FESTAC ’77
de-composed, an-arranged and reproduced by Chimurenga (2019)
The colossal publication, FESTAC ’77, produced by Chimurenga after a decade of research explores the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, a month long cultural event in Nigeria in 1977 which brought together revolutionary black artists, movers and thinkers for a never-again scene of pan-African culture and intensity. FESTAC ’77 navigates the festival through an assemblage of archival material, oralities, personal collections and deep-rooted intuitions.
“Like pan-Africanism, it is a story that begins in the diaspora and moves to the continent with the wave of independence of the 1960s — first in Nkrumah’s Ghana in 1958 with the All African Peoples Conference. These gatherings take a cultural slant with the First World Festival of Negro Arts (Fesman) in 1966 in Dakar, and eight years later at the Pan-African Cultural Festival (Panaf) in Algiers. Festac ’77 in Lagos marked the closing of this “festival decade”.” Ntone Edjabe speaks to Kwanele Sosibo about the creation of, and thinking behind, the FESTAC ’77 publication. Follow here for the full interview.
The festival is laced with many histories which speak to the political and cultural landscape at the time. The mask of Queen Idia which forms the logo reproduced throughout Festac had been stolen from Nigeria during a British colonial expedition and with requests of repatriation refused the mask was authentically reproduced and multiplied. Read the full story in this intricately detailed narration by Dominique Malaquais and Cedric Vincent, meet the artist who pirated the mask of Queen Idia back in 1977 or explore art piracy, the curse of Festac and its many restless gods with Akin Adesokan.
The re-produced and re-calved mask of Queen Idia can also be found on the Chimurenga Festac ’77 T-Shirt, woven in the original festival colours of yellow and green, the limited edition T-shirt has been produced in the closest resemblance to what the festival T-shirt would look like in Nigeria in 1977. T-shirt’s produced in tribute to the 1974 6th Pan African Congress and 1966 First World Festival of Black Arts’ (FESMAN) can be found in this series, available through our online store.
FESTAC ’77 has influenced several conversations and productions through its dense coverage of the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture. For instance, Craig Harris performed his composition “FESTAC ’77” during Chimurenga’s 3-day PASS Landing in New York. The former member of Sun Ra had attended the festival in 1977 and drew inspiration from time spent in Festac Village where all performers & participants resided.
Tune in to the Festac77 mixtape below to amplify your reading. In this mix, we decompose, an-arrange and reproduce the sound-world of FESTAC ’77 to address the planetary scale of event, alongside the personal and artistic encounters it made possible.
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