Following the successful release of the full Nominees List for the 2016
All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, the African Union Commission, AUC, and
the International Committee of AFRIMA have entered into partnership with
Felabration 2016, the annual festival organised to celebrate the late
music maestro and Afrobeat creator, Fela Anikulapo Kuti.
The decision to support the 2016 edition of Felabration with theme
“Everybody Say Yeah Yeah” was disclosed by the Associate Producer,
AFRIMA, Ms. Adenrele Niyi to the Founder of Felabration and daughter of
the late music legend, Ms. Yeni Kuti, when she paid a courtesy call to
the AFRIMA Secretariat in Lagos on Thursday, September 15.
According to Ms Niyi, AFRIMA will be fully involved with Felabration
2016 from the first event, the Senior Secondary Schools Debate, which
holds on Wednesday, October 5, and from Monday, October 10 when the
week-long festivities commence.
“There’s no better way to begin this partnership with Felabration than
through the school debate for secondary school students in Lagos State.
It creates the perfect platform for the AFRIMA Foundation to purse her
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities in Lagos State, the
2016 Official Host City for AFRIMA through our CSR initiative,
Educate-A-Child (Our Voice). It is an Africa-wide campaign that took
AFRIMA to Bakoteh Proper Lower Basic School, Banjul, Gambia, in May 2016
to interact with the teaching staff and students. The visit to the
school was part of the programmes lined up for the AFRIMA-AUC joint
media/cultural conference held in Gambia on May 24, 2016. During our
visit, AFRIMA donated educational materials, computers and musical
equipment to the school.”
The Associate Producer stated that in keeping with the objectives of the
CSR to raise the standard of education in Africa and create conducive
learning environments for African children, participating schools and
winners at the school debate would benefit from the Educate-A-Child
endowment.
“We are set to replicate this commitment to education in Nigeria by
donating prizes in the form of educational materials and equipment to
both participating schools and winners at the Felabration 2016 Schools
Debate. Our goal is to encourage young people that education is
rewarding and to show that learning will help them understand and take
pride in their cultural heritage. Remember Fela won the 2014 AFRIMA
Legend Award which tells you that we are proud of Fela Kuti’s
achievements and legacy as a music composer and artiste. Naturally, we
are excited to be associated with a brand that celebrates artistic
excellence as AFRIMA does.”
Responding, Yeni Kuti thanked AFRIMA and the AU for the gesture and
urged more organisations to emulate AFRIMA.
“We are delighted that AFRIMA will be participating in Felabration 2016
starting with the school debate; it’s been a challenge hosting this
school debate and to have AFRIMA come in through the Educate-A-Child CSR
is a relief. Each year, the debate has been very interesting and the
schools and students benefit greatly in terms of exposure to new
knowledge and the opportunity to increase the educational materials
available for learning.” Ms. Kuti added that the topic for this year’s
debate, “Reparation: Yes or No?” will challenge the students to delve
into African history and learn new things about their heritage. “We want
to keep Fela’s love of culture and learning alive among young people,”
she said.
While concluding the discussion, Adenrele Niyi urged the Fela Foundation
to also get involved in the AFRIMA 2016 programme of events from
November 4-6, 2016 which includes the Africa Music Business Summit on
Friday, November 4 and the AFRIMA Music Village, an open concert-style
festival featuring nominees and other top billed music stars, also on
Friday, November 4.
In partnership with the AUC and the Official Host City, Lagos State,
AFRIMA 2016 grand awards ceremony holds on Sunday, November 6 with
thousands of guests expected in Lagos for the various events.