Lagos Black Heritage Festival 2013... Spotlighting Brazilian Connection

ALL is set for this year’s Lagos Black Heritage Festival (LBHF). It will run from March 25 to April 1. Culture lovers in and around the city will yet be treated to another opportunity of cultural extravaganza that the LBHF is becoming known for.
Inspired by the spirit of convergence for which Lagos remains pre-eminent, the festival celebrates African creativity in a carnivalesque tradition of contemporary dance, music, painting and photo exposition, drama, design and fashion display, beauty pageant, international symposium, film and video fiesta and other artistic and intellectual offerings, both inter-state and international.
To broaden and deepen the knowledge of Africa and Africans of Lagos and the festival both historically and contemporaneously within the context of recall and celebration, the carnival will be organized around the theme The Black in the Mediterranean Blue, with a special focus on the city’s relationship with Brazilian, as part of black African presence in the Mediterranean, a series that is in its second year. Last year, the Italian connection took centre stage, by way of a remapping of Africa’s connection the Mediterranean countries and how it impacted on the continent and its Diaspora presence.
Beginning with a cultural exploration in 2012 tagged The Italian Connection, the 2013 edition will be on The Year of Brazil and it focuses on Bring Back Brazil. According to the festival consultant, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the festival will map out how Nigeria and Brazil influence each other.
While speaking during a press conference at Freedom Park, Lagos, Soyinka disclosed that among other things, the festival would celebrate African creativity, noting, “The series is designed to expose African culture through the Mediterranean Blue. We hope to bring back history in affiliation with Africa, Nigeria, and indeed, Lagos.
“After Italy and the Horn of Africa in the series - The Black in the Mediterranean Blue - comes the turn of Portugal, once a great European maritime nation, and the first European nation to establish diplomatic relations with an African counterpart - the Benin Kingdom. This historic encounter degenerated into participation in the infamous slave trade, but it also resulted in the greatest ‘rainbow’ nation in the world - The Republic of Brazil!”
Explaining reasons why Brazil is in focus, the literary giant pointed out that “our children do not understand why we have people who practice Nigerian cultures in Brazil; all they know is that in Brazil they have blacks who are descendants of slaves from Nigeria. They are astonished to see traditions of the Yoruba on streets of places such as Salvador during carnivals.