The Pacific Music Festival Petronio Álvarez, in the City of Cali in Colombia, has partnered with MTN Bushfire to promote indigenous traditional music, arts, food and beverages, and facilitate sustainable cultural relations.
In what marks this partnership’s first cultural and artist exchange initiative, Eswatini’s Thobile ‘Makhoyane’ Magagula will be travelling to Cali to perform at the Colombian festival, which will be held from 14 August to 19 August, 2024. She will be accompanied by MTN Bushfire Director, Jiggs Thorne, who has been invited to deliver a presentation on sustainable festival practices.
This partnership was initiated by the Petronio Álvarez festival and is supported by the Colombian Presidential Agency for International Cooperation (APC Colombia). This visit is framed within the South-South Cooperation initiative between Colombia and Eswatini, representing the festivals.
Eleonora Betancur, Director General at APC Colombia, commented that this initiative represented a significant step towards fostering a rich and dynamic cultural exchange between Colombia and Eswatini, with the overarching aim of enhancing the organizational capacities and cultural impact of the respective festivals.
“This is achieved through South-South Cooperation and Colombia’s efforts to strengthen its relations with the African continent,” said Betancur, “We deeply value the opportunity to engage in this initiative, as it aligns perfectly with our shared goals of knowledge exchange, cultural enrichment, and the mutual strengthening of our festival organizations. We believe that this collaboration will not only benefit our festivals but also contribute to the broader cultural ties between Colombia and Africa.”
Petronio’s Artist Coordinator, Ariana Vallecilla, detailed the festival’s record of creating sustainable cultural cooperation and dialogue between African musicians, as well as Afro-diasporic and Afro-descendant musicians in Colombia.
“Festival Petronio Alvarez celebrates the Afro-Colombian culture, its traditions, its music, its cuisine and its fashion. This festival has been happening for the last 28 years without interruptions. Petronio has become the largest Afro festival in the Americas and it is crucial to share the experience and knowledge with African partners to amplify what’s happening in Colombia,” said Ariana Vallecilla, Petronio’s Artist Coordinator.
The Petronio Álvarez festival preserves and promotes Afro-descendant cultures in Colombia, a philosophy that resonates with MTN Bushfire. In its continuous efforts to inspire a creative narrative of inclusivity and social cohesion, MTN Bushfire is guided by the Bring Your Fire call to action, which encourages everyone to work towards positive social and environmental change.
“This initiative aligns perfectly with MTN Bushfire’s commitment to preserve and promote our shared heritage, establish South-South networks, and support global arts mobility for creative talent in Africa, and especially Eswatini,” said Jiggs Thorne, MTN Bushfire Director, adding that “with her preservation of Swati tradition and contemporary musical outlook, Thobile Makhoyane is the perfect ambassador to start this relationship off on a good note.”
Thobile has made her name by reviving the use of traditional Swati instruments like the Makhoyane, a type of musical bow, and the Sitolotolo, a Swati mouth harp, and has performed internationally with them. She shared her feelings about performing in Colombia, saying:
“I’m very excited to be a part of Petronio Álvarez and, more than the experience, I’m excited and looking forward to collaborating with other women artists from other cultures. I’m also looking forward to creating more collaboration opportunities in the future!”
Named for the famous musician who made Cali his home, the Petronio Álvarez Pacific Music Festival is the most important festival of African culture in Latin America, where Afro-Colombian heritage and all its manifestations are put in the spotlight for six days. Each year, the Petronio Village brings together close to 60,000 people to experience the music, food, traditional drinks and ancestral flavours belonging to communities from the Colombian Pacific. The event annually gathers more than 200 exhibitors from these communities, from around 50 towns representing the Colombian Pacific coast.
The Petronio Alvarez festival takes place in Santiago de Cali, the city with the second highest Afro population in Latin America. This festival pays tribute to the cultural riches of Afro-descendant communities and Cali as the capital of the Colombian pacific. In addition to being the epicenter of the Pacific region, Cali is internationally recognized as the world capital of Salsa.
