‘An evening of African culture’ for the National Cultural Centre

Jul 29, 2010 News

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The National Dance Company of Guyana has teamed up with the NZINGHA Performing Arts Company of The African Cultural and Development Association (ACDA) to bring to the Guyanese public “An evening of African Culture” at the National Cultural Centre Friday evening.
This collaboration came about because both groups were scheduled to have individual concerts over the weekend and decided it was in the public’s interest to work together.
The National School of Dance of Guyana is currently celebrating its 31st anniversary. It was officially instituted as a professional body of dancers on October 1, 1979. It has become Guyana’s premiere dance group.
Although modern-based, the area of study includes cultural forms. The focus of the company is on promoting multiculturalism aimed at fostering appreciation and a more in depth knowledge of and pride in nationalism.
The company has received numerous awards including the New York Guyana Folk Festival Award. It has performed in Suriname, Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia, Dominica, Cuba and Canada. The Director is Vivian Daniels.
The NZINGHA Performing Arts Company is only two years old. It was founded by Eric Phillips, its current Director, and succeeded his former effort in Dance Alive, the 26 half-hour TV show on HIV and AIDS.
NZINGHA’s main goal is to develop African cultural products while recognizing that “when one speaks of the culture of a place, one is generally talking about far more than its artistic expressions or its cultural products – literature, music, dance, art, sculpture, theatre, film and sport.
According to Phillips, culture is also about shared patterns of identity, symbolic meaning, aspiration, and about the relationships between individuals and groups within that society. Mr. Vernon Griffith is the company’s Manager.
Also at the Cultural Centre will be Ms. Tamika Henry, the recently crowned Ms. Guyana Universe and her designer, Mr. Sydney Francois. He is the guest of Anetha Daniels who will be presenting some of her designs.
The event is specially staged for many individuals who are unable to visit the National Park on August 1.
According to Phillips, over the years, many adult and elderly individuals and their families have asked for an event that can cater to their needs.
Courts, Giftland OfficeMax and several individuals have stepped forward to support this event by sponsoring young people from Buxton, Agricola and Albouystown.
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Kildonan Development Group plans week of activities for Emancipation

The Kildonan Concerned Citizens Development Group (CCDG) is once again staging Emancipation activities. A week of activities is underway to celebrate the liberation of the African from slavery, at the Kildonan Community centre ground.
The main event will be the annual Candle Light Parade scheduled for tomorrow night. The parade will begin at 21:30 hrs from Limlair Village and will end at Kildonan where a grand all-night cultural extravaganza will be held at the Kildonan Community Centre
The week kicked off last Sunday with an Athletics Road Race from Manchester to Kildonan, a distance of over three miles. Senior citizens also took part in a walk covering the same route.
A Cycle Road Race then moved off from Manchester to Eversham and back to Kildonan, covering a distance of 16 miles. The event was open to all cyclists in Berbice, especially upright and BMX cyclists.
The week of activities will culminate with the annual August 1, Freedom Parade and Cultural extravaganza.
Saturday’s activity will begin with a parade at 9:00 hrs From Manchester to Kildonan. The parade will be lead by a 70-strong Majorette contingent which is arguable the best and biggest in the country. A number of folk and ring games will also be a part of the day’s proceedings. The usual African foods will be on display.
During the day’s proceedings a number of prominent stalwarts of African ancestry will be honoured for their outstanding contributions towards the uplift and sustenance of the African culture and to life in general.
The University of Guyana is also expected to have a book exhibition featuring African stalwarts, authors and scholars.
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VICTORIANS gear for Emancipation confab

Groups of Victorians are converging in public spaces in the Village and are immersed in further preparatory consultations as the August 5 opening of their Conference draws nearer. During this week the conference secretariat has embarked upon public dissemination of information on the details of the forthcoming conference agenda.
Mr. Desmond Saul, who heads the Conference Leadership and Planning secretariat, notes that these efforts are supplemental to earlier ones undertaken through schools, churches, and youth organizations.
He added, “We are increasingly overcoming the apathy that sets in over a period of gradual decline such as Victoria has experienced.”
According to him, saturation with information is not in itself equal to motivation and involvement and therefore efforts to galvanise villagers to action continue.
There is growing enthusiasm concerning the prospects of the event and the timeliness of such a conference, as well as confidence in the potential usefulness of the intervention to identify, analyse, and confront the present challenges in creative ways.
A member of the arriving Victoria Diaspora, Donald Ainsworth, told villagers at a preparatory conference consultation last evening, “Today we must draw strength and gain courage from the bold and courageous actions of our Ancestors, who in the face of towering obstacles and formidable challenges within and without, notwithstanding bought Plantation Northbrook and founded a home, organised a model community and left a rich legacy.
Speaking to the growing skepticism that arises from protracted existence in deplorable conditions and concretises from experiences of recurrent failures after persistent struggles, he said the large number of Victorians who have distinguished themselves in every field of human endeavour must serve to imbue villagers with the confidence that the issues of the day are not immune to the application of solutions garnered from science and industry and the commonsense responses that arise from the imagination of residents.
General Secretary of the Conference on Victoria, Abraham B. Poole, told those attending a pre-conference consultation that a useful conference must address the general human needs of residents chart a course, and provide the enablement for the realisation of an improved quality of life.
Explaining the focus of the Conference, he noted that being overwhelmed by the challenges of our time produces a defeatist attitude; being overcome by the complexity of life and living leads to a pessimistic outlook; and being so fixated on the past shuts the inlets of light for the future and banishes to a fatalistic future.
None of those destinations is desirable, he remarked.
He added that villagers must be ready to admit the possibility that the old Village economy built on a few agricultural crops is no longer adequate to sustain the growing population.
In that case, there is an urgent need for a transformational leap of the economy that has traditionally been the means of the economic prosperity of the Village. “For while the traditional Village economy has served adequately in the past, it is showing itself unable to sustaining the modern aspirations of the present generation.”
When the conference examines the “Journey from the Purchase to the Present” it must provide us the information to move into the future. And that is the reason that the theme of the Conference on Victoria is Imagining, Involving, and Investing in our future.”

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