Go Africa organiser Anna Njie

KEEPING cultural traditions alive is essential to a sense of identity, says a festival organiser.

Anna Njie, the organiser of the Go Africa Festival, says that passing down cultural traditions between generations is key to giving people a sense of belonging.

Set to take place on June 24 in the Andover Community centre, it coincides with Refugee Week and the 75th anniversary of Windrush, which Ms Njie says lends the festival extra meaning.

“It’s a festival of the arts that helps to embrace African culture through art,” she said. “That’s the essence of it. The age range is from 0-100 – it’s intergenerational. It’s about teaching traditional skills that we had back home to the people here, and one of the favourites has been tie-dye.

“Our community is really harmed at the minute, with all this county lines stuff, drugs, mental health problems, and the harms of social media. This is something that’s really basic, but really positive. We’re getting people to engage intergenerationally through cultural traditions – through cooking, tie-dye, mixing watercolours, drawing, painting, and African drumming. It’s all about cultural traditions.”

The festival, set to take place on June 24, aims to pass down cultural traditions

The festival is a day of artistic workshops designed to get people talking and sharing their cultures.

“We see grandmothers and great-grandmothers sitting at our tables and talking to their young people. These matriarchs feel empowered that they can talk about these things. And the grandchildren love it, they’re like sponges. That’s what’s so nice – it’s a place for old and young to have that,” said Ms Njie, who is originally from Gambia.

She added: “We’ve been doing the festival in different places around Islington – we started with Ringcross, then St Mary’s Ward, and now we’re in Finsbury Park. Because, for us, that’s home. It has the biggest population of marginalised communities in Islington, populated by Africans, Asians and Turkish.

“Having a connection to these traditions is important for our identity and our mental wellbeing. If you don’t know who you are and what you stand for, you’re not going to perform properly.

“A sense of identity has kept me on a positive path. And I’ve found that talking to people about their identity through art and creativity is more stimulating than preaching to them.”