Cameroon launches first ever festival to promote culture known as POWWA Festival.

The 15th of January 2022 marked the first official step of the POWWA FEST UK a 100% Cameroonian festival by Cameroonians for Cameroonians which has undergone a planning phase of 2years and a 6 months presentation. By “Festival” it incorporates Culture, mode, fashion, cinema, art.

It is an annual platform dedicated to promoting the culture of Cameroon to a wider international audience. It strives to promote the diversity of Cameroon’s culture through music, film, and art. POWWA is a co-production between concert and festival promoters with years id experience in delivering art and music events around the world.

A group is of vibrant Cameroonians “proud of who we are” come together with the of promoting the Cameroonian culture at a global scale via valorization and subsequent exportation. This was triggered by the fact Cameroonian arts and culture in their entirety are practically hIi in the international scene.

Why Powwa?

Now the birth of Powwa came as a result of answering this specific question of What Cameroon is doing or what role are they also playing on a global scale and what strategies do they intend to use for penetration.

It’s the first festival dedicated to putting Cameroonian art and music first while exporting Cameroonian culture and heritage. Each Year POWWA Festival will invite creatives from all over Cameroon and the rest of the world. A performance platform to showcase Cameroonian A-list and upcoming talents, of all arts and musical genres, to a wider global audience will be provided. The festival aims to be the best resource platform for Cameroonian creatives to break the international barriers and infiltrate the mature global market of African Art and music.

The first edition of the POWAA Festival will feature artists [Solo and groups] bands, and performers to join thousands of music fans in 2  of the UK’s biggest cities London and Birmingham in the summer of June 2022.

Why do we talk about a Cameroon that once had its grandeur via the exportation of soul Makossa which was a phenomenal genre across Africa and the world is seen through its impact in sampling by other music acts? Why is it only left to us as a passing glory?

Now Powwa Festival is here to instill the spirit of collaborations and sponsorships. It serves as a platform to federate and network with those who matter, and when referring to the platform it’s imperative to note that it’s registered in the UK and back in Cameroon under the Ministry of Arts and Culture and collaborations with other countries like Australia while equally extending to other European Countries.

Who is involved in the process?

As mentioned in the preceding paragraphs it’s a 100% Cameroonian initiative and to be part of the chain the number one criteria is that you are a born Cameroonian or by  Nationality and this involves everyone and anyone doing arts: it cuts across music, media, Cameramen and more.

For that which involves the second phase that is the selection and structuring: a confirmation will be done in due course as the main objective of the presser is for sensitization mostly, how to work, who to work, and opportunities at disposal.

How is this different from a Show?  What makes it a Festival?

It involves everything arts not limited strictly to music, and entertainers or people involved in the process are not coming to perform and get paid, they are coming to promote arts, and the main reason behind lies in the federation. Performing in front of Cameroonians for Cameroon by Cameroonians.

How do you plan on Collaborating and creating opportunities? [Mature market]

Looking at the amount of content, streams generally the numbers play a great role now in
African music under the canopy Afrobeat the goal is to bring under this universe regardless of genre, working in synergy to attend the goal of introducing arts in an already existing mature market through blending or copying and modifying.

Now why are other genres from Africa grouped as AFROBEATS? Does it seek to understand if our music is appreciated?

It is appreciated by people of the first generation, there’s a bigger market out of that and that’s the younger generation who can stream music. [A massive market opportunity]

Internet penetration and subscription is a problem too, taking to a more mature project.
All the artists need to federate together it’s not about one artist and a genre it’s a combination of us coming together and valorizing the music.

How do we go about prioritizing and giving Cameroonian artists that relevance same as other artists with bigger influence.

Now in this part it’s important to know visibility is key and it’s different from entitlement, Cameroonians expect more because they feel it’s a Cameroon thing but that’s not the case here, so the goal is to work in unison and a federation to valorize and export arts in all its form this will be enhanced or facilitated especially by the media, the role of the media and the arts are the same, the media is there to mirror the arts and that’s why the presser understood this mechanism and involved the media in the process.

As of now, the Festival is still open fo partnership and collaborations.

There we very important media heads and key persons like Ahmed Baron of Blu Nation, Mr. Pride of Team Powwa, Biradzem Benoit Yuven of The HotJem | Pureyuvenity Blog, Fon Noel of Prodigys’s Blog Ndicho Boris of E KWAT tv, Randy Kimbi of KIMBI BLOG, Ages Brian of Muzikol, Donald Woods of @Hypehouse and many other media heads