DRC FETES AFRIMA IN KINSHASA, DISCUSSES PLANS TO PRESERVE RUMBA HERITAGE
…Fally Ipupa Hosts AFRIMA Team To Special Dance, Music Sessions
By Olorunfemi Adejuyigbe
AFRIMA Associate Producer, Mr. Olisa Adibua, AFRIMA International Executive Committee Member, Ms. Matlou Ttotsesi, AFRIMA Associate Producer, Ms. Victoria Nkong, AFRIMA Executive Producer/President, Mr. Mike Dada, DRC Honourable Minister of Integration, Mr. Didier Mazenga, AFRIMA Juror representing Northern America, Ms Hadja Kobele, ECCAS Commissioner in charge of Education, Health and Culture, Ms. Yvette Kapinga, and AFRIMA Regional Director, Central Africa, Mr. Ernest Ewane Egnon
IN line with its mandate to develop the African creative ecosystem, the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), met with the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as stakeholders from its creative industry, recently, in the capital city of Kinshasa, to discuss possible ways to protect the globally-renowned heritage of Congolese Rumba.
Recall that the Congolese Rumba was, in December 2021, added to the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) list of world intangible heritages, sparking conversation into the need to protect the iconic genre, which has long been revered as the soundtrack of Congolese history.
AFRIMA delegates from its international secretariat, based in Lagos, Nigeria, including the Executive Producer and President, Mr. Mike Dada; Associate Producers, Olisa Adibua, and Victoria Nkong; AFRIMA Regional Director, Central Africa, Mr. Ernest Ewane Egnon; AFRIMA Juror representing Diaspora Northern America, as well as AFRIMA International Executive Committee Member, Matlou Tsotetsi, met with the Honourable Minister of Integration, DRC, Didier Mazenga, as well as the Honourable Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Catherine Kathungu Furaha, in the DRC Capital of Kinshasa, as well as the Honourable Commissioner in charge of Education, Health and Culture, in the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Yvette Ngandu Kapinga, to discuss a partnership which would see Rumba spotlighted to Africans and the rest of the world as a sound of the future.
