each African Capital of Culture becomes the host of all Africa. It is the crossroads, for one year, of the continent's creativity, its territories and its cities.
Each edition of an African Capital of Culture opens a time of global visibility for a set of multi-year programmes, led by the organizing committee of African Capitals of Culture. These programs are continuously deployed throughout the continent by networking the creative actors of African cities.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The African Capitals of Culture aim to restore Africa's awareness of its cultural depth and to make the continent the keystone of our common future, embracing the challenges of transition.
UCLG Africa bases the African Capitals of Culture on a holistic approach to the 2063 and 2030 agendas for sustainable development.
The year 2015 hosted three major summits for the future of our planet: the Addis Ababa summit on the financing of development policies, the New York summit setting the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and finally the COP21 finalizing the Paris Climate Agreement. This year 2015 and this high-level political triptych founded more than four years ago a new paradigm for the management of global common goods and thus standardized, through a common language, the conditions for preserving our planet. The African continent, which holds one of its essential keys, must become the space for solidarity and inclusive innovation where secular traditions will blend with current modernities and creativity to shape hybrid urban spaces capable of reinventing a wise and sober citizenship, capable of setting an example for all the world's metropolises.
Agenda 2063 adopted in January 2015 by the African Union proposes to look at and build Africa for the next fifty years. It is part of the vision of an "integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, led by its own citizens, and representing a dynamic force on the world stage through seven priorities:
- A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development;
- An integrated continent, politically united and rooted in the ideals of pan-Africanism and the vision of African renaissance;
- An Africa where good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law are on the agenda;
- An Africa living in peace and security;
- An Africa with an identity, a common heritage, shared values and a strong cultural ethic;
- An Africa whose development is people-centred, which builds on the potential of its populations, especially women and youth, and which cares about the well-being of children;
- An Africa experienced as a strong, united and influential actor and partner on the world stage.
These seven priorities, together with the African Development Bank's "High 5", are a strong signal from African institutions to build a sustainable and prosperous continent.
The 8th edition of the Africities Summit, the pan-African gathering of cities and local authorities, took place in Marrakech, Morocco, from 20 to 24 November 2018, under the theme "Transition to sustainable cities and territories: the role of local and regional authorities in Africa". This 8th edition has set itself the objective of linking long-term thinking about the future with immediate action, given the current situation on the continent. Africities 8, based on the situation of Africa in globalization and urbanization, wished to shed light on the dimensions of the transition that the continent and the world are undergoing from the current changes and therefore emphasized the strategic role of African local authorities in supporting this transition. Africities 8 highlights: ecological transition; economic and social transition; geopolitical transition; political and democratic transition; cultural and communicational transition.
Around ODD11: Ensuring that cities and human settlements are inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, African Capitals of Culture aim to:
• Valuing territorial initiatives in terms of ownership and implementation of the MDGs:
ODD4 - Ensure that all people can have a quality education with equity and promote lifelong learning opportunities
MDG5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
ODD9 - Establish a resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization that benefits all and encourage innovation
SDO10 - Reduce inequalities between and within countries
ODD16 - Promoting peaceful and open societies for sustainable development
ODD17 - Partnerships for the achievement of objectives
To constitute a label supported by UCLG Africa and the African Union, based on a multi-stakeholder dialogue promoting the voice of non-state actors, including the most informal, and making it possible to foster social cohesion, the emergence of a young person who is an actor for its future, to support the implementation of inclusive and solidarity-based local policies, placing education at the heart of the process.
• Imagine an urban destiny capable of agglomerating all the identities it contains, integrating the continent's solidarity traditions, local imaginations and technological and digital modernities, to design an African urban destiny: inclusive, capable of carrying the African future in a sustainable approach.
• Educate citizens, especially young people, in a reinforced "gender" approach, on the objectives of sustainable development and their impact on the future of their territory. Make mentoring a model for the transmission of knowledge, know-how, even the most informal, including through distance learning.
• Promote cooperation and cultural exchange programmes in dedicated spaces, designed on local architectural models and put them in dialogue with all the components of the diversity involved.
• Federating and involving all citizens, particularly young people, women and all vulnerable populations, but also elected representatives, entrepreneurs, community activists in a common search for a new sustainable, inclusive and united urban character, promoting in particular the voice and initiatives of new informal actors.
GOVERNANCE OF THE COMPANY
The founding organizing committee of the african capitals of culture is led by a steering committee, a high council and an operational committee.
