World Festival of Black Arts

The tradition & historical record

The World Festival of Black Arts (French: Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres), also known as FESMAN or FMAN, has been a series of month-long culture and arts festivals taking place in various parts of Africa. The festival features participants of cultural expression – arts, literature, music, cinema – from around the African Diaspora. ¹

The festivals were planned as Pan-African celebrations and ranged in content from debate to performance — particularly dance and theatre. The filmmaker William Greaves made a 40-minute documentary of the event entitled The First World Festival of Negro Arts (1968). Italian journalist Sergio Borelli produced Il Festival de Dakar (1966) a 50-minute documentary for RAI. Senegalese director Paulin Soumanou Vieyra also produced the documentary Le Sénégal au festival national des arts nègres (1966). Directors from the USSR, Irina Venzher and Leonid Makhnach, produced the Russian-language documentary Ритми Африки (Ritmi Afriki) about the festival. ¹

The First World Festival of Black Arts (French: Premier Festival Mondial des Arts Noirs) or World Festival of Negro Arts (French: Festival mondial des arts nègres) was held in Dakar, Senegal, 1–24 April 1966, hosted by former President Leopold Segar Senghor, and supported by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), along with the French government. The festival involved around 2,500 participants from 30 independent African countries and other nations with diasporic communities, such as the US, Brazil, The Caribbean, France, and the United Kingdom. It featured black literature, music, theater, visual arts, film, and dance. It was the first state-sponsored festival to showcase the work of African and African diasporic artists, musicians, and writers to a global audience. Under President Leopold Senghor, the festival was intended to place culture at the forefront of African diasporic renaissance. The main goals of the jubilee were to (1) advance international and interracial understandings, (2) tie the African homeland to external diasporic members, (3) promote the philosophy of Negritude, and (4) allow Negro artists to meet and showcase talents to members/outlets of the international art world. In preparation for the event, Dakar underwent major reconstruction via internal funding and contributions from participating nations. Dakar built new roads, an airport terminal, and two new venues – the Theatre National Daniel Sorano and the Musée Dynamique – for incoming participants and visitors. Dakar repurposed existing buildings such as the Palace de Justice (law courts), the Cathedral, Dakar Town Hall, and various beachfronts to accommodate the wave of performances that month. ¹

The festival kicked off with an eight-day colloquium (co-organized by UNESCO) that organized philosophical and theoretical presentations on the function/importance of Negro Arts. Held in the National Assembly Building [Povey, 1966, p. 5]. The opening presentation was given by President Senghor's speech "The Defense and Illustration of Negritude" while other participants provided material for discussion such as Langston Hughes' "Black Writers in a Troubled World". For the rest of the month, festival attendees explored the city by going to various exhibitions in various venues.The Cinema Palace held screenings of submitted films and documentaries, the newly built Musée Dynamique showcased national art exhibits, and the Theatre National Daniel Sorano staged dances, plays, and jazz gigs. International judges also awarded festival prizes in the Daniel Sorano Theater [Povey, 1966, p. 6]. Participants such as poet Tchicaya U Tam'si [France] and playwright Wole Soyinka [Nigeria] left with awards in their respective categories. ¹

A North American committee organized US participation in the festival. This delegation was led by H. Alwynn Innes-Brown (president) and John A. Davis (vice president) from the American Society of African Culture. Helping to facilitate US involvement were the US Senegal ambassadors, musician Mercer Cook, and French Literature scholar Ousmane Diop Socé. The US State Department funded the committee and the chosen participants, providing $150,000 in funding, and appointed then-President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife as honorary members. Key US participants include Ralph Bunche, Alvin Ailey, Marian Anderson, Fred O'Neal, Leontyne Price, Sidney Poitier, Hale Woodruff, Ossie Davis, Duke Ellington, Langston Hughes, Margaret Danner, Rosa Guy, Katherine Dunham, Arthur Mitchell, and William Warfield. ¹

While the festival was considered a success – with 50,000 people in attendance total – there was criticism from prominent black scholars and participants before and after the event. The lack of discourse and illustration of the current political struggles and African Liberation was a main source of disparagement. The event avoided deliberation on anti-colonialism and anti-imperialism, highlighting ideas of culture over politics and economy. The festival was also condemned for its selection of participants as mainly nation-states were allowed to contribute, and delegations had to receive approval before submitting representatives. Black scholars such as Afro-Brazilian writer Abdias do Nascimento were denied entry due to not being official members of approved delegations. Moreover, contemporary musicians and radical Black scholars from America – such as James Brown – were not allowed to join as US Representatives. American editor, educator, critic, and author Hoyt Fuller also pointed out the heavy government influence that hung over the event from the US State Department, CIA, and French government. ¹

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “World Festival of Black Arts”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. ¹

World Festival of Black Arts is month-long culture and arts festival that takes place in Africa, featuring artists and performers from around the African Diaspora, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition. ²

The source record links this tradition to 7 external registers, which can be verified through the citation. ²