FESPAD can be bigger than this

For the time I have been a resident of Rwanda, the Pan-African dance festival (FESPAD) has always been one of the events that I always looked out for. After all it was at this same festival a few years ago that I got a chance to see the late South African reggae star, Lucky Dube doing one of his last performances. If it was not for FESPAD may be I would not have gotten the chance to witness Ivory Coast’s reggae sensation, Alpha Blondy in action. The memories that always come with this biennial event are so many to list here. I was lucky to have attended the opening ceremony of this year’s FESPAD festival at the Amahoro Stadium. To say that it was colourful is to say the obvious. With the president as part of the audience, we were treated to some interesting performances. The opening ceremony became even more special when the entrance fees were waived for anyone wishing to attend. Although this news came in a little late, word quickly spread like a wild fire and soon the terraces of the stadium were filled with hordes of people from far and beyond. The most significant difference between this year’s event and the previous ones was the change in the management of the event. In the past, the organisation of the event was always the job of the Ministry of Youth and Culture. This time the responsibility of organising the event was passed on to Rwanda Development Board (RDB). Although I am not so sure of the reasons that precipitated the above change, I must point out that this year’s event seemed to be lacking in various aspects. I must point out though that all my observations are not blamed on the new management of the event but simply positive criticisms that deserve attention. I would want to think that the reason the organisation of the event was handed over to RDB was for them to do a much better job than their predecessors. Unfortunately this does not seem to be quite the case in my opinion. RDB has done a good job but not necessarily a much better job. The opening ceremony was a very telling moment for the performance of RDB. The first miscalculation by the organisers was the text message sent to all MTN subscribers with the entrance charges only to turn around a few minutes before the real event and say it was a free show. This led to a lot of confusion at the gates. I actually saw one FESPAD official shouting at another, “do not sell the tickets, the show is free.” Much as the choreographed dances drew a lot of praise from the audience, we cannot ignore the fact that they actually made the event less African. An African dance festival having Chinese inspired dances and costumes was simply not fitting. When the umbrella themed dance was going on, it kind of felt like we were watching the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics!Employing the former Ugandan Big Brother Africa star, Gaetano Kaggwa was a smart move. However, the event seemed less African when the participating countries starting filing past. A cast of only Rwanda, Burundi, Egypt, D.R.C, Madagascar, Namibia, Angola and wait for this, China was simply not representative enough of an African dance festival. To say that there was no participating country from West Africa and just Burundi plus the hosts for the East African region tells a lot about the mobilisation efforts. For the nth time information dissemination on the FESPAD has proved to be the Achilles’ heel for the organisers. Apart from giving us the elaborate list of how many musicians will grace the entire event, it is always a guessing game to know who will be performing at which venue on a given date. The sound system at most of the events was simply not good enough and pleas from the MC, Lion Manzi were just not helping the situation. The idea of inviting ‘International artists’ who are not even known by a big section of the Rwandan population is simply not working. I think we are better off sticking with big name African stars. I am sure K’naan would have been a better bet that Lauryn Hill. For all we do, we should not forget that FESPAD is essentially an African fete and we can only make it better by enhancing its African credentials. FESPAD is one of Rwanda’s major selling points and those in charge should do a good job to make it bigger. It is basically about African dance and should portray just that. ssenyonga@gmail.com