6. Why?
Because culture is everything. Culture is the panacea. For centuries, for more than 400 years, European colonialism has told us that African is inferior, backwards, and subpar. This demonization of African culture paved the way for the subjugation and manipulation of its people to the interests of Western forces and some of Africa’s elites.
Today, there is a global resurgence in the celebration of a once demonized culture, of which Chale Wote, which started in 2011, is part. This celebration though cultural has huge economic implications. The festival not only brings in business to Ghana/Africa through tourism, investment, and trade, while sponsoring and showcasing the work of African artists so that they may be patronized but indirectly through the psychological freeing of the mind of the African child to be who and what he is. The importance of this mental and spiritual elevation cannot be overstated and will pay multiple times over.
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This, this is why Chale Wote matters. Culture is everything.
Imagine a festival where all you see is larger-than-life portrayals of Black Excellence everywhere; that’s ChaleWote
Imagine seeing Black Girls with their chin held high everywhere
Ghana’s own hero, Kofi Annan, was passed last week, was celebrated in live painting
And finally, the banner of Pan-Africanism was held high
