Salon Africana to Unveil Fabric of Courage 

Ugo Aliogo

Salon Africana will unveil the Fabric of Courage, a salon-style multidisciplinary exhibition that aims to reconstitute the fragmented archive of FESTAC ’77 (The Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture), while exploring the ways in which the event continues to reverberate in Nigeria’s cultural imaginary and historic sites of cultural production. 

In a statement, it noted that the exhibition, which is produced in partnership with African Artists Foundation, Center for Art Research and Alliances, and The Africa Center (NYC) would take place on Sunday April 7, 2024 at the historic Old Printing Press located on Broad Street, Lagos Island.

The event which is conceived and curated by Grammy-nominated jazz vocalist, writer, and scholar Somi Kakoma, would feature large scale images of celebrated American FESTAC photographer, Marilyn Nance from her critically acclaimed book LAST DAY IN LAGOS. 

Some of the features that will be included in the exhibition are sound installations, film, and text excerpts from renowned literary figures Audre Lorde and Ama Ata Aidoo, illuminating the often-obscured contribution of women who participated in FESTAC. 

The statement revealed that Somi’s deeper interest in FESTAC began while researching Makeba’s performance history at major cultural events across the African continent, adding that 

it soon became very clear to her that the entire FESTAC archive deserves to be celebrated more widely. 

The statement added: “By revisiting the history of FESTAC while activating the Old Printing Press, I hope to incite other artistic methodologies and contemporary narratives that might help reconstitute the unheralded yet rich cultural memory of one of the most important pan-African gatherings on the African continent.”