The PANAFEST Colloquium Planning Committee is composed of representatives of Colleges and various sections of the University of Cape Coast, as well as affiliates from the Centre for National Culture in Cape Coast. This committee has been mandated by the Vice Chancellor of the University to organize the Colloquium, as an integral part of the broader PANAFEST celebration. The Colloquium Planning Committee is Chaired by Prof Kwadwo Opoku-Agyemang.
The Pan African Arts Festival (PANAFEST), originally known as the Pan African Historical Theatre Festival, is a landmark biennial event which is celebrated in the spirit of “Re-Uniting the African Family: Pan Africanism and the African Renaissance.” Celebrated since 1992, the festival addresses the most traumatic interruption that ever occurred in the natural evolution of African societies which profoundly eroded the self-confidence and freedom for self-determination of a people.
The festival consciously makes the most prominent European edifices through which the slave trade was conducted, sites and back drops for manifestations, ceremonies and performances aimed at purging the pain of Diaspora, acknowledging the residual effects of the trade on the Continent and re-uniting the two sides of the African Family to forge a positive future in the contemporary global environment. Alongside the healing processes, PANAFEST celebrates the strengths and resilience of African culture, and the multifaceted achievements of Africans in all fields of endeavour.
From the inception of the festival in 1994, the Colloquium has been fundamental to promoting dialogue, sharing knowledge and creating consensus around vital issues for the Global African Community. Following the success of PANAFEST 2019 in the context of The Year of Return, PANAFEST 2021 was planned to bring the African Family together to review the dynamics of The Return or the Sankofa Principle and explore it as an impetus for the future.
The PANAFEST 2021 Colloquium is designed to offer a stimulating and creative space for recollecting and sharing the multiple facets of the African experience in all fields of human endeavour. This colloquium will offer one of many opportunities to reclaim our right to weave our own narratives. These narratives will transcend the profound tragedy of the slave experience and offer celebratory stories of courage, resilience, and innovation demonstrated by our forebears throughout history and in contemporary times by front-liners, scientists, health workers, inventors, artists and artistes, community activists and political leaders.
It is envisaged that this year’s colloquium will not be business as usual, but will offer practical and experiential ways for the realization of the oft rhetorically touted links between Africans at home and in the Diaspora. The grounds will be prepared for the crucial conversation of safeguarding our spiritual strength, health and wealth, all of which have been breached in these fraught times. In addition, opportunities will be offered for our compatriots in the Diaspora to adopt families here in Ghana, or to be adopted by such families.
