AFROINNOVA II ENG VER by Manos Visibles

AFROINNOVA II Diasporic Futures: The New Doors of Return The Contemporary Black “I” in the World: First gathering Cali, 10-13 Agosto 2022 Community Innovation Group For the Advancement of the Áfrican Diáspora 2022-2023

2 Dakar, the door of no return. Is it possible to come back? Do we want to come back? Come back to what? “If history never repeats itself but is said to rhyme, knowing more of it can only expand the poetic potential of the future” Sebabatso Manoeli

3 Contents BackgroundOuragenda Who is who in AFROINNOVA II A deficit in the thought and production of its own metaphors for the future. ..the futures it will provide for itself…elevating human creativity and the adventure of social invention to a higher level. These imaginaries also evolve because they are projected into the future.This imaginaries transmit their intellectual and symbolic capital to the following generations. Felwine Sarr

About Visible Hands (Manos Visibles) 12 years of building leadership in Colombia and Colombiabeyond.holds

the third largest African dias pora population outside of the continent, after Brazil and the U.S. As an NGO based in Colombia, our power rests in uplifting the agency, capacity and creativity of Afro-Colom bians, to reduce the gaps in representation that perpetuates racial inequalities. In doing so, we have always looked for inspiration and strategic connections among the african dias pora and the continent. Africa is critical to rewriting our own history, and building our collective future. At present, Manos Visibles has a network of 15,000 leaders and 500 orga nizations, and we’ve developed 20 programs across AFROINNOVAColombia.is our international strategy and platform, meant to nurture and build leadership and strategic connections around the world, and to change power relations in Colombia and beyond. With this third cohort, more than fifty leaders from fifteen countries have become members from this platform.

Susana Edjang, former U.N. advisor, Mason Fellows U. Harvard, Collateral benefits A platform like this can help us to look beyond what is in front of us, to think big, to identify groups or individuals that may trigger this transformation, and thus present a more balanced, more complex reflection of Africa in its diaspora and vice versa. The power of the African diaspora must be recognized and find common areas of action to improve, grow and change.

“Your

BACKGROUND AFROINNOVA GROUP OF EXPERTS AGENDA AFROINNOVA WHO IS WHO IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA expertTransnationalmeeting Line of (I)exchangeswork:andcollaborations(II)Visibility StrategyCommunicationandVisibility Learn more about our first and second cohorts here: Including more than 10 working papers and series collected from 2015-2019

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AFROINNOVA was created by Visible Hands (Manos Visibles) in 2015 to spearhead the power of community innovation by forging effective connections among leaders, initiati ves and experiences from across the African diaspora. We believe in the critical need for Africa and its descendants to come together as a new global power: Africa the people, Afri ca the place. first and second cohort of the group of experts have created: Network of capabilities and strategy, negotiation of ideas and transnational collective learning Space for cultivating leadership, renewing approaches and generating a understanding of the African DIaspora and its context. Pathway to construct new narratives, so that our people may see and define their struggles differently Brokerage for resources and catalyst for transnational processes. internal dialogue has got to be different from what you say. And, you know, in film, hope fully that registers and speaks volumes. it’s always the unspoken word and what’s happening be hind someone’s eyes that makes it so rich.” Davis

conceptualization,

collective

BAFFEnglandAKOTOGRACIELA SELAI -BrazilMENSALYMColombiaFAYAD SHIRLEYCostaCAMPBELLRica BRUNOBrazilDUARTELUCÍASpainMBOMIO EDNA L. KILUANJICOlombiaVALENCIAKIAHENDAAngolan J. PHILLIPUnitedTHOMPSONStates JUDITH EDGARDUnitedMORRISONStatesGOUVEIABrazil AURORA HUGOColombiaVERGARAWOODPanama MARÍAColombiaROA WILLIAMALMEIDADEBrazil EquatorialSUSANA ADRIANABrazilBARBOSA EMIL DominicanRODRÍGUEZRepublicALLOTEYBRUCE-KONUAHGhana RAFAELBrazilMURTA

EnglandAKOTO RAFAELUnitedJANISHAColombiaPALACIOSR.GABRIELStatesABIOLANigeriaOKE MOKYIVANNigeriaMAKURALARANJEIRAMozambique LORELEI WILLIAMS United States BIOLANigeriaALABI GILBERT SHANG NDI Cameroon ROA ColombiaBORJA BISILASpainBOKOKO IFEANYINigeriaAWACHIE ZAKIYA CARR JOHNSON United States EDDIColombiaMARCELÍN MOISÉSColombiaMEDRANO SOPHIAUnitedLAFARGUEStatesCUNNINGHAMDAYNAUnitedStatesSUSANA EquatorialEDJANGGuinea

“We actually have resources, we have power. How do we leverage that?”. Philip Thompson, ex profesor del MIT, vicealcalde de Nueva York

“For me, cinema isn’t just a form of entertainment. It’s something that I truly believe helps one see oneself in the world. It helps you see a re flection of yourself in the narratives, and feel part of a global narrative.

