The Executive Producer of the All Africa Music Award (AFRIMA), Mike Dada will today, speak to the community of musicians and enthusiasts, at the 4th Pan Africa Cultural Congress (PACC4) holding at the popular Sandton International Convention Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa.
The three-day event, which will be addressing the ‘Unity in Cultural Diversity for Africa’s Development’ as its theme, will have several speakers across Africa.
Mr. Dada will be presenting a paper on the AFRIMA Project, titled, ‘Creative Economy: From Policy to Practice’.
For AFRIMA, the congress is coming at the right time, as Dada and his team are preparing for its second edition of the award scheme, slated for November.
Having opened the 2015 edition to music entry submissions which will close on July 20, AFRIMA began a familiarisation tour of African musician communities around Africa in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last month, where it also unveiled the agenda for this year’s programmes of event, in conjunction with the AUC. The South African congress platform is coming after the second leg of that familiarisation tour which held last week in Kampala, Uganda.
The purpose of the PACC4, according to the AUC, is to provide a platform for cultural experts, policy makers, private sector, civil society organizations working in the art, tourism and culture sector to take stock of the challenges and record good practices on harnessing cultural diversity to enhance policy development on the theme.
Expected at the event are Heads Of State and Ministers of Culture, Youth and Tourism as well as cultural enthusiasts.
The 4th Pan-Africa Cultural Congress is being organised in collaboration with the Department of Arts and Culture of the Republic of South Africa as part of the Africa Month Celebrations, which is aimed to foster the African Renaissance vision as encapsulated in the charter for African Cultural Renaissance and the African Union agenda for 2063.
The vision is similar, as AFRIMA, on the other hand, is driven by its mission of producing an international platform to celebrate the cultural heritage and values of Africa by rewarding up and coming as well as established talent and creating sustainable growth of the African music industry as a contributor to national and continental economies.
Excited by the invitation, Dada said: “I feel honoured by this opportunity to share with and address the Pan African Cultural Congress on the mission of AFRIMA of achieving a desired Africa where poverty is reduced and a new positive narrative is built through the instrumentality of music and creativity. This will only go a long way to spur us work harder in taking the AFRIMA project beyond Africa.”
He added that “AFRIMA is a continental music awards project that is conceptualised to reward music talents of Africa and also stimulate conversations on how the African music industry can contribute to the economies of African countries and create jobs towards reducing poverty on the continent.”
