A virtual forum on leveraging African cultural heritage as a strategy for integration and regional development
QUIBDO, CHOCO, REPUBLIC OF COLOMBIA — On Thursday, September 17, 2020 the Pan-African Council alongside the Government of Choco, Colombia is co-organising a virtual forum entitled “Cultural Heritage as a Strategy for Integration and Regional Development”.
The Chocó Department is a region of Colombia known for its overwhelming Afro-Colombian population, nearing 90% of the total population. Located in the west of the country, it is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The Fiestas de San Pacho (The St. Francis of Assisi Festival) is held annual in the department’s capital Quibdó, which consist of sixteen days of barrio-based parades and religious observations, with other activities that begin a month earlier. These celebrations have served as an affirmation of community and a claim to belonging and ownership of African heritage, as a form of cultural resistance.
This virtual forum will be carried out with the objective of commemorating Heritage Month in the Department of Choco, Colombia, where local, national and international speakers will be invited to address the issue of cultural heritage as a regional integration and development strategy. Special guests will discuss ways in which culture can be used a catalyst for development and the lessons that can be learned from a global perspective that involves the experiences of people of African descent in the United States and Brazil. This forum is geared towards artists, creators, cultural managers, members of the area, culture and heritage councils, municipal cultural coordinators and secretaries, and the general public.
The event, held in Spanish, is free and open to the public. For more information, click here.
