COUNCIL OF IGBO STATES IN AMERICAS [CISA] TO HOST WORLD IGBO FESTIVAL OF ARTS & CULTURE: JULY 23, 24, and 25 2015.

Press Release:

COUNCIL OF IGBO STATES IN AMERICAS [CISA] TO HOST WORLD IGBO FESTIVAL OF ARTS & CULTURE: JULY 23, 24, and 25 2015.

Chief/Esteem Guests/Honourables/Dr./Dame/Mr./Mrs/Ms;

Planning is in full force for the 2^nd Igbo World Festival of Arts and Culture at the Igbo Village of the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton Virginia, USA. We are calling on all Igbos both at home and in the Diaspora to plan to participate at this exciting Festival to showcase and enjoy the rich Igbo Cultural Heritage.

This epoch making event which holds on July 23, 24, and 25 2015, at Igbo Farm Village,Staunton, Virginia, U.S.A., is the 2^ndIgbo festival of arts and culture to be jointly hosted by Diaspora Igbo Community and Cultural Associations in North America.

The 2^nd World Igbo Festival of Arts and Culture is being organized by CISA in partnership with The Frontier Culture Museum, Staunton, Virginia, U.S.A.,and in collaboration with all apex Igbo communities from Abia State, Anambra State, Delta State (Anioma), Ebonyi State, Enugu State, Imo State, Rivers State, Igbo World Assembly (IWA), Nwannedinamba, U.S.A. etc. and other sister Igbo Cultural Associations in Canada, United States of America, Europe and Asia.

This event will showcase Igbo traditional naming ceremonies, traditional weddings, traditional Dance, Music, Nollywood Films, Books and Literary Works of Igbo Authors in Igbo and other Languages. The highlight of the event will be a rendition/reenactment of the legendary ‘Arochukwu War Dance’- a historical demonstration of Igbo heroism, Igbo Pride, and Great Igbo Culture and Heritage.

This year we are expecting many governors and VIPs, Ohaneze Ndigbo, Nollywood Actors will also be partnering with CISA and other Igbo Organizations for this memorable Festival. Reserve July 23-25^th weekend for your family summer get away in Virginia to attend the Festival. We are encouraging All Igbo Organizations all over the world to take part in the Planning of the Igbo Cultural extravaganza 2015.

There are over 2,500 Igbo Organizations and Associations and Clubs in U.S. and Canada alone, and many more in Asia, Africa, Europe, Australia, and South America. Last year we had 29 Igbo Organizations partnering with CISA for the Event and we are looking for more than 100 Igbo groups to be a part of this event. Ohaneze Ndigbo in South Africa just contacted us to tell us they are coming with a big cultural contingent, with their Cultural dance and masquerade. (ndi be anyi emume nke a ga adikwa egwu).

There will be exhibition of various Igbo Pre-historic artifacts tools and instruments from the past drawn from various parts of Igboland part of the Igbo World Civilization. We are expecting cultural dances from Anioma (Delta), Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers states. Join us in the Planning; this event is for the unity of all Ndigbo. All Igbo groups planning to Partner with CISA for this festival please send an email to Okechukwu P. Oranika, Chairman, Planning Committee at oranika@aol.com  or Echiemezie Ofili, General Secretary @ zykosky@gmail.com. We will be posting regular updates on the Festival planning activities as the logistics unfolds.

CISA is committed to working, collaborating and partnering with all, to leverage Ndiigbo in Diaspora as a strategic partner on Igbo advocacy. Its goal is the advancement of Igbo Culture and Arts in Americas and across the globe. CISA believes in working with any and all organization(s) whose main goal(s) and genuine aspirations are founded on the betterment of Ndi-Igbo at home and in Diaspora. No politics! No bias!! 

CISA is committed to working, collaborating and partnering with all to leverage Ndi Igbo in Diaspora as a strategic partner on Igbo advocacy. Its goal is the advancement of Igbo Culture and Arts in Americas and across the globe.

Okechukwu P. Oranika                                                             

Chairman, Planning Committee                                            

2^nd Igbo World Festival of Arts and Culture 2015   

 Email oranika@aol.com

Chudi Asidianya

President, Council of Igbo States in Americas

(CISA)

presidentofcisa@gmail.com

----A brief history of interest below----

1700s West Africa

West African Family Compound

During the 1600s and 1700s, nearly 250,000 Africans were brought to colonial America to serve as enslaved agricultural workers, domestic servants, and artisans. Although captives were taken from a vast area of the African continent, and from many different ethnic groups, the great majority were members of West African cultures that lived in the hinterlands of the Atlantic coast. Africans lived in all of Great Britain’s North American colonies, though their population was highest in South Carolina and Virginia.

Beginning in the early 1700s, Virginia tobacco planters imported increasing numbers of captive Africans to work their plantations. The shift from white indentured servants to enslaved Africans in the colony’s tobacco economy had far-reaching repercussions. Race-based slavery soon became a central feature of life in Virginia, and Africans and their Virginia-born descendents would be treated as property, and denied the freedom and opportunities of white colonists. As settlement expanded westward, enslaved Africans and African Americans were among the settlers in backcountry areas. Nearly 40% of the Africans imported into Virginia during this time were brought from a part of the West African coast called the Bight of Biafra. Many of these captives were Igbo, a people living in the upland area north of the Bight of Biafra in what is now the nation of Nigeria. The West African Farm represents life in a free Igbo household in the Biafran hinterlands in the 1700s.

Contributions to American Culture

Home school Day Visitors

The African captives who were brought to the American colonies carried knowledge and skills with them that they used to cope in their new conditions and passed on to subsequent generations of Americans. Wherever Africans settled in the colonies they contributed to the growth and success of the local economy and the wealth and status of their owners with their labor. When permitted, they influenced the form and function of pottery, basketry, wood-working and textiles they produced for others. Their most notable and enduring contributions to American culture are found in foodways, music, folklore, and religious worship. Okra and black-eyed peas are among the most common items in the American food supply that were introduced by Africans. The banjo and particular musical forms such as Blues and Jazz grew from African ideas brought to America. American folklore shows African influences, especially stories involving animals speaking and behaving like humans. Finally, the enthusiasm and spirit of Christian worship among many Protestant denominations in America is believed to have originated in early African and African-American worship services.

Click here to visit Visit CISA at; www.cisandiigbo.org  
Click here to register early for the event; http://www.frontiermuseum.org/

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