Music and African Diplomacy at the Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres, Dakar, 1966

Abstract

To celebrate independence from France and promote better understanding between “continents, races, and cultures,” in 1966 Senegal produced the World Festival of Negro Arts. Forty-five nations participated. At its core were diplomatic goals involving music. Not only could music help Africans recover their pre-colonial heritage, it encouraged dialogue among cultures and cultural development fueling liberation from the colonial past. Listening for what was shared, as in jazz, and cooperating internationally, as in the Gorée spectacle and recordings competition, encouraged mutual understanding, the basis of alliances world-wide, essential for prosperity. By including African Catholic music, anglophone as well as francophone contributions, and radio broadcasts across Africa, the festival promoted inter-African alliances, necessary for lasting peace in Africa. Here, amid the cold war and this diverse soundscape of musical activities in Dakar, an African mode of diplomacy found its voice and its power. Dialogue, exchange, and cooperation would inspire a new future.