All hands are on deck for the seventh edition of the Africa Ijaw Cultural festival set to hold in Lekki, Lagos.
This was made known by Kuroghobogha Ibironke Fapohunda, President, Ijaw Initiative Movement, at a recent parley in Lagos.
Explaining the idea behind this edition, Fapohunda said: ” The Ijaw Initiative is actually a movement, cultural advocacy heritage platform to promote our culture, our people, our identity and to give those of us who are in the diaspora that longing to want to be home. You know, we all know that at this time and age we travel a lot. Some of us are totally cut off from our home because we are surviving somewhere else.
“So, this initiative is taking advantage of the populace of the Ijaws outside the shores of the Ijaw nation to start having a cause to celebrate culture, unity and thereby advance tourism by doing that. The Ijaw Initiative is all about promoting culture and bringing pride to the Ijaw nation.”
Shedding more light on why culture matters, the Vice President of the initiative, Comrade Richard Ebizimor Dagana added:” We have a large array of culture in the Ijaw land. We have different cultures in other states but the Ijaw culture is very rich, and it is going global.
“We want to take the Ijaw culture to the world.”
The Ijaw festival, which is in collaboration with the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Silverbird, Rock Shield among others, will be a 3- day event that will begin on 7 to 9 August at Admiral Porberni, Lekki, will feature music, traditional display, boat regatta, traditional wrestling competition, Ebelebele dancers, dancing, singing competition in local languages, short drama, book launch, award night, symposium, speakers and an A-list artiste
