Dancers perform on the first day of African Festival at Katara, yesterday.
DOHA: Katara yesterday unleashed a number of events simultaneously to launch the inaugural African Festival featuring the diverse culture of 15 countries from the second largest continent in the world.
African arts fair, art exhibitions, art and music workshops, urban painting, outdoor shows, live concerts, films, and food featured the first day of the week-long festival.
Organised by Katara in cooperation with 15 African embassies here, the seven-day festival is being held in alignment with Qatar National Vision 2013 and is aimed at promoting mutual respect among people and bridging various cultures.
Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara, said Katara respects culture of people regardless of language and ethnicity and it is part of Katara’s strategy to reach out to different communities to promote mutual respect of the diversity of culture and heritage.
The festival, he said, sheds light on the culture of Africans and offers an invaluable opportunity to know the creativity of Africans and how the continent contributed to the culture of humanity.
“Qatari citizens appreciate and respect African people and their culture,” he added. Other events visitors to the festival can look forward to in the coming days are colourful African circus and parade and concerts by well-know African musicians including Johnny Clegg, Manu Dibango and Cheikh Tidiane Seck.
The festival also features an Embassies Zone highlighting each country’s culture, a Cine Zone which will screen a total of 20 culturally relevant films and a Kids’ Zone which highlights a live size stuffed animal zoo, face painting, workshops and a large wall where children can express themselves artistically.
The Peninsula
