YOKOHAMA (Japan): Botswana was amongst many African countries that participated in this year’s 2009 African Festa in Japan’s second largest city,Yokohama, on Saturday.
African Festa is an annual African cultural event that has been taking place in Japan since 1999. Speaking at this well-attended event the Dean of African Ambassadors in Japan, Gabon’s ambassador Jean Christian Obamu said the African Festa is a major conduit through which interest into Africa is generated. He said through the African Festa the Japanese people learn and appreciate that there is more to Africa than the dominant stereotypical images of war, disease, poverty and other ills, which he said are perpetrated by the Western media. “This is a give-and-take opportunity for Japan to explore ways of cooperation,” he said adding that African Festa is about hope. The highlight of the event was fashion parade of diverse dresses from all over the African continent. From the German print that has now been adopted by most Southern African states such as Lesotho, Swaziland and Botswana as their women national dress to the “Chitenge” in Zambia and Malawi to the flowing robes of North Africa. The West and North African men were elegant in their traditional dresses. The lean and dark Africans from the East moved to the crescendo of the African drum. The more full-bodied Africans of Southern Africa completed the diverse picture of Africa.
In fact if there were to be any prizes to be won for the longest applause on the day it would without doubt go to our Southern African representative from Lesotho. Elegantly dressed in what the Basotho call “Seshoeshoe” she drew whistles and ululations. It was perhaps for the elegant dress and of course for the ‘Serowe body figure’ mostly common but not limited to Southern Africa. Japanese like most Asians are small in body structure but they seem to appreciate other people of a different mould from them.