To manage the programme, UCLG Africa sets up a steering committee, of which Mr Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa is the president. The director committee is chaired by Mr Adama Traoré, Mr Khalid Tamer is appointed General Manager. The steering committee is composed of personalities recognized for their expertise and action, as well as representatives of major public organizations. The steering committee validates the general orientations and represents the organization's committee to public and private authorities.
The High Council brings together African personalities for their independence and their knowledge of the challenges of the continent. It is responsible for ensuring respect for the fundamental values that guide the action of the African Capitals of Culture, and to nourish a deep reflection.
The operational committee concretely relays the decisions and the vision of the steering committee. It associates with the two preceding instances, representatives of the host city of an edition, representatives of the previous edition, and the following edition, as well as the chairman of the committee of sponsors, and major public partners associated with the African Capitals of Culture operations for funding and monitoring large blocks of programs.
The organizing committee, finally, has the opportunity to tap into a resource pool of consultants, disciplinary specialists, to enrich its thinking and possibly feed the programming of an edition.
STEERING COMMITTEE
At the same time, he created and directed several festivals, in Paris, Le Festival au Fémininin, Les veillées du Ramadan, in Bamako, the Voix de femmes festival. This incessant questioning of the links between the arts and territories led in 2007 to the creation of the Rencontres Artistiques Internationales en Places Publiques Awaln'art, which until 2016 inhabited the public squares of Marrakech and its region but also the largest cities of Morocco, thus opening the way for the emergence of contemporary creation in public space in Morocco. A tireless ambassador of creativity in Africa and the Francophonie, he became in 2010 an expert for the International Organization of the Francophonie, in 2013 the first Moroccan president of the International Commission of Francophone Theatre, between 2014 and 2016 vice-president of the Marrakech Biennale and recently member of the international artistic committee of MASA.
In 1999 he co-wrote with five other authors, the play "Rwanda 94", created at the Avignon Festival by the Belgian Company Groupov under the direction of Jacques Delcuvellerie. The piece has been awarded several prizes in Belgium and France. In 2004, ten years after the genocide, after four seasons (in Europe, Canada, the Caribbean), "Rwanda 94" was presented to the Rwandan public in Butare, Kigali and Bisesero.
He develops a pedagogy of theatre teaching that he applies in training courses in England, Belgium and Senegal. In 2001, he founded the "Urwintore" Workshops in Kigali, a space for training, creation and research on the performing arts. It is in this context that in 2005, he directed Peter Weiss' "Instruction", which he toured in Rwanda, then in France, Belgium, England, Japan, and the United States.
In 2004, 2006 and 2008 Dorcy performed under the direction of Peter Brook, Rosa Gasquet and Milo Rau.
He is the author of "Marembo", a poetic account of his family's last days in Rwanda. From "Bloody Niggers! "a play created at the Théâtre National de Belgique in 2007, directed by Jacques Delcuvellerie. In 2010, the text "Going back to Heaven" is presented as a working step at the Ferme de Bel Ebat in the Yvelines. A short version, "Market Place", is presented as part of the 2010 edition of Les Bruissements de la langue. The same year he finished "Gamblers or the last war of the Hungry soldier" which he directed. The piece was premiered in April 2011 at the Zuiderspershuis in Antwerp.
MODESTA MUNYANKINDI
Read more...HAUT CONSEIL
HISTORY OF THE EVENT
At the instigation of Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi, meetings involving passionate experts are taking place from the beginning of 2017.
They lead to the development of a project framework in Spring 2018 and the decision to present an «African Capitals of Culture» program at a session of the upcoming Africities summit Africities.
On 22 November 2018, during the 8th Africities Summit, Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi officialize the birth of the African Capitals of Culture.
February 2020 :Rabat is officially the first city to celebrate the African Capitals of Culture
ABOUT
- GENERAL PRESENTATION
- OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
- GOVERNANCE OF THE COMPANY
- THE MEMBERS OF THE COMMITTEE
- HISTORY OF THE EVENT
GENERAL PRESENTATION
The African Capitals of Culture is a programme led by United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLG Africa).
It aims:
The structuring, empowerment and networking of the cultural and creative actors of the African continent;
The development of public and private ecosystems that will make them culturally independent, and economically autonomous, sustainable and viable.
Created by Africans for Africans, the African Capitals of Culture aim to design alternative development scenarios for the continent and the world, based on unparalleled cultural depth and addressing the challenges of transition, which are the key to our common future.
The African continent must become the space for solidarity-based innovation, where secular traditions will blend with ongoing modernities to shape hybrid urban spaces capable of reinventing a conscious, committed citizenship that can set an example for all the world's metropolises.
Every three years, an African city will be declared African Capital of Culture. Twelve months of events, occasional or structuring events, will take place there.
