More
about Music Africa
Music
Africa is incorporated as a nonprofit organization
governed by a Board of Directors elected at an Annual
General Meeting. Daily operations are carried out
by a volunteer board of ten. Administrative help has
been hired in the past for a brief period leading
up to AfroFest in July as well as for other specific
projects. Music Africa has a dues paying membership
of African music supporters many of whom are also
willing to volunteer their help at AfroFest and other
events.
The
vastness of the African continent makes it a real
challenge to present all the elements which contribute
to its diversity. At the same time the expression
through music of this very diversity is most central
to Music Africa’s artistic mandate. Music Africa
strives to maintain a balance between traditional
and modern music as well as recognizing regional differences
in order to educate listeners about the diversity
of music and culture from the African continent. In
the selection of artists Music Africa tries to introduce
new local talent along with the established Toronto
groups. Including groups from other Canadian centres
has helped give the festival a more national focus
while international acts are included to ensure that
the whole festival gets high profile coverage. The
development of new music that incorporates African
with Western styles has been something quite unique
that has been developed locally and these elements
are included in the overall presentation of the festival.
Other
things we do
Music Africa produces a newsletter
for its members, African Drum, providing feature articles,
reporting on past events and promoting future ones,
with reviews of new African music recordings, concerts
and other articles of interest about Africa and its
cultures. A web site assists in the promotion of events
and as a way of reaching out to members and others.
Music Africa has fulfilled its mandate of promoting
African music and culture through other activities
as well. Music Africa began the Toronto African Music
Awards in 1994, an event that has received wide coverage,
and the 6th T.A.M.A. was held on November 11th at
the Downtown Holiday Inn on King Street West. For
the current year the Awards are not scheduled to focus
on some of the more pressing current tasks at hand,
though there is recognition of the value of the holding
the event again in the future. Numerous workshops
and performances have in the past been undertaken
in collaboration with other cultural and charitable
organizations including Toronto’s Harbourfront
Centre, Ontario Place Corporation, The Canadian Red
Cross, Canadian Artists Network: Black Artists in
Action (CAN:BAIA) and the Toronto Blues Society. These
have all helped to expand the awareness of African
music in Toronto and audiences who appreciate it.
In February 2000 Music Africa launched its first educational
project “AfroFest in the Schools”. The
project involved the presentation of a series of workshops
and concerts at 8 different schools in Metro Toronto.
Music Africa hopes to be able to continue the development
of AfroFest in the Schools, as well as the T.A.M.A.
initiatives in the future. For now our main priority
is to focus on AfroFest 2003 to ensure the upcoming
festival can raise its status to being one of the
country's top festivals - a celebration not only of
African culture, but also of a Canadian multi-cultural
policy that encourages the uniqueness and diversity
of all cultures.
