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This will be one of the highlights of the coming year: from June will be held Africa 2020, an event in which RFI will be a partner. Intended to show the dynamism of Africa in the cultural, economic, technological and gastronomic fields, Africa 2020 was initiated by the French Head of State, Emmanuel Macron. He entrusted the reins to N'Goné Fall, a general commissioner determined to shake up traditional patterns.
An extraordinary project, Africa 2020 was born from a speech by Emmanuel Macron, in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso , just over two years ago. The French president affirmed that Africa was "the central continent, global, inescapable because it is here (...) that will play a part of the tilting of the world. "
Africa 2020 is not just a "cultural season" . Summing it up has the gift of annoying N'Ggoné Fall , the event's general commissioner. This trained architect, independent exhibition curator, does not have her language in her pocket.
She was chosen to shake up preconceived ideas about relations between France and Africa. Present in Bamako, Mali, during the launch of the Rencontres photo , in early December, this 52-year-old intellectual defined Africa 2020 as “ a season focused on innovation in the arts, sciences, technologies, entrepreneurship, l 'economy, and built exclusively with civil societies across the continent '. A way to escape the suspicion of recovery or complacency vis-à-vis France, which will provide most of the funding through the French Institute, its operator in cultural diplomacy.
"No Care Bears programming"
This ambition will materialize from June 1 to mid-December 2020 with more than a hundred projects in mainland France and overseas. Projects prepared in pairs by a professional from an African country and by a French professional.
Africa 2020 will revolve around several major themes: the transmission of knowledge, new technologies, redistribution of wealth, history and memory, mobility and civil disobedience, a theme dear to N'Goné Fall who has set up a exhibition on this theme in Denmark three years ago.
" It will not be a" Boursounours "programming," promises the general commissioner who highlights, not the Francophonie, but Pan-Africanism, which she defines as "a movement of political, social, economic and cultural emancipation. "
“ With Africa 2020 , adds N'Goné Fall, I want to break down all physical, mental and ideological barriers. We must build together projects that answer this question: what are for us Africans the challenges of the 21st century? I would like us to discuss this ”.
"Breaking boundaries"
Africa 2020 will start in music with a concert by the Beninese Angélique Kidjo (godmother of the event alongside the singer and former Senegalese minister Youssou Ndour) at the Philharmonie de Paris on June 1.
Africa 2020 will continue with the We Love Green festival on June 6 and 7, at Bois de Vincennes, in Paris. The American folk icon Lana del Rey will share the poster with Wizkid, Nigerian star of afro-trap , Dj Lag, ambassador of gqom, one of the variants of South African electro , Kampire, extraordinary Dj house Ugandan, or again Mr Eazi , inventor of banku music, a mixture of Ghanaian highlife and Nigerian rhythms.
For Clément Meyere, one of the programmers of We Love Green, Africa 2020 is very timely insofar as “ we are in a world musical culture and there are whole continents - including Africa- that infuse in this culture international pop . When Beyoncé realizes the original soundtrack for the Lion King , underlines Clément Meyere, she invites a lot of African artists, a way to pay tribute to all those who influenced her. Likewise in electro, previously very focused on European DJs: today there is a real need to break down borders and go and see how we dance elsewhere… and in particular in Africa ”.
The entire program for Africa 2020 will be revealed at the end of January.