Verona is hosting the first edition of the Africae Festival at the Fondazione Nigrizia in Verona(Vicolo Pozzo 1), an event dedicated to Afro-descendence and the African continent, organised by Nigrizia, the African Museum and the Nigrizia Foundation onlus. The festival, which runs until Sunday 16 June, aims to promote values of inclusion and interaction through words, music and more. The Africae Festival is conceived as a crossroads of meetings and debates aimed at eliminating stereotypes and promoting inclusion and interaction between Italy and Africa.
The programme is divided into a daytime part with lectures and debates and an evening part with music, concerts and a dance floor. The daytime sessions will feature some of the most important names on the Italian Africanist scene. The topics on the programme are not limited to hard news (such as wars, humanitarian crises, and corruption cases), but touch on a wide range of issues: from climate migration to Italy’s role in Africa. In the evening, the showcase is dedicated to Afro-descendant and diasporic music, understood in its various declinations, with national and international artists such as Elhzo, Lenna Bahule, Epoque and Dudù Kouate.
There are food stands with the cuisines of different African countries to delight the palates of participants. All events are free of charge, except for the exhibition on display at the African Museum: ‘The gestures of water’, a photographic exhibition on the relationship between man and the aquatic environment in Africa, entrance fee is €5.