Each African Capital of Culture becomes the host of all Africa. It is the crossroads, for one year, of the continent's creativity, its territories and its cities.
Each edition of an African Capital of Culture opens a time of global visibility for a set of multi-year programmes, led by the organizing committee of African Capitals of Culture. These programmes are continuously deployed throughout the continent by networking the creative actors of African cities.
OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
The African Capitals of Culture aim to restore Africa's awareness of its cultural depth and to make the continent the keystone of our common future, embracing the challenges of transition.
The year 2015 hosted three major summits for the future of our planet: the Addis Ababa summit on the financing of development policies, the New York summit setting the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and finally the COP21 finalizing the Paris Climate Agreement. This year 2015 and this high-level political triptych founded more than four years ago a new paradigm for the management of global common goods and thus standardized, through a common language, the conditions for preserving our planet. The African continent, which holds one of its essential keys, must become the space for solidarity and inclusive innovation where secular traditions will blend with current modernities and creativity to shape hybrid urban spaces capable of reinventing a wise and sober citizenship, capable of setting an example for all the world's metropolises.
Agenda 2063 adopted in January 2015 by the African Union proposes to look at and build Africa for the next fifty years. It is part of the vision of an "integrated, prosperous and peaceful Africa, led by its own citizens, and representing a dynamic force on the world stage through seven priorities:
- A prosperous Africa based on inclusive growth and sustainable development;
- An integrated continent, politically united and rooted in the ideals of pan-Africanism and the vision of African renaissance;
- An Africa where good governance, democracy, respect for human rights, justice and the rule of law are on the agenda;
- An Africa living in peace and security;
- An Africa with an identity, a common heritage, shared values and a strong cultural ethic;
- An Africa whose development is people-centred, which builds on the potential of its populations, especially women and youth, and which cares about the well-being of children;
- An Africa experienced as a strong, united and influential actor and partner on the world stage.
These seven priorities, together with the African Development Bank's "High 5", are a strong signal from African institutions to build a sustainable and prosperous continent.
The 8th edition of the Africities Summit, the pan-African gathering of cities and local authorities, took place in Marrakech, Morocco, from 20 to 24 November 2018, under the theme "Transition to sustainable cities and territories: the role of local and regional authorities in Africa". This 8th edition has set itself the objective of linking long-term thinking about the future with immediate action, given the current situation on the continent. Africities 8, based on the situation of Africa in globalization and urbanization, wished to shed light on the dimensions of the transition that the continent and the world are undergoing from the current changes and therefore emphasized the strategic role of African local authorities in supporting this transition. Africities 8 highlights: ecological transition; economic and social transition; geopolitical transition; political and democratic transition; cultural and communicational transition.
• Valuing territorial initiatives in terms of ownership and implementation of the MDGs:
ODD4 - Ensure that all people can have a quality education with equity and promote lifelong learning opportunities
MDG5 - Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
ODD9 - Establish a resilient infrastructure, promote sustainable industrialization that benefits all and encourage innovation
SDO10 - Reduce inequalities between and within countries
ODD16 - Promoting peaceful and open societies for sustainable development
ODD17 - Partnerships for the achievement of objectives
To constitute a label supported by UCLG Africa and the African Union, based on a multi-stakeholder dialogue promoting the voice of non-state actors, including the most informal, and making it possible to foster social cohesion, the emergence of a young person who is an actor for its future, to support the implementation of inclusive and solidarity-based local policies, placing education at the heart of the process.
• Imagine an urban destiny capable of agglomerating all the identities it contains, integrating the continent's solidarity traditions, local imaginations and technological and digital modernities, to design an African urban destiny: inclusive, capable of carrying the African future in a sustainable approach.
• Educate citizens, especially young people, in a reinforced "gender" approach, on the objectives of sustainable development and their impact on the future of their territory. Make mentoring a model for the transmission of knowledge, know-how, even the most informal, including through distance learning.
• Promote cooperation and cultural exchange programmes in dedicated spaces, designed on local architectural models and put them in dialogue with all the components of the diversity involved.
• Federating and involving all citizens, particularly young people, women and all vulnerable populations, but also elected representatives, entrepreneurs, community activists in a common search for a new sustainable, inclusive and united urban character, promoting in particular the voice and initiatives of new informal actors.
GOVERNANCE OF THE COMPANY
The founding organizing committee of the african capitals of culture is led by a steering committee, a high council and an operational committee.
To manage the programme, UCLG Africa sets up a steering committee, of which Mr Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi, Secretary General of UCLG Africa is the president. The director committee is chaired by Mr Adama Traoré, Mr Khalid Tamer is appointed General Manager. The steering committee is composed of personalities recognized for their expertise and action, as well as representatives of major public organizations. The steering committee validates the general orientations and represents the organization's committee to public and private authorities.
