Africa Festival 2009 was blessed with a very pleasant weather. As soon as the heat of the sun was becoming too much, a cool breeze blew over the location as if an air-conditioning system was turned on.
Africa Festival 2009 (29 May till 1 June) was blessed with a very pleasant weather. As soon as the heat of the sun was becoming too much, a cool breeze blew over the location as if an air-conditioning system was turned on. As usual, it was a peaceful festival and over 100,000 visitors enjoyed a good blend of music and dance entertainment from across Africa. Interesting discussions, film shows, bazaar, restaurants and theatre were also included in the festival’s program. Disco dancing was available till dawn on the first three days. Percussionists and cultural groups thrilled the visitors with energetic performances.

At the opening ceremony, an assembly of African Ambassadors, officials from German political and
cultural institutes joined the Bavarian Minister of State Dr. Heubisch  and the Mayor of Wuerzburg Georg Rosenthal praise the work of the festival organizers and  pledge their continue support.

The master of Djembe, Mamady Keita from Guineaand his percussion group welcomed early visitors with rhythmic percussion and frenzy dances. The South African lady Madosini, popularly known as the queen of Xhosa music later took on the open-air stage to render traditional Xhosa music with her traditional music instrument. To round-up the first day on the open-air stage, the Congolese music–duo “ Kekele” turned the open field into dancing floor with Rumba Congo.

Camagwini

The evening concert program was devoted to late Miriam Makeba. Members of the original band as well as uprising South African singers including Camagwini
and Thandiswa Mazwai paid tribute to her and performed in her honour.

The 2nd day of the festival offered discussion podium with the topic “Current Status of the Preparation of the Football World Cup 2010 in South Africa” The discussion panel gave an insight on the difficulties encountered and progress made on the project. The overall conclusion was that the organizers are optimistic that the event is going to be successful.
Bafing Kul
Victor Deme , Mounira Mitchala from the Chad Republic and Bafing Kul from Mali entertained the visitors at the open-air stage. The evening program presented two fantastic concerts with "best of the breed" African music artists namely Oumou Sangare from Mali and Toure Kunda from Senegal.
 
Oumou Sangare
 
The situation of the Pygmies in Central Africa was the topic of discussion on the 3rd day of the festival. The discussion panel endeavoured to explain the ethnic classification of the cultural minority groups in central Africa. The panel argued that lack of central organization of the ethnic groups lead to political mistreatment and economic injustice. At the open-air stage, visitors danced to the music of Kamel El Harrachi from Algeria , Minyeshu from Ethiopia and Orchestre National de Barbes from Paris . The German saxophonist, Klaus Doldinger and his guests from Morocco took on the stage at the evening concert, followed by the popular Algerian artist Khaled.
Mamady Keita
 
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  Afritopic 2009