Intercultural exchanges, development and cooperation in Africa: Morocco’s Afrikayna celebrates is ‘5.2 Week’

On May 2nd to 6th, the non-profit cultural organisation , Afrikayna, organised a week of events ‘Week 5:2’, to celebrate its five-years anniversary and the two-years of activity of its artistic mobility fund, Africa Art Lines. Afrikayna was created by the prolific cultural operator, Ghita Khaldi, in order to contribute and foster intercultural exchange, development and cooperation in Africa. Dr. Jenny Mbaye was invited to participate in the series of events as moderator of the third roundtable dedicated to ‘Artistic Mobility in Africa’.

The rich and dense programme welcomed Moroccan as well as international artists, cultural operators and cultural organisations from the rest of the continent and included a residency of musical creation, The Mbokka Project, with artists from Ivory Coast, Mali, Morocco and Senegal (under the direction of Aziz Sahmaoui); a Drum&Bass Masterclass with Mad Professor; concerts from emerging artists from the continent (Mone Ekang; Taragalte Generation); an itinerary exhibition of traditional African instruments as well as three professional roundtables focusing on the contemporary challenges of the music economy in Africa.

The first roundtable welcomed academics, musicians and master luthiers to discuss the issue of valorising traditional instruments from Africa and its relation to both identity and heritage; the second roundtable focused on the new modes of music consumption, between traditional and digital formats, with contributions from major label producer, music distributors, IPRs lawyer, and music artists from different genres and generations; the third roundtable addressed both the limits and potentials of artistic mobility on the continent, with inputs from representatives of Africa based-music markets, festivals and collaborative platforms, both off and online.

The series of celebratory events took place in Casablanca at the Boultek (where Afrikayna’s offices are located), the first Centre dedicated to urban/popular music (Musique actuelle) in Morocco, which has now become a flagship cultural institution and effective incubator for local creatives with, among other key initiatives, its music festival L’Boulevard and its Street Arts Festival, Sbagha Bagha.

For more information on the artistic mobility fund, ArtsLines: http://africaartlines.com

For more information on non-profit organisation, Afrikayna: http://afrikayna.com

For more information on the Boultek, its music festival L’Boulevard and its street art festival, Sbagha Bagha: http://www.boulevard.ma; https://www.sbaghabagha.ma