das programm - Africa Festival

Unser Dank gilt auch allen Mitarbeiterinnen und Mitarbeitern, die mit großemEinsatz das Festival in ihrer Freizeit vorbereiten und den Mitarbeitern,die während des Festivals für einen reibungslosen Ablauf sorgen.Ein besonderer Gruß in diesem Jahr gilt unserem politischen SchirmherrnBundesaußenminister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier und dem musikalischenSchirmherrn Manu Dibango.Wir wünschen Ihnen vier friedliche Tage bei unserem Geburtstagsfest.IhrAfro Project Team20 years of Africa Festival in Würzburg - a reason for celebrating! What beganin 1989 as a mini-festival in a community centre has now become the biggestFestival of African music and culture in Europe. The concern of our festival - toovercome strangeness and prejudices and to approach one another - has reachedmany people far beyond the Festival. We are proud of that, but we knowthat this would not have been possible without you, our visitors. Thank you somuch for having been with us over the years! Moreover, we would like to thankall those who helped us in organising the Festival in the recent years. It wouldgo beyond the scope of this programme to name all of them here. However, specialthanks goes to the Federal Foreign Office and the City of Würzburg. Bothhave always provided support, even when times were financially difficult.Since the Africa Festival started, almost all great stars of the African music scenehave performed in Würzburg. This year, we have invited a great number of the“crème de la crème” to celebrate with you the 20th anniversary of our Festival.You can look forward to an extraordinary four-day birthday party!Looking back, we are very pleased that all 19 former Festivals passed peacefullyand without incident. We hope that this will also be the case this year, accordingto our motto we borrowed from the song of the South African reggae starLucky Dube: “Different Colours, One People”.Our thanks goes to all our staff members, who devote their free time to the preparationand organisation of the festival, and to all staff ensuring that the Festivalwill run smoothly.Special greetings go to our political patron, Federal Foreign Minister Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and to our musical patron, Manu Dibango.We wish you four peaceful days at our birthday party!YourAfro Project TeamGRUSSWORTGREETINGSVor zehn Jahren war es mir eine Ehre,die Schirmherrschaft für das zehnteAfrica Festival zu übernehmen. Nunhat das Leben mir die Chance gegeben,das 20. Jubiläum des Africa Festivalsmitzuerleben und ich bin daraufsehr stolz, und zwar vor allem auseinem Grund: In diesen bewegten Jahrenhat man unablässig mit dem Fingerauf Afrika gezeigt. Die Organisatorendes Africa Festivals aber habensich dafür entschieden, zu zeigen,dass es in Afrika etwas Besseres gibt:Die Vielfalt der afrikanischen Kultur.Außerdem glaube ich, dass Afrika esauch dadurch schaffen wird, dass essich stärker seiner Kultur bewusstwird und sie in den Vordergrund stellt.Ich hoffe, dass auch dieses 20. Africa Festival wieder neue Talente ansLicht bringt, wie es in den letzten 20 Jahren der Fall war, denn dies ist eineweitere Besonderheit dieses Festivals. Und schließlich hoffe ich, dass dasLeben mir auch die Chance geben wird, das 40. Jubiläum dieses großartigenFestivals mitzuerleben.Es lebe das Africa Festival!Manu DibangoTen years ago I had the honour of acting as the patron of the 10th Africa Festival.Now I am glad that life has given me the opportunity to experience the 20thanniversary of the Africa Festival, and I am very proud of that – especially forone reason: In those eventful years, the finger has incessantly been pointed atAfrica. The organisers of the Africa Festival, however, have decided to show thatthere is something better: the variety of African culture. I believe that Africa canmake it by becoming more aware of its culture, putting a stronger emphasis onit.I hope that this 20th Africa Festival will again launch new talents, as has alwaysbeen the case in the recent 20 years – this is a special characteristic of the AfricaFestival. And finally I hope that life will also give me the opportunity to experiencethe 40th anniversary of this brilliant festival.Long live the Africa Festival!Manu DibangoPhoto: © Bugs Steffen