Thousands
of people over the weekend flocked into the community of Janjanbureh to
celebrate the third edition of the Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival.
The
event, which was held from 17 to 19 January 2020 was designed to promote
cultural heritage and attract tourism.
Senior
government officials, international organisations and different traditional
groups attended the event.
Delivering
his official opening statement at the event, Hamat N.K. Bah, the minister of
Tourism and Culture thanked all those who attended the year festival, noting
that as a government, they made a pledge to the community of Janjanbureh the
previous year, “and we said that government is going to support Janjanbureh to
develop not only the cultural aspect of this community, but also the tourism.”
Minister
Bah added that government has fulfilled that pledge with the support of EU
Assistance Programme, which he said is under Youth Empowerment Project (YEP).
He added that the government has created the enabling environment with the
Gambia Tourism Hospitality Institute to amass the support of the YEP project to
train over 60 youths in the community.
“The
Janjanbureh Kankurang Festival will be based on the significance of the Gambian
cultural heritage as part of the National Development Plan (NDP) of the
government of The Gambia.”
Hassoum
Ceesay, director general, National Center for Arts and Culture (NCAC), said the
festival was a total dramatic forum in which people saw themselves in the
world, adding that traditional African society festivals are organised to help
the people to know more about their culture.
Ngone
Panneh, who spoke on behalf of the
project manager of Youth Empowerment Project (YEP), said the Youth Empowerment
Project celebrates three years of partnership on the Janjanbureh Kankurang
Festival, with the objective of enhancing development of Janjanbureh as a
tourism destination; promote youths employment in the area of creative tourism
while extending socio-economic and cultural tourism to rural Gambia.
Maimuna
Sidibeh, who spoke on behalf of UNESCO, said: “our intangible cultural heritage
is a bridge linking our past and our future, adding that the National
Commission for UNESCO is pleased to be associated with the Janjanbureh
Kankurang Festival organised by the National Center for Arts and Culture
(NCAC).