SOME AFROINNOVAREFLECTIONSIAND II

For a long time, African filmmakers and African narrators did not have that opportunity.

“(...) who control the images, control the self-esteem”. Abiola Oke, OKAY AFRICA, Cartagena 2016

The rest of the world has very little knowledge, un derstanding, or appreciation of African stories by African filmmakers”. Blitz Bazawule. Director of The Burial of Kojo

What comes next…? Breakout groups Final reflections and closing ritual 7:00 PM Petronio Alvarez Festival Visible Hands 12 years Celebration Concert DAY THREE SAT, AUGUST 13 AfroInnova Panel at the Petronio Festival Farewell members of the group OUR AGENDA ACCOMMODATING LIES SANKOFA DANZA AFRO

and Paula Moreno

Closing Conversation: power, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM

10:30 AM - 11:30 AM

Let us find the keys WE OPEN OURSELVES DAY ONE THURS, AUGUST 11 Leading questions: Where is the AfroInnova “I” as a human being, right now? How is this moment in life? How is our personal leadership? How are we leading ourselves? 8:30 AM - 9:00 AM AFROINNOVA: On the purpose, the mood, the experience, the network, the agenda (Paula) 9:00 AM - 1:30 PM Group discussions, individual presentations 1:30 PM - 3:00 PM | LUNCH 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Our Our Collective Wisdom Finding My Inner Voice | Nature Interaction Circle Conversation: contemplating myself, contemplating the other (Baff-Graciela; Salym-Lucia; Moky-Biola; Bruno-Rafael; Kiluanji-Edna; Gilbert-Paula) 4:00 PM | Back to the hotel 5:20 PM | Leaving to Jorge Isaacs Theater 6:00 PM | “Accommodating lies” Sankofa danza afro 7:30 PM | Hotel dinner or attendance to Petronio Festival DAY TWO Friday, AUGUST 12 We Connect our creativity across the diaspora. “The world has ended for me and us, it has ended many times” 9:00 AM - 10:00 AM On African diasporic bridges The power and potential of our platforms, business and collaboration Biola Alabi and Graciela Selaimen

THE AGENDA

and the networks Rafael

The leadership Murta

11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

the creative

art and a challenging moment for racial equality

10 Quién es quién en AFROINNOVA II

Raised in London and Accra, Baff Akoto is a conceptual artist who is shortlisted for the 2022 Aesthetica Art Prize 2022 for his work LEAVE THE EDGES and winner. He is part of the 2022 cohorts for both The London Open triennial at Whitechapel Ga llery and the 13th Bamako Biennial of African Photography in Mali. Having forged a path within visual arts wi th mentoring from John Akomfrah and the Oscar-winning Asif Kapadia, Baff’s work embraces the fluidity of visual grammar, notions of plurality, (self) perceptions and societal impli cations of human bodily movement (disability, ritual, dance). In 2021 he was a resident of the Guest Projects Digital programme delivered by the Yinka Shonibare Foundation. He has served on multiple cinema and television juries including for the BAFTA Awards and the BFI London Film Festival. As a director and pro ducer Baff began in documentary before directing network TV drama at the UK’s Channel 4 and BBC cau sing Screen International to tip Ako to as a “Star of Tomorrow” in 2018.

Baff Akoto British- Ghanain filmmaker IG: @baff_akoto Akoto’s work has exhibited extensi vely including by the British Film Ins titute in their Experimenta strand for “works by artists that revolutionize and reshape our vision of the cine matic moving image.”

