Boston has hosted many African-American festivities, but an all-day event this Saturday at City Hall Plaza will really be something new: the first African Festival of Boston (AFoB).
Massachusetts is home to some 80,000 African expatriates, and those living in Dorchester and the rest of Greater Boston especially are doing all they can to ensure this unprecedented celebration is well-received and well-attended.
The 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. festival will showcase the continent’s diverse music, dance, and dress with a full day of performances by local and internationally known African artists. But this heritage day also has more serious undertones than most other pride events of this kind.
The AFoB is the brainchild of Mireille Tushiminina, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who works at Mass General’s blood transfusion department while pursuing her MD studies. Tushiminina is a principal in the Shalupe Foundation, which is convoking the festival.
Initially, Shalupe (which is French for “lifeboat”) envisioned this gathering as a means of raising awareness about “the arrow in our heart – the rape of Congolese women.” However, organizers soon realized the need for a more upbeat theme, while still maintaining focus on its mission “to make every deprived women and children in both in the USA and the DRCongo self-sustaining and to promote their welfare and provide them services such as shelter, education, training, health and information to improve their lives.”
Organizers broadened the scope to shed some much needed light on what was once dismissed as “the Dark Continent.” Tushiminina notes, “You’d be surprised how many people think Africa is a country. They have no idea about the richness and diversity of the nations on this continent.”
Shalupe then shifted the focus to mark the 50th anniversary of some countries’ independence. In the 1960s, 31 African countries, from the North (like Algeria), to the South (like Malawi), to the East (like Kenya), to the West (like Ivory Coast) to the Center (Central African Republic) threw off colonial rule. AFoB organizers want to dispel lingering negative impressions about the continent, without denying that serious post-independence problems exist and need to be addressed.
Throughout the day the plaza will be filled with African food and craft vendors,
informational/educational/resource tables, and a kids’ tent, co-sponsored by the Children’s Museum, that will feature African-style face-painting.
The day begins in earnest at 11 a.m. with a “drum call parade” around City Hall Plaza. Participants in their national garb and carrying their national flag will march in a manner reminiscent of the Parade of Nations at the Olympic opening ceremonies.
The first major performance of the day will be presented by the Silimbo D’Adeane West African Dance and Drum Company, which was founded and directed by Dorchester resident “Mama” Fatou N’Diaye Davis. Fatou N’Diaye’s troupe will demonstrate some Senegalese and other West African dance she has carefully preserved. Her sons will be co-leaders of the opening parade.
The full schedule of entertainers appears on the website shalupe.org: well-known artists (like Teeyah from Cote d’Ivoire and Bouro Mpela from DRCongo) will perform in English, French, and African languages.
Dorchester’s Sydney B. Iwuala, a Nigerian Ibo and festival sponsor, will document the event with a photo essay in a future issue of his “Unique Images” magazine.
