Submissions For The May Edition of the Short Film Contest Now Open.
Submissions are well underway for the May edition of the short film contest and interested filmmakers are welcome to submit their entries.
The winning films from each month will be selected as part of Breakout Film Festival 2021 and compete for the Best Short Film title.
The event which will be held in January 2021 in the arts and culture capital of the world, Edinburgh, will see the winning entry being awarded with $500 plus the coveted trophy.
To submit your short film, please visit the FilmFreeway page at FilmFreeway.com/BreakoutFilmFestival.
Questlove, Naomi Campbell To Headline 24-Hour Roots Africa Day Festival.
Questlove and The Roots are bringing their inaugural Africa Day festival right to your living room so you can experience the joy, culture and music of the continent.
This is a 24-hour virtual event, officially begins at 12:00 am EDT on Monday, May 25, with an introduction from Naomi Campbell at 11:50 pm EDT on Sunday, May 24. After that #TheRootsAfricaDay will feature live performances, DJ sets and conversations from some of the biggest artists across the globe. Questlove kicks off the program with a 2-hour live DJ set.
Campbell, who has frequented the continent for decades and supports many charitable initiatives there, recently told ESSENCE of her connection to Africa. “I miss the continent. I miss Senegal, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya. They’re all so different but the one common thread is that I feel grounded and I feel peaceful when I’m in Africa.”
The Roots’ production company, Two One Five Entertainment, and The Bridge, which is executive produced and curated by Tina Farris and Suede present: #TheRootsAfricaDay. The celebration on YouTube will feature 24 hours of DJ’s, performances, messages of hope, faith and powerful conversations from around the world and around the corner! Essence will host a Watch Party on their Facebook Page providing a peek into the 24hour experience on May 25th from 10:00AM – 1:00 PM ET.
Special Thanks to Aya Chebbi Youth Envoy of the African Union, Ilwaad Elman of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Center and Ndaba Mandela of the Mandela Institute for Humanity for your consultations and Nelson Makamo for the use of your paining “Modumokgole” Respect to the numerous DJ’s, Artists, Managers, Crew and everyone in the Diaspora who donated their time freely to this event in the true spirit of Ubuntu. AFRICA IS FOR EVERYONE.
At the center of #The RootsAfricaDay programming is “The Bridge: A discussion in the Diaspora,” co-hosted by Black Thought and Tina Farris, cofounder of the content series The Bridge. Their discussion includes guest speakers: Nasty C (South African), Tobe Ngiwe (Nigerian-American), Mereba (Ethiopian-American) and Bobi Wine (Ugandan).
The day-long concerts will also feature performances from African music acts like Seun Kuti (Nigeria), Mereba (US, Ethiopia), D’Banj (Nigeria), Moonchild Sanelly (South Africa), Ayo (Nigerian-German) plus a heavy rotation of global deejay sets. They have tapped sound selectors Makeda (Rwanda/Jamaica), DJ Zinhle (South African), Juls (Ghana) and many more to spin from their respective homes throughout the event.
Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day) is a celebration of the independence, freedom and liberation strife of the Organization of African Unity (now the African Union) from its creation on May 25, 1963, in the fight against colonialism. Select programming from #TheRootsAfricaDay will stream on the ESSENCE’s Facebook channel on Monday from 10:00 am to 1 pm ET and air simultaneously on The Roots’ YouTube channel throughout the day.
‘Mory Kante lives on’: Tribute to Icon who took African Music Global
Guinean singer Mory Kante, who helped introduce African music to a world audience in the 1980s, died on Friday in the capital Conakry.
Kante is best known for his dance song “Yeke Yeke,” which was a huge hit in Africa before becoming a No. 1 in several European countries in 1988.
His son says their father is very much alive: Balla Kanté, also a musician told the media: “Mory Kanté is not dead, he’s alive. He has children, we’re here. There will be many surprises, you know, our generation is not the same.
“We’re going to spread African culture all over the world. It’s to tell you that the Mory Kanté‘s fight is still alive, he never left because his works are there and his children are there.”
Nicknamed the “electronic griot” – a play on the name for traditional West African musicians and storytellers – Kante died in hospital at the age of 70 after succumbing to health problems.
Kante spent much of his youth in Mali, which neighbours his native Guinea, where in the early 1970s he joined the renowned Rail Band in which Keita was also singer. Leaving the band in the 1980s
Ismaël Lo, Senegalese artist and composer paid tribute to the deceased: “Mory Kanté was a reference for me, for all African youth, for all culture. He was a great man. Today it is a great baobab that dies, a library that burns, but his works will remain forever among us.”
