Yaounde: Festival to showcase culture of Sao Kotoko people opens January 23.

Organising committee members briefing reporters

A festival to showcase and celebrate the rich ancestral heritage of the Sao Kotoko people of the Logone and Chari Division in the Far North Region, is expected to open in Yaounde January 23. 

The event to run till January 25, is tagged Kotoko Festival of Arts and Traditions.



To note that the Sao Kotoko people are also found in neighbouring Nigeria, Chad and Ghana. Officials of the festival said the jamboree will take place at the esplanade of the National Museum in Yaounde. 

At a press conference in Yaounde Tuesday, members of the Sao Cultural Association said the event, in its sixth edition, will take place under the theme: “Culture and traditions of the Sao-Kotoko people, between the past and present, lever of solidarity and living together”.

The President of the Organising Committee, Oumar Ali, noted that the festival seeks to celebrate the culture and the identity of the Sao people.

The Sao culture, he said, is one of the oldest in the world and the oldest in the Central African Sub Region. He said the festival will enable tourists and other visitors have a taste of the culture of the Sao people.

Oumar said there are innovations to spice this year’s edition of the festival. The choice of Yaounde, he said, is to make the fiesta known to the international community.

He also said they are pushing to get the festival inscribed on the list of national festivals and on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural OrganisationUNESCOLists of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Oumar also said the goal is to ensure people savour “our diversity and living together”.

The President of the Sao Cultural Association, Ali Alhadji Abba, noted that having the festival in Yaounde is an ideal opportunity to immerse visitors in the rich and fascinating culture and soul of the Kotoko people.

Alhadji Ali cited the refined crafts, traditional dances and other unique aspects of the Kotoko traditions as the attractions that will keep visitors abreast with the Sao people.

The association, it should be said, was created in 2001 and works with the seven chiefdoms of Kousseri, Logone Birni, Goulfey, Afade, Makary, Bodo and Woulky all in the Logone and Chari Division.

According to statutes of the association, the festival must be organised every two years, alternating across the chiefdoms that make up the Sao Kotoko people. The fifth edition of the festival took place in Kousseri in 2023. Delegations to this year’s festival are also expected from Nigeria, Chad and Ghana. 

 

This story was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3339 of Wednesday January 15, 2025

 

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