Let's gather together and make Africa shine through Arts
VOODOO FESTIVAL (Jan 10) Rep. Benin
The voodoo festival is celebrated on the 10th January every year. It is instituted to give more value to the culture of Benin and the different cultural and cultic realities. It is always organized in the Republic of Benin. It is also a way of celebrating the ancestors and the riches they left as a heritage.
GLEXWE XWE (Dec) Rep Benin
Formalized in 1948 as the identity festival of Ouidah, the Gléxwé xwé event is held in December in the Republic of Benin. The festivities are held with many novelties on different sites in the city. Among the activities of this festival with a cultural, tourist and identity face, there is an exhibition that highlights the architectural and mythological heritage of the city of Ouidah, the city that recalls memories of the slave trade.
GAANI FESTIVAL (Dec) Rep. Benin
In December, the Gani festival takes place in Nikki for seven days. Initially animist, its rites are unchanging. The Bariba king of Nikki receives gifts from all the chiefs of his kingdom. The Gnon Kogui, a respectable woman, enthrones the young princes by shaving their heads and blessing them.
NONVITCHA - Rep Benin
Nonvitcha (in Mina, United Brothers) is the cultural meeting of the Xwla and Xwéda peoples of the southern coastal regions of Benin, to celebrate unity and brotherhood.
Founded in 1921. At each edition of Nonvitcha, this association carries out development actions by building schools, health centers and laboratories in high schools and colleges.
LOCAL PRODUCTS INDEPENDANCE FESTIVAL
The independence festival of local products from Benin organised by the Beninese Association of Local Producers (ABPL), It aims to make the public aware of and promote the "Made in Benin" in all forms. . "For us, a country like ours must first reveal itself through a strong economy. It is not by importing daily that we will get out of this situation", they said. This economic and commercial event reinforces the dynamism of the Beninese authorities to promote small and medium-sized enterprises and to support the efforts of local producers to make themselves known.
PORTO NOVO CARNIVAL
The International Festival of Porto-Novo (FIP) was initiated with the objective to better reveal the rich historical heritage of Porto-Novo. It takes place periodically and is also called the International Festival of Vodoun Arts and Culture of Porto-Novo.
It is a cocktail of different cultural and artistic presentations that make the city of Porto-Novo vibrate. In this festival, the esoteric and popular traditions of Xogbonou will be exhibited to the public and tourists. A rich spectacle of folkloric animation and Beninese rhythms, songs and dances presented to the public by more than a hundred young creators.
ZANGBETO FESTIVAL
The festival will celebrate the Zangbeto culture and Benin's cultural diversity in Guezin while radiating to Porto Novo. It allows to dive into the heart of the Zangbeto tradition. It is also an opportunity to promote the disappearing traditional culinary art and to propose a tourist circuit around the festival. The contributions will make it possible to take this new step of development while preserving the specificities of the event: culture for all, conviviality and ecology.
SAVALOU YAM FESTIVAL - Benin
The yam festival is a traditional seasonal festival celebrated in mid-August each year in Benin (mainly in Savalou). Today it has become an identity festival that not only brings together people with the same culinary and cultural expression, but also an opportunity to discuss the problems facing the commune and to find solutions. It is an opportunity for the king of Savalou to officially authorise the consumption of freshly harvested yams from the fields.
FESTIVAL COULEURS D'AFRIQUE (Mai) Rep Benin
Africa, its know-how, its cultures are celebrated this month of May during the festival Couleurs d'Afrique organized by a group of associations from Elbeuvien, supported by the City. There will be something for all tastes and all ages! So don't hesitate, come and discover, travel, exchange...
The Couleurs d'Afrique Festival is an African Arts and Culture Market initiated by the Association Culture et Développement d'Ici et d'Ailleurs (CDIA). It includes several cultural, artistic and tourist activities.
INTERNATIONAL GUELEDE FESTIVAL
International Guèlèdè Festival of Savè
The International Guèlèdè Festival of Savè (FIG-Savè) is organised in Benin, precisely in Savè in the department of the hills. For ten days, organisers, populations and tourists celebrate this mask, which is the identity of the Shabè, Nago and Yoruba regions of the world, through a programme of talks, exchanges, shows and tourist visits.
Guèlèdè Festival of Kétou
These Yoruba ceremonies take place at night in a public square. Singers, drummers and masked dancers ensure the transmission of this oral heritage. These ceremonies take place every year, after the harvest or during significant events, such as a drought or an epidemic.
WEMEXWE FESTIVAL (Jan) Benin
Wéméxwé is the festival that celebrates each year the reunion of the nationals of the Ouémé valley, a region located in the south-east of Benin. The festival is organised on a rotating basis in each of the four communes of the region (Adjohoun, Aguégués, Bonou and Dangbo). It thus gives the populations of the Wémè socio-cultural area the opportunity to showcase their origins through arts and cultures and to contribute in a supportive manner to the development of the region, through the construction of socio-community infrastructures.
The "Carnaval Kaléta" - Benin
The "Carnaval Kaléta" is a cultural event which highlights the cults and dances of our ancestral traditions. It participates in the promotion of the culture on the national and international level. This festival accessible to the public will present in particular one of the multiple facets of our masks, in particular the Kaleta, very appreciated by the amateurs and passionate persons of the Vodoun cult.
The International Women's Film Festival
The Cotonou International Women's Film Festival (FIFF) created in 2019 is a film festival taking place every two years in Cotonou, Benin. It values African women filmmakers, highlights and provokes reflection on the obstacles to the evolution of women in general and in the film sector in particular.It is initiated with the aim of valuing women who have chosen to make a career in the seventh art and help break certain socio-cultural barriers that hinder the evolution of women in this sector.
FESPACO - Burkina-Faso
The Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou or FESPACO is one of the largest African film festivals. Created in 1969 under the name "First African Film Festival of Ouagadougou", it takes place every two years in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso. It is also one of the few remaining state film festivals in the world.
MASA - Côte d'Ivoire
MASA was officially created during the second Conference of Ministers of Culture and Francophonie held in Liege (Belgium) in 1990. The Francophone ministers meeting on this occasion decided to create this market to strengthen the capacities of African professionals in the performing arts (music, theatre, dance) and to allow access to the international market for African productions and their artists.
EFFET GRAFF
Effet Graff aims to promote the public, urban art and in particular graffiti," said Lea Awunou Roufaï, director of the National Gallery. She continued that the festival also participates "in the aesthetics of cities, sanitation and development of an ideal living environment, beautiful, attractive, peaceful and colorful.
Asafotufiam (August) Ghana
From the end of July to early August, the people of Ada in the eastern parts of the Greater Accra region commemorate victories and defeats in past clashes with Asafotufiam. Also, to usher in the harvest season, ceremonial formalities are observed. There is a mock battle performance with elegant costumes, stool cleansing rituals and libation, durbars amid processions with chiefs in palanquins, and music and dance involving men and women adorned in variegated beads.
Abissa (June) Côte d'Ivoire
Abissa is probably the most attended and publicised festival. It attracts thousands of participants. It is a traditional festival celebrated by the N'zima people of Grand Bassam to mark the beginning of a new year.
Over the years, this festival has grown considerably and the proximity of the town of Grand Bassam to Abidjan means that it is attended by a diverse population wishing to take advantage of the popular and warm atmosphere that can be found there.
Beyond the folklore and the atmosphere, the Abissa symbolises the concepts of democracy and social justice. It is a privileged moment of reunion and reconciliation for all the N'zima people.