Leaving the band in the 1980s, Kante revolutionised the West African repertoire by going electric and blending traditional Mandingo music with urban grooves. It was his upbeat single “Yeke Yeke” that catapulted him to fame, and brought Mandingo dance music to nightclubs across Europe.
“Mory Kanté made us proud internationally, he went everywhere. Every time I went to a festival in Europe, Mory Kanté had been there 20 years ago and people would say, “Well, you know Mory Kanté?” I’d say, “But how… Who doesn’t know Mory Kante?”“ Sayon Bamba, Guinean singer added.
Born into a celebrated family of griots, Kante played guitar, the kora harp and balafon, in addition to being a singer.
And along with Mali’s star singer Salif Keita, his songs were among the first from West Africa to achieve widespread success elsewhere of the world.
Vimbai Mutinhiri & Taymesan Emmanuel to host The Future Awards Africa 2020
Ahead of its fifteenth edition, The Future Awards Africa has rolled out an exciting lineup of activities surrounding its iconic award event. TFAA is pioneering a near-complete pivot to virtual platforms in response to global trends accelerated by the Coronavirus pandemic. The Future Awards will be hosting many of the now-familiar beats on its journey to the culminative award ceremony via The Future Awards Africa Instagram handle while maintaining the physical presence of the award itself. The virtual activities will be carried out with multiple interfaces with other Future Project associated social media platforms.
In anticipation of the main event, some announcements were made on Monday, May 25th by Adebola Williams, CEO Red For Africa. These announcements, which are integral to The Future Awards Africa event structure, introduced the public to the season’s hosts and made public some of the new projects The Future Project plans to embark on.
May 25th was the most opportune time to make these announcements, as it also commemorates Africa Day, a celebration of Pan-Africanism on the continent and beyond. Through an Instagram live hosted by Adebola Williams on The Future Awards Instagram account, guests pledged their support to the initiative and celebrated the which Africa-wide focus of the awards this year.
After announcing this season’s theme “The Convocation”, the hosts for this year’s events were announced. Multimedia presenter, influencer, as well as past season host Taymesan Emmanuel and acclaimed presenter Vimbai Mutinhiri were declared as season’s hosts of the fifteenth edition of the Future Awards Africa.
Another major announcement that was made was the launch of the Beating Corona Heroes & Champions project, presented by The Future Awards Africa. The project which is set to be a TV and Digital Telethon will kick off on Sunday, July 12th, 2020. It is powered by RED, in partnership with EbonyLife TV & Consolidated Media Associates.
The call for nominations for Beating Corona Heroes across Africa, which is aimed at spotlighting unsung heroes at the frontline during this pandemic, was also made open during the Instagram live. Click HERE for more info.
The Future Awards Africa is a series of awards that celebrate young people between the ages of 18 and 31, who have made outstanding achievements in the year under consideration. Forbes has described the awards as “Nigeria’s most important awards for outstanding young Nigerians”
The idea for the awards was conceived by Chude Jideonwo and Adebola Williams in 2005. This year, the award is supported by The African Union, BellaNaija, Y! Africa, Cool FM, and EbonyLife TV.
Source: Bellanaija
Why Is Africa Day An Important Part Of Our Culture?
Apart from the festivities that the day promises, surrounded by a pandemic exterior and a half-scared generation of Africans, Africa Day has its roots steeped in culture and Freedom.
Here’s why:
Africa Day (formerly African Freedom Day and African Liberation Day) is the annual commemoration of the foundation of the Organisation of African Unity on 25 May 1963. It is celebrated in various countries on the African continent, as well as around the world. The organisation was transformed into the African Union on 9 July 2002 in Durban, South Africa, but the holiday continues to be celebrated on 25 May.
A little history.
The First Congress of Independent African States was held in Accra, Ghana on 15 April 1958. It was convened by Prime Minister of Ghana Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and comprised representatives from Egypt (then a constituent part of the United Arab Republic), Ethiopia, Liberia, Libya, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, the Union of the Peoples of Cameroon and of the host country Ghana. The Union of South Africa was not invited.
The conference showcased progress of liberation movements on the African continent in addition to symbolising the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation. Although the Pan-African Congress had been working towards similar goals since its foundation in 1900, this was the first time such a meeting had taken place on African soil.
The Conference called for the founding of an African Freedom Day, a day to “…mark each year the onward progress of the liberation movement, and to symbolise the determination of the people of Africa to free themselves from foreign domination and exploitation.”
So in answer to a cultural clarion call, we have observed the day ever since, though layered in many titles and over several days by some, it’s celebratory date still remains 25th of May.
Find a way to make it count.