13 cultural leaders for diasporic transformation

The most recent feature film he has produced QUEEN OF GLORY (from actor and debut director Nana Men sah) premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival and is released in cinemas in 2022. Get to know him THE ARTISTS

MEET

Bruno Duarte Brazilian filmmaker IG: @brunofduarte Bruno is a communications ex pert with a B.A. in Filmmaking and Social Communication from PUC-Rio, currently attending a master’s degree at ECO-UFRJ. His ongoing research focus on the life and work of the Black gay filmmaker Marlon Riggs (USA, 1957-1994). He has been Social Media and Video Coor dinator at Amnesty Internatio nal, Head Of Communications at KABELA and Agency for Youth Networks. Currently, He works as a Program Officer leading visual media and culture at the Open Society Foundation’s Latin America Program. Get to know him

Kiluanji Kia Henda Visual Artist, Angola IG: @kiluanjikiahenda Kiluanji Kia Henda is a multi disciplinary artist who works mainly as a photographer and visual artist. He employs a sur prising sense of humor in his work, which often hones in on themes of identity, politics, and perceptions of postcolonialism and modernism in Africa. In 2012, Kia Henda received the National Culture and Art Prize from the Ministry of Culture in Angola, and in 2017 he won the Frieze Artist Award. His work is in the public collection at Tate Modern and he has exhibited at biennales in Venice, Dakar, São Paulo and Gwangju. As a commission for IFFR, Kia Henda created the musical performan ce Resetting Birds’ Memories (2021). His design Plantation –Prosperity and Nightmare was selected for the construction of the Memorial in Homage to Ens laved People in Lisbon, Portugal, in 2021. Get to know him

Rafael CallejasPalacios

Colombian choreographer and creative IG: @rafaelmario_p Born in Medellin (Colombia). Rafael studied at the Academy of Dance in Paris. His experience as a dancer in 20 African countries and Europe with the mentorship of Germaine Acogny and Irene Tasembobo, was the basis for founding Sankofa Dan zafro in 1997. Winner of the National Dance Award from the Ministry of Culture in 2008, he also received the National Arts Award in 2017. Re cently, the University of Manchester recognized his trajectory in anti-ra cism in the dance world. The New York Times recently featured his creation Accommodating Lies. Get to know him

Edna Liliana valencia Colombian journalist, influencer and entrepreneur IG: @ednaliliana News anchor and international reporter of France 24 and top Colombian media in the last 10 years. In this role, she has expan sively covered news in more than 20 countries of Africa and the African Diaspora. Edna worked as an advisor to Disney for the representation roles of Afroco lombians in the Encanto Movie. She recently published her first poetry book.

Get to know her

MEET THE STORYTELLERS

She has led the natural hair cam paigns and network of black wo men entrepreneurs for natural hair products. She recently ope ned her own cultural center for Black Women Beauty and Em powerment in Cali (Colombia).

Her book Africa’s Greatest Entre preneurs with a foreword written by Richard Branson, featured on the top 10 best-selling business books in South Africa when it launched. Moky has since compiled and publi shed a number of non-fiction titles under her imprint MME Media. Tit les include South Africa’s Greatest Entrepreneurs, Going Global which tells the stories of South Africa’s most successful global compa nies and a biography of one of its top entrepreneurs; Herman Mas haba, called Black Like You. Moky started a fiction book series called Nollybooks aimed at getting young Africans to read, and then adapted the series for television co-produ cing over 21 television movies for the South African TV station etv. The books are available on Worldreader, and Okadabooks. She was the Com munications Director of the Gates Foundation, She is currently the Executive Director of Africa No Fil ter, a donor collaborative focused on shifting the African narrative.

Get to know her

Moky Makura Nigerian TV presenter, producer, author, publisher and entrepreneur IG: @mokymakura Moky started her media career as the African Anchor and field repor ter for South Africa’s award-winning news and actuality show – Car te Blanche. She conceptualized, co-produced and presented a lifes tyle TV series for the pan African pay TV channel MNet called “Living It”, which focused on the lifestyles of the African continent’s wealthy elite. She also played a lead role in the groundbreaking and popular MNet Pan-African drama series Jacob’s Cross.

AfroEuropean journalist, activist and writer. Spain-Equatorial Guinee IG: @luciambomio The pioneer afrodescendant face in Spanish Television and columnist in El Pais, now as well she is adapting her memoir “Hija del Camino ‘’ with Netflix to describe the experience of African descent woman born in Europe. In December 2017 she was chosen by the blog Africa is not a country, of the newspaper “El País”, one of the most outstanding Afri can women of the year and in 2020 she was awarded the communica tion prize of the Pro Human Rights Association of Spain. She has been member and co-founder of endless Afroeuropean initiatives, such as: Afroféminas, Mundo Negro, Negr xs magazine (negres) and Píkara and more recentle the Afro house in Madrid.

