FESNAM officials to maintain Cesaire as festival’s patron

Senegalese Alioune Badara Beye, the general coordinator of the third World Festival of Balck Arts (FESNAM) averred that Martinique’s bard of Negritude Movement, Aimé Cesaire, who died Thursday at 94, was maintained as the patron of this cultural event. Speaking after the meeting of the FESNAM in Dakar over the weekend, the Commission’s chairman Beye said "Aimé Cesaire is still the patron", stressing that a full-day would be dedicated to the departed during the festival. He said FESNAM officials paid tribute to the poet who hoisted high Black people’s flag through his literary works and his political stance over the years and across the continents. "It’s natural that we resolve to maintain Cesaire as FESNAM’s patron", the Benin-born Togolese anthropologist, Profesoor Stanislas Adotevi, official of the general coordination, added. The general coordination, which comprises four major commissions, on Sunday wound up its works in the Senegalese capital with a roadmap for the success of the event slated to take place in December 2009. Congolese Egyptologist, Professor Theophile Obenga heads the FESNAM scientific coordination. The three other commissions concern festivities and productions. Ambroise Mbia is national coordinator for network of cultures in Cameroon, Malian Adama Samassekou, chairman of the African Language Academy, and also heads the organisation and method department, and Senegalese Mactar Sylla is in charge of the communication commission. This event is expected, among other aims, to strengthen the ties among the sons and daughters of the continent following distressing years of slavery, deportations, and colonisation. Many observers felt the festival "is a tribute to the late Senegalese poet-cum-president, Leopold Sedar Senghor who initiated the Festival whose first edition was held in April 1966 in Dakar. It will be an opportunity to review Black people’s cultural values facing the challenges for sustainable development under the theme "African Reconnaissance". While the organisers are gearing up for the event, Martinique’s poet-cum-political leader, Aime Cesaire died in his native land. The FESNAM general coordinator, who is also president of the Senegalese writers’ association, said the US music star, Stevie Wonder, was the Festival’s guest of honour. The two previous editions were held respectively in Dakar from 1 to 24 April 1966 and in Lagos from 15 January to 12 February 1977.