STORY: Africa's performing art festival delivers beauty of cultural diversity
DATELINE: July 20, 2023
LENGTH: 00:03:29
LOCATION: Kigali
CATEGORY: CULTURE/ENTERTAINMENT
 
SHOTLIST:
1. various of Ubumuntu Arts Festival
2. SOUNDBITE 1 (English): EFRANCE, Reveler from Tanzania
3. SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ANDERSON CARVALHO, Choreographer
4. SOUNDBITE 3 (English): HOPE AZEDA, Artistic director 
STORYLINE:
 
Ubumuntu Arts Festival, Africa's performing event, concluded Sunday with artists from about a dozen countries in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda.
 
The three-day event at the Kigali Genocide Memorial site's amphitheater showcased rich cultural heritage.
 
The event drew artists and emerging talent from across the continent and beyond to showcase the power of art in fostering social change.
 
The festival, the ninth edition with the theme "Believe: Faith Over Fear," featured curated theater, music, and contemporary dance performances, uniting people from diverse backgrounds.
 
Among the highlights was the Ballet de Barcelona, Anderson Carvalho dance and choreograph group based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with their performance "From the Ashes I Rise." The collaborative masterpiece blends Spanish and Rwandan artistry to celebrate the beauty of cultural diversity.
 
Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company, a leading theater company in Rwanda, staged the performance "Generation 25," which portrays what it looks like to be born after Rwanda's 1994 genocide against Tutsi, and how to connect with what you haven't experienced.
 
Revelers had the opportunity to experience art with powerful ideas, stirring deep emotions while challenging conventional thinking.
 
MindLeaps Rwanda staged a performance dubbed Unseen, in which technical skill dances matched active participation.
 
SOUNDBITE 1 (English): EFRANCE, Reveler from Tanzania
"For this time, it's so amazing. We saw a lot of people from different countries. I am excited to be here. I like songs, poetry, poems from different countries, different cultures, and traditional."
 
For Anderson Carvalho, a choreographer from Brazil but working in Amsterdam, this was his second time at the Ubumuntu Arts Festival in Kigali.
 
SOUNDBITE 2 (English): ANDERSON CARVALHO, Choreographer
"Ubumuntu festival is very important for art community because it's a place where brings everyone altogether as a unity, it's a place where we can come together, we can heal, we can talk, we can share, but at the same time we can have our own voices, so we can have our unique voices and visions toward this festival, so it has a huge impact on the art community. Art is for everyone, so it is a very important and strong tool for social transformation, for communities getting together and helping each other to develop, to evolve, to heal and to be."
 
Hope Azeda, the artistic director of Mashirika Performing Arts and Media Company, and the brain behind the festival, said the focus of this year's festival was to push for a conversation about overcoming fear, following the COVID-19 pandemic which triggered a lot of fear and uncertainty which hindered people's progress and creativity.
 
SOUNDBITE 3 (English): HOPE AZEDA, Artistic director
"The most impressive thing for me in this year's festival has been the amount of growth in terms of productions, in terms of artists' engagement in values of humanity because this festival is about arts and humanity.
I am seeing the moral courage of artists trying to embrace the aspect of humanity regardless of the kind of hard situation they are going through or the recovery from COVID-19."
 
First held in 2015, the festival is held annually following the last week of the 100 days of commemorating the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
 
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kigali.
(XHTV)