Lagos Heritage Festival – Soyinka, Akran to lead procession

The festival, which began on April 2, would be staged in two centres — Badagry and Freedom Park on Lagos Island. A member of the Local Organising Committee for the festival, Mr Hukalin Afolabi, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last Wednesday in Badagry. He said the Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental […]

The festival, which began on April 2, would be staged in two centres — Badagry and Freedom Park on Lagos Island.

A member of the Local Organising Committee for the festival, Mr Hukalin Afolabi, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) last Wednesday in Badagry.

He said the Commissioner for Tourism and Inter-Governmental Relations, Mr Disun Holloway, would also be part of the procession, which was introduced to add glamour to the event.

“The personalities are featuring in the Fitila procession of the Lagos Black Heritage Festival as part of efforts to add glamour to the celebration,” Afolabi said.

Afolabi said Soyinka had partnered with the organisers of the festival as consultant to stage a colourful event.

According to him, the procession will move from Freedom Park, venue of the main events, to the ancient town of Badagry.

“The procession is being held in remembrance of the slaves who lost their lives during the Trans-Atlantic slave trade of the 18th century and its abolition,” he added.

NAN reports that the festival, featuring a colloquium, drama, plays, film shows, symposium, masquerade dance, boat regatta, canoe race and swimming competitions, would be rounded off on April 9.

The festival was first held in Badagry in 2001 before it was moved to Lagos Island by the Ministry of Tourism in 2012.

Inspired by the spirit of convergence for which Lagos remains pre-eminent, the Lagos Black Heritage Festival celebrates African creativity within a carnivalesque of traditional and contemporary Dance, Music, Painting and Photo Exposition, Drama, Design and Fashion Display, an International Symposium, Film and Video Fiesta and other artistic and intellectual offerings, both inter-state and international.

In a seven-day cultural manifestation during which hundreds of performers will animate the ancient city of Badagry and cosmopolitan Lagos with a passage of the traditional and the modern, Lagos State will welcome thousands of visitors with a feast to engage the mind, entrance the senses and linger in the memory for years to come.