54th International African Arts Festival Joyfully Builds Community, Institutions

By Yvette Moore
The 54th International African Arts Festival at Commodore Barry Park in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene section July 4-6 did not disappoint. With a DJ-led funk dance party just off the main entrance, more than 170 vendors inside, and live entertainment and foods from across the diaspora, it was a joyous Pan-African community family reunion. Festival organizers estimated 7-10,000 people traversed the spacious venue over three days.

“This is the oldest festival of Pan-African culture in the United States, and arguably the world,“ said Segun Shabaka, IAAF board director and co-founder who’s been with the event since its inception. “We have maintained a high quality of artist and unique cultural presentation for the whole family— and rarely do you see that.”

Friday evening, straight from the stage of “The Lion King” on Broadway, South African artist Bongi Duma and his band were a headliner opening the festival’s musical offerings. His performance included an exuberant rendition of “Bring Back Nelson Mandela” as a tribute to Hugh Masekela, the late South African jazz trumpeter, and festival veterans of the global Anti-Apartheid Movement of the 1980s.

Youth from Brooklyn’s own Asase Yaa Cultural Arts Foundation also lit up the festival’s main stage Friday night with drumming and dancing that brought the audience to its feet.

Lectures and panels were featured throughout the event. A Sunday afternoon panel focused on the festival’s impact on building community and institutions critical to Black progress.
“You understand how institution building works,” said Adeyemi Bandele, vice chair of the IAAF board, panelist. “Five generations. 54 years. My grandchildren are now out here doing work at this Festival. And pretty soon I’ll be a great-great-grandmother. So, institution building is important now.

“How did it get here? One of the key components has been these vendors. Now we use vendors loosely, because they actually are craftspeople who bring out things that you may never see again. Oftentimes one-of-a-kind artifacts, clothing, etc.

“And don’t come here trying to lose weight. It doesn’t work. It’s not gonna happen! From Jollof rice to “Buss up” Rotti, patties, everything. This is a Pan-African Village. Whatever you want from the Pan-African World, you’re going to find it here—including people.”

Panelist Ayeshah Soaries is part of that institution building. She grew up in the festival spirit because her parents were nationalists. In high school, she joined the African Students Association and began working with the East and the Festival. This year, she set up the Ancestors Shrine.

Sunday afternoon’s natural hair show was another example of the festival’s lasting impact. Nekhena Evans is a Master Pioneer in the natural hair care industry with a specialty in creating hair accessories “fit for queens and kings.” This year marked her 25th year of organizing natural hair demonstrations at the event. Ms. Evans called the festival “a heartbeat” for the community. “The body can’t be without a heart,” she said.

Ms. Evans said that over the years, she has witnessed the enduring effect of the natural hair care industry, which events like the festival have helped nurture.

“A foundation has been laid in terms of natural hair,” she said. “There’s always going to be diversity and complexity with fashion going in and out [of style]. A woman can have a perm or whatever, but you see the little girls coming up with braids etc. Mothers are not perming their little girls’ hair. That’s a quiet foundation that has been set.”

As always, the festival was a family-friendly event offering space for children to run and play freely in a safe space and for adults to see old friends again.

That was Muslimah Mashariki’s experience.
“I can’t remember if I was at the first or the second festival, but I remember the stage and the music and the vendors,” she said. “It was no way as big as this, but it was joyous, so many people in that little street that was just packed in the street. And so, to see this after 54 years, it’s just been growing and growing and growing. This is a place to come to see anybody that you haven’t seen in years!”

And that is just the kind of community connections organizers seek to make possible.
“Black people from all different walks of life come to the Festival at peace,” Mr. Shabaka said. “I see the festival as a microcosm of the kind of community we should be interacting in and should be happening all over the country year-round.”

Yvette Moore is a contributing writer for Our Time Press.