The minister of Tourism and Culture, Hon. Hamat N.K Bah, on Wednesday, 8th January 2020 launched the National Organising Committee (NOC) of the 14th edition of the Roots Homecoming Festival at a ceremony held at The Gambia Tourism and Hospitality Institute in Kanifing.
The event was organised by the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) under the tutelage of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture. The NOC was tasked, amongst among other things, to support the Ministry to organise and rebrand the Roots Homecoming Festival, as a Tourism product, in December 2020. The 30-member committee consists of people mostly drawn from the past organising committees, who have demonstrated strong and unwavering commitment to duty in previous festival assignment, though some new members were added.
About the National Roots Homecoming Festival
The principal objectives of the Festival are to reunite peoples ofThe Roots Homecoming Festival that was initiated in 1994 was inspired by the publication of ‘Roots’ by African-American writer Alex Haley in 1976, in which The Gambia was put under the spotlight largely because the story was partly set in The Gambia, with Gambian villages like Juffereh, Albreda recurring in the storyline. African descent with Africa while promoting The Gambia and her cultural, historical and traditional values; to further encourage cultural tourism and investment in The Gambia, in particular and Africa in general; to forge closer ties between The Gambia and Pan African peoples, for meaningful mutual co-operation and development.
According to Minister Bah, since they assumed office, they have been working hard to reorient the Festival and make it have a national outlook and character. “The past three years therefore have not been lost; as a matter of fact, it was well utilised to reframe the scope, nature, funding and organizational structure of the festival,” he said.
“In the last summer,” he went on, “my Ministry hosted a National Conference on Tourism and Culture where the stakeholders present were unanimous that the Roots Festival should be revived with a new face”.
The minister went on to implore on the new NOC members to work hard towards achieving their mission, while urging them not to allow some of the challenges which affected previous NOC to befall them.
He assured the Chairman and his committees that his Ministry will give full support to all their activities.
Cordu Linguere Jabang-Senghore, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism and Culture, affirmed that the first Roots Festival since the dawn of the new Gambia must be the best and most successful festival of all times. “We have not only learnt series of lessons from the performance of the past Roots Festivals, but have also benefitted from wide consultations with internal and external stakeholders, leading to the new-look innovative 2020 festival that we hope to unveil with the support of this new Committee,” PS Jabang-Senghore noted.
Outlining the tasks and responsibilities of the Committee, she said the Festival is projected to eloquently showcase the extraordinary and rich cultural heritage of our Gambian people, thereby promoting our country as a cultural tourist destination and boosting business and investment in the expanding economy. “The festival, as you know, has a wider scope, a pan-African and global dimension; it is also expected to articulate the shared heritage and traditions of the African persons across the world, whilst also seeking to elucidate our continent’s considerable input to global civilization”.
The Director General of the National Centre for Arts and Culture, Mr Hassoum Ceesay, said that the ultimate objective will be to ensure that the Festival happens and the brand which has been established for more than two decades is not lost. Therefore, he added that although more government funding for the Festival will be needed in view of donor fatigue, in the end the private sector will be encouraged to co-partner with government.
Nyang Njie, Chairman of the NOC for the National Roots Homecoming Festival remarked: “The Gambia has a very good product and the product has very good success that we can see. What we lack is the ability to synchronise, harmonise and bring everything together in a package and make sure it is in conformity with branding standard so that brand Gambia
will come out and be very prominent and visible in what we are trying to achieve,” he stated.
He assured that he will make sure that The Gambia is properly positioned, well branded and ready to host an international Festival that will rival with the likes of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, Notting Hill Carnival and others around the world.
Sheikh Omar Jallow, Director for Literature, Performing and Fine Arts of the National Centre for Arts and Culture chaired the occasion.
