20 States, 14 African Countries Join Soyinka in Ogun Festival

Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka and other literary icons will feature in the 2018 African Drums Festival that will be attended by 20 states and 14 African countries.

The conference that will feature the drums festival is scheduled to hold in Abeokuta from April 19 to 22.
Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun said Soyinka had been scheduled to coordinate a conference on April 20 at the Olumo Rock Tourist Centre, with the theme, ‘Drums For Advancement.’

During the conference, experts would speak on the importance of drums.
He said an art exhibition would also hold at the same venue while a “Walk For Drum,’’ will also hold from the Cultural Centre at Kuto to the Olumo Rock at Itoku area in Abeokuta.

Amosun said that Africa had a rich culture which predated the Western civilisation, saying that the festival was organised “to re-awake and revive our dying culture.’’
“We have noted that our culture is dying and need to be revived.

“Drums and Drumming are important features of the African culture that cut across the strata of the continent.
“There is nowhere that you don’t have one type of drum or the other and if we are to revive our ideals and ideas as a continent, we must start with a culture that cuts across, which is drumming, ’’ the governor said.

He said that about 70 private cultural groups as well as other countries like Haiti, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, would also participate in the festival.

The governor, according to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), said that the state government was determined to nurture the festival to maturity, so that subsequent governments would also preserve the legacies of the festival.
“Thereby making it (Drums Festival) a flagship for cultural activities in the state and the country at large,’’ Amosun said.

He said that the festival would continue to hold in Ogun annually on every third week of April.

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