Kinshasa, October 20th, 2022 (CPA) – The International Center of Bantu Civilizations (CICIBA) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), in a joint statement received by CPA on Wednesday, decided to initiate a regional program to celebrate and promote the great figures of Central Africa.
The source indicates that these are the men and women who have enabled Greater Central Africa to reveal to the whole world the richness of its cultural diversity and its creative potential, its models of community and sustainable development, as well as the resilience of its cultural identity in the context of globalized societies and the standardization of cultural expressions. The latter will be protected in all areas of public and private life.
The same source recalls that the very first celebration of the great figures of Central Africa was dedicated to the two illustrious virtuosos of Congolese Rumba, namely Joseph Kabasele Tshamala known as « Grand Kalle » and Shungu Wembadiyo, aka Papa Wemba. For the occasion, a ceremony of double opening of the books on these two musicians, written by the general director of « CICIBA », Prof Manda Tchebwa Antoine, in collaboration with Foshino Ntumba, was organized on Monday at the National Museum of DRC, we learned.
These are the books “Wemba on the throne of Rumba” volumes 1 and 2, as well as “Joseph Kabasele, Grand Kalle. The Pan-African, the Afro-Cuban » volume 1 and 2 also.
Referring to the relevant provisions of the Charter for Cultural Renaissance of the African Union (AU) and other treaties, the program for the celebration of the great figures of Central Africa aims to promote culture as a tool for human construction and of a model of sustainable development, as well as the pooling of regional expertise in the field of culture through the development of inter-institutional projects, notes the joint declaration of CICIBA and ECCAS.
As a reminder, the celebration of Grand Kalle and Papa Wemba is part of the activities of the 1st Central African Biennial on the culture of peace, organized in Kinshasa by ECCAS under the chairmanship of the Head of State Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo. .
