Your Voice Matters: Represent A Culture Competition

Fahamu exists to strengthen, nurture and work with movements for social justice in Africa. That work involves, among other things, supporting and building solidarity with voices and forces that promote the dignity and respect for human rights on the one hand, and joining progressive voices and forces that denounce all forms of social injustices that have oppressed and continue to oppress African people globally, on the other hand. In partnership with like-minded social movements and organisations both in Africa and globally, Fahamu politically informs and raises the conscience of African people through debate, learning and actions in order to contribute to the full liberation of Africans from all types of negative forces that oppress them.

Fahamu is currently implementing a youth-focused project called, “Your Voice Matters, which proposes to contribute to solving some of Africa’s challenges by providing students with an opportunity to share their views and plans for Africa through different platform such as the Essay Writing Competition, the East Africa Regional Debate, the Represent a Culture Competition and Pambazuka News Lectures.

 

REPRESENT A CULTURE COMPETITION

The objective of this activity is to promote Pan Africanism through an engaging and innovative approach that will enable students learn about other cultures from different parts of the continent. This activity will engage students from three East African countries, namely; Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya.

In each country, participants from ten teams that have been shortlisted (with 5 members per team) will compete to present a historical background on a selected culture (not from their own country) and showcase one important element from that culture through different innovative mediums such as plays, music, dances, art and poetry etc. The best narration and most innovative showcase will win the competition.

Kenya: Open to Catholic University of Eastern Africa: (Main Campus, City Campus, Gaba Campus and Kisumu Campus), Tangaza University College, Chemchemi ya Uzima, Hekima University College and Marist International College students.

Deadline to submit application: Tuesday 27th June 2017

How to apply:

1. Register (application is now open) your teams here
2. Deadline to register teams is Sunday 25th June 2017.
3. The top ten teams will be shortlisted to showcase their selected cultures on 5th July 2017.
4. Each team must have 5 members.
5. Each team will select a culture that NONE of their members belong to.

The culture chosen cannot be from a country where any one of the five-team members belongs. For example, if you are from the Taita ethnicity, you cannot represent another Kenyan culture such as the Meru ethnicity. You have to select a different culture from a different country such as the Yoruba from Nigeria.

The ideology behind this is to encourage students to research about other cultures beyond their nationalities and therefore learn more about other African cultures.

1. The shortlisted teams will be provided with KShs. 10,000 each to source for materials for their showcase. Each team will be required to submit receipts to support the use of this money.
2. The shortlisted teams will be announced on Tuesday 27th June 2017.
3. The shortlisted teams will be contacted for further information (e.g. how to collect the KShs. 10,000 materials money, the format of the competition, time allocated to each team during the presentation day etc.).
4. During the award ceremony, each shortlisted team will present their cultures in two ways. Firstly, they will have to present some background information on their chosen culture. Specifically:

• What culture are they representing?
• Where does this culture originate in Africa?
• Why did they chosen that culture?
• What is the key learning/ what really makes this culture stand out?

Two teams will be awarded on 5th July. The adjudicators will be awarding KShs. 50,000 to the best oral presentation and KShs. 50,000 to the best showcase.

For any further queries, contact Sienna from Fahamu on 0720850228.