Lucía MbomíoAsuéRubio

Get to know her

Visibles with 100 leaders of the Co lombian Pacific coast . He received his PhD in comparative literature from the University of Bayreuth in 2014. Gilbert Shang Ndi is the author of State/Society: Narrating Transformations in Selected Afri can Novels (2017) and has coedi ted Tracks and Traces of Violence (2017) and Re-Writing Pasts, Imagi ning Futures: Critical Explorations of Contemporary African Fiction and Theater (2017). Get to know him

Gilbert is a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Cluster of Excellence – Africa Multiple, at the University of Bayre uth, working on the Project: Black Atlantic Revisited. A member of the Junges Kolleg (Young Collea gue) Programme of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Huma nities (Munich), he recently com pleted a Feodor Lynen Fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation at the Universidad de los Andes, Colombia and founded the African Literature Lab at Manos

Gilbert Shang Ndi Writer and senior academic on Afri can literature. Cameroon IG: @gil_but_nihang Gilbert was born in the city of Nkam be, in northwestern Cameroon, as part of the Wimbum ethnic group.

Salym Fayad Colombian cultural agent, reporter and photographer based in Johan nesburg, South Africa IG: @salymfayad Since 2008 he has worked extensi vely in different regions of sub-Sa haran Africa covering issues related to culture and music, migration, conflict and human rights. His texts and photographs have appeared in The New York Times, Boston Re view, The Guardian, The Sunday Times, among others. His photo graphic work has been exhibited in more than 10 countries.He is co-founder of the Otro Sur Founda tion, an independent organization that promotes cultural exchange between Africa and Latin AmericaHe created the Festival of African Film in Colombia. He has worked on tours and collaborative projects of jazz artists from Southern Africa and is a member of the networks of music managers and promoters CCA Cultural Connections Africa and CCLA Conexiones Culturales América Latina. Get to know him

Biola Alabi Nigerianfilmmakerentrepreneur,Americaninvestor,andtvproduce

IG: @biolaalabi She has over two decades of me dia experience both locally and internationally. Currently, she is the CEO of a media consul ting company, Biola Alabi Media (BAM). She kick-started her career at Bigwords.com as a Regional Marketing Manager and later mo ved to Sesame Workshop as the Regional Director, International Strategies Group Sub-Saharan Africa. She was at Sesame Wor kshop for seven years and later joined MNET Africa in 2008 as the Managing Director Africa, whe re she oversaw 4 editions of Big brother Africa and African Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards in 2013. She has a demonstrated history of developing corporate strate gies for market entry, consumer insights into technology, acqui sition negotiation, sponsorship outreach and the development of operational models that yield high impact organizational suc cess. She is passionate about te chnology, media and entertain ment and has worked extensively with corporations, partners and associations for the continuous development of Africa’s technolo gy and entertainment industries. Biola has received local and inter national recognition like: One of the 20 Youngest Power Women in Africa, by Forbes, 2013. Get to know her

MEET THE PLATFORM BUILDERS

Graciela Selaimen Regional Lead, Latin America, Story for Impact IG: @graci_selaimen Graciela is a journalist who has been exploring multiple ways to tell sto ries. She believes women can heal the planet and stories can allevia te suffering. As a Senior Program Officer with the Ford Foundation, Graciela developed strategies and programs in the areas of Technolo gy and Society, Creativity and Free dom of Expression, and Thriving Civic Space, crosscutting gender and race Currentlyperspectives.Gracielaisthe

Regional Lead for Latin America of IRIS - the International Resource for Impact and Storytelling. IRIS is a donor co llaborative for philanthropy focu sed on strengthening civil society through narrative strategies and creative moving image storytelling for impact. IRIS supports donor partners’ efforts to deepen colla boration between storytellers, mo vements and civil society leaders, furthering the goals of dismantling inequality and making progress on key social justice issues. With em phasis on building knowledge and networks in Global South regions, IRIS embraces a new era of tech nological innovation in a globally interconnected world.

Get to know her

Lorelei Williams is Warner Music Group/Blavatnik Family Founda tion Social Justice Fund’s (WMG/ BFF SJF) first Executive Director. Prior to joining the WMG/BFF SJF, Williams served as Senior Vice President of Grant Programs at Comic Relief U.S.Prior to Comic Relief, Williams spent more than 15 years working as a philanthro pic strategist focused on the U.S. South America and sub-Saharan Africa. For most of those years, she was president of Onira Glo bal Advisors, where she advised on fundraising, grantmaking and program design for foundations and nonprofits around the world. Her clients have included the Ke llogg Foundation, the Ford Foun dation, the Brazil Foundation and the Brazilian Institute of Ethnic Media. As a Fulbright Scholar in Salvador de Bahia, Williams foun ded the POMPA project in partner ship with the Steve Biko Institute to train young Afro-Brazilians for careers in public service. She also served as co-chair of the U.S. State Department’s Civil Society Com mittee on the U.S. State Depart ment’s Joint Action Plan to End Racial Discrimination (JAPER).

