World Festival of Black Arts

What it is

FESMAN, as it is often shortened, brings together work in literature, music, cinema, theatre, dance and the visual arts. The organisers describe it as a Pan-African meeting: a place for people of African descent, wherever they live, to show what they make and to talk to one another. Some editions have run for a full month, with exhibitions, screenings, plays, concerts and prizes. Others have been shorter, about a week, and have added conferences, business fairs and public health checks. The setting changes each time, so the host city and its country shape what visitors see.

Origins in Dakar

The first edition was held in Dakar, Senegal, in April 1966, opening on the 1st and closing on the 24th. President Léopold Sédar Senghor hosted it, with support from UNESCO and the French government. About 2,500 people came, from thirty African states and from diaspora communities in the United States, Brazil, the Caribbean, France and Britain. An eight-day colloquium opened the programme in the National Assembly building, where Senghor spoke on Negritude and a paper by Langston Hughes was discussed. Four aims were set out: understanding between peoples, a tie between Africa and its diaspora, wider knowledge of Negritude, and a platform for artists to meet the international art world. Dakar gained new roads, an airport terminal and two venues, the Théâtre National Daniel Sorano and the Musée Dynamique.

Editions over time

The second gathering ran under President Olusegun Obasanjo in Lagos, Nigeria. It opened on 15 January 1977 and closed on 12 February, and more than 17,000 participants from over fifty countries attended, among them Stevie Wonder, Miriam Makeba, Gilberto Gil and Bembeya Jazz National. The third edition went back to Dakar in December 2010, running from the 10th to the 31st, with African Renaissance as its theme and President Abdoulaye Wade behind it. Later hosts were Zanzibar in 2022, Arusha in Tanzania in 2023, Kisumu in Kenya in 2024 and Accra in Ghana in 2025. An Algiers festival in 1969 is counted as part of the same sequence.

Criticism and debate

Not everyone was pleased. Some leading black scholars and artists said the early festival sidestepped the political questions of the day, including colonial rule and the freedom struggles then under way, and put culture ahead of politics and economics. Selection also drew complaint. Because delegations had to be approved and mainly came through states, the Brazilian writer Abdias do Nascimento could not attend, and the American musician James Brown was refused a place in the United States group. Hoyt Fuller, an American editor and critic, argued that official agencies in the United States and France had far too much influence over how the event was run.

Films and records

Several film-makers recorded the Dakar meeting. William Greaves made a forty-minute documentary, released in 1968, called The First World Festival of Negro Arts. The Italian journalist Sergio Borelli made a fifty-minute film for RAI in 1966. The Senegalese director Paulin Soumanou Vieyra also left a record of the event. Two directors from the Soviet Union, Irina Venzher and Leonid Makhnach, made a Russian-language film about it. Fifty thousand people were counted in the audience across the 1966 festival. Prizes went to writers and dramatists, among them the poet Tchicaya U Tam'si and the playwright Wole Soyinka.

How World Festival of Black Arts is kept

The shape of each edition differs, but the pattern is a gathering rather than a competition. A host government and an organising committee invite national delegations, and artists, writers and thinkers travel to one city. Openings often include speeches by heads of state or senior officials, and sometimes a flag ceremony or a blessing. The days that follow are filled with exhibitions, film screenings, plays, concerts and dance, and with conference panels on subjects such as climate, business and cultural exchange. Prizes may be awarded. Towards the end there are usually galas, dinners and a chance for visiting delegations to meet.

When and where

The festival has no fixed date and no fixed place. It has been held in 1966, 1977, 2010, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025. Editions have run at different times of year: April in 1966, January and February in 1977, December in 2010, late May in 2023, the end of August and start of September in 2024, and late September in 2025.

It belongs to the whole continent rather than one country. Dakar in Senegal has hosted twice, in 1966 and 2010. Lagos in Nigeria held the 1977 edition. Later meetings went to Zanzibar, Arusha in Tanzania, Kisumu in Kenya and Accra in Ghana. Several southern and western African countries put in bids for the sixth edition, and Accra was named as host city in April 2025.

What World Festival of Black Arts means

For the people who take part, the festival is a statement about belonging. It treats the arts of Africa and of African-descended communities as one connected body of work, and it gives them a public stage that national borders alone would not. Senghor and the first organisers tied this to Negritude, the Pan-African philosophy of black cultural identity that the festival was meant to advance. Later editions have framed themselves around renaissance. For many performers and writers the meeting is also a reunion of people scattered across the world.

Questions people ask about World Festival of Black Arts

See also

GuérewolA week-long courtship ritual where Wodaabe men dance and sing to win the attention of marriageable women.PicnicA meal taken outdoors in a park or scenic spot, often shared with friends and family.Calabar CarnivalAn annual December street festival and cultural gathering held in Calabar, NigeriaOsun-Osogbo FestivalAn annual Yoruba festival of cleansing, procession and sacrifice to the river goddess Osun in Osogbo, Nigeria.

Good reading and sources

• World Festival of Black Arts: a once in a decade eventThe Guardian, Article
• World Festival of Black Arts Announces LineupThe New York Times, Article
• World Festival of Black Arts: a once in a decade eventThe Guardian, Article
• World Festival of Black Arts Announces LineupThe New York Times, Article

• World Festival of Black Arts on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.