The High Council brings together African personalities for their independence and their knowledge of the challenges of the continent. It is responsible for ensuring respect for the fundamental values that guide the action of the African Capitals of Culture, and to nourish a deep reflection.
The operational committee concretely relays the decisions and the vision of the steering committee. It associates with the two preceding instances, representatives of the host city of an edition, representatives of the previous edition, and the following edition, as well as the chairman of the committee of sponsors, and major public partners associated with the African Capitals of Culture operations for funding and monitoring large blocks of programs.
The organizing committee, finally, has the opportunity to tap into a resource pool of consultants, disciplinary specialists, to enrich its thinking and possibly feed the programming of an edition.
STEERING COMMITTEE
Traoré is a Malian actor, director and author of several publications, born in February 1962 in Sikasso. He is a graduate of the National Institute of the Arts (INA) in Bamako, where he was a drama teacher from 1989 to 1999. From 2001 to 2005, he was mandated by the OIF (Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie) to sit as an expert within the Commission Internationale du Théâtre Francophone (CITF). In 1994 he created the company Acte SEPT (Sensitisation, Education and Theatre Promotion) which initiated the Festival du Théâtre des Réalités, organised every two years in Bamako, of which he has been artistic director since its creation. He is the President of the Malian Coalition for Cultural Diversity and Secretary General of FEDAMA (Federation of Artists of Mali).
At the same time, he created and directed several festivals, in Paris, Le Festival au Fémininin, Les veillées du Ramadan, in Bamako, the Voix de femmes festival. This incessant questioning of the links between the arts and territories led in 2007 to the creation of the Rencontres Artistiques Internationales en Places Publiques Awaln'art, which until 2016 inhabited the public squares of Marrakech and its region but also the largest cities of Morocco, thus opening the way for the emergence of contemporary creation in public space in Morocco. A tireless ambassador of creativity in Africa and the Francophonie, he became in 2010 an expert for the International Organization of the Francophonie, in 2013 the first Moroccan president of the International Commission of Francophone Theatre, between 2014 and 2016 vice-president of the Marrakech Biennale and recently member of the international artistic committee of MASA.
In 1999 he co-wrote with five other authors, the play "Rwanda 94", created at the Avignon Festival by the Belgian Company Groupov under the direction of Jacques Delcuvellerie. The piece has been awarded several prizes in Belgium and France. In 2004, ten years after the genocide, after four seasons (in Europe, Canada, the Caribbean), "Rwanda 94" was presented to the Rwandan public in Butare, Kigali and Bisesero.
He develops a pedagogy of theatre teaching that he applies in training courses in England, Belgium and Senegal. In 2001, he founded the "Urwintore" Workshops in Kigali, a space for training, creation and research on the performing arts. It is in this context that in 2005, he directed Peter Weiss' "Instruction", which he toured in Rwanda, then in France, Belgium, England, Japan, and the United States.
In 2004, 2006 and 2008 Dorcy performed under the direction of Peter Brook, Rosa Gasquet and Milo Rau.
He is the author of "Marembo", a poetic account of his family's last days in Rwanda. From "Bloody Niggers! "a play created at the Théâtre National de Belgique in 2007, directed by Jacques Delcuvellerie. In 2010, the text "Going back to Heaven" is presented as a working step at the Ferme de Bel Ebat in the Yvelines. A short version, "Market Place", is presented as part of the 2010 edition of Les Bruissements de la langue. The same year he finished "Gamblers or the last war of the Hungry soldier" which he directed. The piece was premiered in April 2011 at the Zuiderspershuis in Antwerp.
MODESTA
MUNYANKINDI
Read more... Ayoko
MENSAH
Read more... HIGH COUNCIL
HISTORY OF THE EVENT
At the instigation of Jean-Pierre Elong Mbassi, meetings involving passionate experts are taking place from the beginning of 2017.
They lead to the development of a project framework in Spring 2018 and the decision to present an «African Capitals of Culture» program at a session of the upcoming Africities summit Africities.
On 22 November 2018, during the 8th Africities Summit, Jean Pierre Elong Mbassi and the President of the Commune of Marrakech, Mohamed Larbi Belcaid, officialize the birth of the African Capitals of Culture and declare Marrakech the first African Capital of Culture.
February 22, 2019: United Cities and Local Governments of Africa and the Municipality of Marrakech sign the Marrakech 2020 Convention. The first edition of the African Capitals of Culture will take place there, from 31 January to 31 December 2020.