Lorelei Williams Executive Director of the WMG / Blavatnik Family Foundation So cial Justice Fund

Rafael is Chief Network Officer and co-founder of Zumbi Inter nacional and director at Ashoka Brasil, leading the changemaker hotspots strategy. In recent years, he has accumulated experience in the topics of social innovation, systemic change and social en trepreneurship. Previously, he worked in sustainability, public policy, multi-level governance and networks.

23 Rafael Murta Reis Director at Ashoka Brazil and co-founder of Zumbi International IG: @rafamurta Rafael Murta is Brazilian, he holds a master’s degree in Public Admi nistration and Government from Fundação Getulio Vargas, and a bachelor’s degree in communi cations from the Pontifical Ca tholic University of Minas Gerais.

Eddi

BermúdezXavierMarcelín

Senior Executive - Development Bank of Latin America IG: @eddixbm Senior Executive of the Gender, Inclusion and Diversity team of the Development Bank of Latin America, based in Argentina. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Poli tical Science and Government from Universidad del Rosario, Master in Management and Development Practice from Universidad de los Andes, with studies in political management and governance at Universidad del Rosario and George Washington University, as well as prior consultation at Universidad HeNacional.hasbeen a consultant and tutor of programs of the Visible Hands Corporation. In 2020, he was office advisor of the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare. He was appoin ted in 2017 as Deputy Director of Ethnic Affairs Dis trict Secretary of Government in the Mayor’s Office of GraduatedBogota. from the Innovation and Leadership in Government pro gram at Georgetown University in Washington D.C and a fellow of the Mel King Community Econo mic Democracy Fellowship (MKCF) 2016-2017 at MIT Colab in Boston. He is a manager with a successful experience in the management and development of projects fun ded by the Colombian government and international donors. Manage ment in design and development strategies for youth, diversity and urban and rural social inclusion. Passionate about Colombia. Get to know him

Get to know her Uma Ramiah International Communications Advisor Visible Hands, U.S. IG: @ooooomzzz Uma is a multimedia storyteller and communi cations consultant. She’s worked in human rights, journalism, branding, pu blic relations, photography, social media and commu nity organizing in West, Central and South Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America - and across the United Sta tes. Her clients have ranged from Human Rights Watch, the United Nations, Harvard and Yale Universities to independent artists and non-profits around the world. She studied International Relations and Pu blic Relations at University of Minnesota, and Religion and African Studies at Yale. Uma is based in Durham, North Caroli na. She believes storytelling can connect, translate, illuminate, celebrate and inspire communities. Any kind of community, an ywhere in the world.

Get to know her

Meet the Visible Hands of AFROINNOVA II team

Paula Moreno President and Conceptual strategist of the group IG: @paulamoreno_z Master in Philosophy of Management Studies from the University of Cambridge and SPURS/ Fullbright Fellow in the Urban and Regional Plan ning Program at the Mas sachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); a certificate in Italian culture and language from the Italian Institute of Culture, and an industrial engineer from the Universidad Autónoma de Colombia.

Paula was Colombia’s Minister of Culture (2007 - 2010) and has worked as a project manager and consultant for international organizations. Currently, she is a member of the Board of Directors of the Ford Foun dation; Founder and President of Visible Hands. Author of the book “El Poder de lo Invisible” (2018).

“When Black bodies are on the stage, Black perspectives must be reflected. This is not simply a matter of ‘artistic interpretation’; race and sex play a pivotal in determining who holds the power to representation”shape Tonya Pinkins Luis Cassiani Herazo Logistics coordinator Afroinnova IG: @luiscassianih Luis is a social leader and activist who holds a bachelor’s degree in tourism manage ment. He is a Martin Luther King Jr. Fellow from USAID and Colombo Americano. Luis is an Ethnic Audiovisual Power scholars hip holder and a master’s degree student of cultural management. He is currently a Regional Coordinator for Visible Hands.

