As African values and underdevelopment hits, Savvy contemporary implants developmental/revival technics
Over the years, youths, parents and leaders have been carried away by the culture and tradition of the Europeans. The origin of Africans and African continent is gradually fading away being replaced by Religion, western cultures, language, dressing habits and underdevelopment.
Aiming to restore the cultures, customs, tradition and values of the the Africans as well as develop the continent to its maximum capacity, SAVVY Contemporary has embarked on teaching and restoring the true African society and values, recognising arts for eventual development.
As a result of the underdevelopment complex, and a way to commemorate 50 years of a book that was written by Walter Rodney titled how ‘Europe underdeveloped Africa’, Artists, intellectuals, activists of various fields were invited in a one week innovation dubbed ‘Unravelling underdevelopment complex’ held at Bandjoun Station owned by renowned Cameroonian artist Togou Barthélemy to share ideas and ways in which the continent can be developed from Thursday 31 March to Friday 1 April 2022.
Bonaventure Soh CEO SAVVY Contemporary
Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung is a contemporary art curator and writer who lives in Berlin Germany. Ndikung is the founding director of SAVVY Contemporary, an independent project space and discoursive platform for exhibitions, performances and other event. In October 2020 Ndikung was awarded the Order of Merit of Berlin, in "recognition of the work Savvy Contemporary has been doing over the past decade".
In June 2021 Ndikung was appointed as the Director of Berlin's Haus der Kulturen der Welt, to take over from Bernd M. Scherer on 1 January 2023.
To him, “Nobody is more developed than the other because every society is more developed. We have our values that have been surpressed for one reason or the other, but the question is how do we actually regain those values and use them. Which is the core of the project. Over the years our target has been to find people from different countries that are within their own communities doing work in sustaining their cultures, sciences, technologies and arts. And also finding ways of working with people that try to find solution to their own problems. Bonaventure Soh Ndikung explained
He further encouraged local movies, telling our own stories, eating local fruits, dressing in our ancestor’s style, eating habits as well as supporting our own local artists, things have been completely neglected. To him “You cannot solve African problems with American solutions, you have to solve African problems with African solutions and give values to out own.”
Accompanying the invocation were the following inspirational presentations.
Roland Fomundan founder and CEO of Greenhouse Ventures (GHV), a seasoned
social entrepreneur, serial investor, University lecturer, business development consultant
and a new age farmer elaborating on the importance of Agriculture to African development.
Comfort Musa is a prolific, multi-award-winning journalist with a keen eye for stories that
expose social injustice. She is an advocate for women and disability rights, has worked as a reporter, facilitator and strategist on diverse
women's rights, social justice and health issues speaking about the importance our local languages for growth.
Linus Kwokom popularly known as Bobo Lennox Due to his Arts and Design workshop, a well known artist from Bamenda who has been supportive to Youths offering free trainings at his shop, distributing sanitary kits to his community and providing food to hospitalised patients.
Tour to Togou Barthélemy's farms, Togou Barthélemy and Soh Bonaventure
Tito Valery a poet and CEO of knight of voices/spoken presented six inspirational poems focusing on the importance the black man.
GOHLA LOVELINE KIMAH a certified Traditional Doctor (or in other words a Diviner/
Sangoma) a Nurse and Midwife. She is the proprietress of the nursery and primary school
(Our Lady of Peace) and CEO of Gola Botanical, expatiating on the importance of herbs and it’s divine healings
Savvy is an independent, non-commercial project space for international visual and performing artists and curators, founded in 2010 by curator Bonaventure Soh Bejeng Ndikung in Berlin-Neukölln. The project space is aimed at giving Africans the opportunity to look back at their roots. It is a laboratory of intellectual, artistic, and cultural development and exchange to foster dialogue between “Western art” and “non-Western art” and to stimulate critical discourse on the development of contemporary art as well as on positions of art in the Diaspora.
By
Anye Nde Nsoh
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