Gambia News : The Gambia gears up for 7th Kanilai international cultural festival

As The Gambia gears up to hold the fifth Kanilai International Cultural Festival from 21 May to 7 June, the festival organizers have included in it a mega concert by Germaine Jackson, the brother of the late legendary king of pop, Michael Jackson.

Germaine, who is presently on a second visit to The Gambia, has announced publicly that the Jackson family will participate in the festival, to pay tribute to their late brother, Michael.

According to him, the whole Jackson family will put up a mega show to feature 40 years of their music.

According to the organizers, this year’s event is billed to be the largest, and several African countries as well as countries beyond Africa particularly with sizeable Diaspora African populations are being expected to participate.

Preparations for the event are therefore in top gear with extensive sensitization campaigns on radio and television and the print media along with countrywide popularization tours by committee members and widely publicized statements of President Yahya Jammeh, the main sponsor of the festival.

Speaking to the media on Saturday, the chairman of the organizing committee, Momodou Sanyang stated that “the festival is designed to revive, promote and develop our rich cultural heritage and will showcase the diverse performances of different ethnic groups of the sub-region and outside Africa characterized by mystical display, masquerades, music, dance and drama.”

President Jammeh himself recently told journalists shortly after meeting with the organizing committee at State House that the event is not only about “African culture but world culture and humanity in general.” Its purpose, according to him, is to create diverse cultural understandings. Because “where there is cultural misunderstandings, there is always bound to be conflict because sometimes what is seen as taboo is lack of understanding. What is taboo in another’s country is a greeting in somebody else’s culture”, he said.

The president noted that the festival is not meant for personal gains but for “national interest, African interest and for the interest of humanity.”

He said his objective is to make sure that the Gambia is not only the ‘Smiling Coast of Africa’ but becomes a beacon of hope for humanity for “as small as we are, we are important and can become a pillar in the maintenance of international peace”.