Giuliana Brayan Afroinnova Coordinator Political scientist with em phasis in Public Manage ment. Master in Economics of Public Policy from Uni versidad del Rosario. She is a member of the Youth Advisory Council (20202022) of the US.organizationphilanthropicComicReliefSheiscurrentlyManager of Community Empowerment and Gender, and leader of the ethnic fund for black and indigenous women of Corporación Manos Visibles. She has been a fellow in global leadership pro grams as a delegate for Colombia for the organization One Young World. Get to know her

Jeison Riascos Photographer IG: @elmurcy He is known in the audiovisual world as El Murcy. He is a photographer from Chocó who focuses his work on photojournalism in order to make visible actions in the pro vince of Chocó in Colombia. His photogra phic work has been published in national and international media such as: The New York Times, El Espectador, El Tiempo, Re vista Semana, El Colombiano, Pacifista, AFP (Agence France Presse), EFE Agency, OkayAfrica. Founder of the digital platform Talento Chocoano, a platform that genera tes positive, cultural, entrepreneurial and leadership content in Chocó.

Remedios Zafra, El entusiasmo Valeria Brayan Alvarez Logistics Coordinator, Afroinnova Sociologist graduated from Universidad Santo Tomás. She has been working with Manos Visibles for more than five years, where she has developed the Vení Te Leo strategy, focused on promoting reading and writing as tools for the positioning of cultural leadership. She is currently Mana ger of Culture and New Narratives at Manos Visibles.

“Those who dedicate themselves to creation know the power of screens, images and writing to temporarily reverse so many absences and limitations. So many impulses of transformation of worlds that are born when we finally see ourselves also as fictions and in them we build ourselves in other ways. So much political power that we squander for the self.”

The Petronio Alvarez Pacific Music Fes tival has been held for twenty-five years in the city of Cali and provides meeting spaces where Afro culture is the prota gonist. It pays tribute to the music, food and traditional beverages, crafts and an cestral knowledge of the communities of the Colombian Pacific, allowing exhi bitors to meet each other and interact with other cultural expressions.

Cali is rich in Afro-Colombian heritage; nowhere in the nation is racial and cul tural diversity so evident. Cali is the city in Colombia with the highest concentra tion of Afro-descendant population, with 26.4% of its total inhabitants, and is the second Afro-descendant capital of Latin America after Salvador de Bahia, Brazil.

Cali is the capital of the department of Valle del Cauca. It is the third most po pulated city and the third economic and cultural center of Colombia. It is located in the southern region of Valle del Cauca; geographically the city lies in the Cau ca River Valley formed by the western mountain range and the central moun tain range of the Andean Region.

Cali is the most important cosmopolitan urban epicenter of Afro-descendants in Colombia, with the presence of black se ttlers from all the municipalities of the Pacific, northern Cauca and the entire Valley other than Cali. Cali also gathers black settlers from Urabá Antioquia, and in general from several municipalities of the Caribbean coast, including immi grants from the islands of San Andrés and AmongProvidencia.itsattractions,

Cali also called “The Capital of Salsa”, has the Tertulia Museum, the Plazoleta Jaime Varela, the Calima Gold Museum and the Ar chaeological Museum of La Merced, the imposing Cristo Rey (Christ the King), a statue similar to Christ the Redeemer of Rio de Janeiro that watches over the city from the Cerro de las Tres Cruces (Hill of the Three Crosses).

Petronio Alvarez Pacific Music Festival

VALLE DEL CAUCA COLOMBIA CALI

28 CALI, COLOMBIA

The Festival is one of the most impor tant cultural events of the capital of Valle del Cauca as it brings together - for 4 days - both musical traditions, with the participation of 1,100 artists and 44 com peting groups, as well as the ancestral knowledge of crafts, food and beverages of more than 1,300 exhibitors.

“In every process of profound societal transformation - from decolonization in Africa and the civil rights movements in the African diasporas to the fight against Apartheid in South Africa - literature has played a critical role. Even in less dramatic situations, creative storytelling has been and is indispensable for individual and collective self-representation and leads to a progressive re-appropriation of power over our memories and our history. It allows us to rename and redefine ourselves in contexts where we have always been named and defined from external, stereotypical and colonizing perspectives. This dialogue with African literature constitutes a highly symbolic gesture that marks a form of transatlantic reconnection at the level of our histories and our imaginaries, bringing together cultures that have been separated for centuries but have never lost their roots. Cultures that have been transformed in the Americas but remain strongly connected to African epistemologies.”

Dr. Gilbert Shang Ndi Cameroonian Writer, AfroInnova Expert and Member of the “Manos Visibles” Network @afroinnova @afroinnovaglobal