Bringing Africa to Canberra

This Saturday, 22 April, the African Festival in Commonwealth Park will celebrate the richness of African food, art, culture, and music, from north to south, east to west.

“We are bringing Africa to Canberra,” organiser Kofi Osei Bonsu, from Ghana, said. “Diversity from everywhere – little bits of here and there, all the areas.”

Africa has been called the most diverse continent – but, Mr Bonsu found when he moved to Canberra in 2013, when Australians talked about Africa, they mostly talked of safaris in Kenya, Zimbabwe, and South Africa. They did not, he felt, know much about west, north, or central Africa.

“I thought it was for me to really bring the community together so that we can showcase how broad and diverse and beautiful our cultures are, and for Canberrans in particular and Australians as a whole to know Africa’s wealth,” Mr Bonsu says.

Five years ago, in 2018, Mr Bonsu organised Canberra’s first African Festival. About 800 people attended. Since then, the festival has boomed. Almost 2,000 people came to the second festival in 2019. The festival was not held during the pandemic in 2020 and 2021 – but when it returned last year, once restrictions were lifted, it was packed, he said. Close to 5,000 people attended, and he expects even more to come this year.

On Saturday, Canberrans can hear “one of Africa’s finest musicians”, Mr Bonsu says: the multi-award-winning Afro Moses, who will come from Sydney with his live band.

There will also be traditional dancing and drumming, East African