Africans must defend their heritage, values —Wanle Akinboboye

CEO, Motherland Beckons and President, La Campagne, Ambassador Wanle Akinboboye, has expressed the need for Africans to cherish their heritage and core values.

Speaking to journalists during a press parley at his resort over the weekend during the African International Music Festival held at his resort, he said that the festival was organised in order to engage and learn from one another thus fostering better relationships, peace and harmony within the continent.

“The world is waiting for Africa. Our heritage, values and music must not be lost but celebrated. This festival has come to stay. We intend to encourage participation from all African countries each year. We are the only races that are disconnected from our root which has brought us here today. We may wish to be cosmopolitan but our roots must remain deep. We must be proud to celebrate ourselves. The Italians, Chinese, Japanese etc are proud to speak their language and would say if you want to be their friend, you learn their language. The AIM festival will push the boundaries. We will unite African music in one event. La Campagne Tropicana beach resort will host Africa every year. We have built an extensive infrastructure to host a mega event such as this and we are prepared.

‘We must work concertedly to correct the same notion of what is going on in Africa that we must be like America or Europe before we can be recognised, Africa is where music started from, there is nothing, not one single festival that is associated with Africa, when they are doing jazz Festival in Capetown they invite Lagbaja, and even in New York, they invite African musicians but we have 54 African countries with diverse type s of music. We need to create a platform where people from all walks of life can come and watch the entire continent through music,’’ he said.

He further stressed that Africans must embrace one another and seek ways to improve on standing relationships in order to become the continent that the world has been waiting for.

“We must consciously seek ways to improve on our relatioships, individually and as nations. Music is one of the key ways to achieve unity and that is why we have done this festival. We will try to convince other nations to join us in this continental quest”.