General
Source: Public Agenda
The African Women's Development Fund (AWDF) has added Arts, Culture and Sports to its already existing thematic areas.
The new fields are to be used to increase public awareness of what women have achieved in these areas. For example, to bring into public domain the work of African women artists as well as dispel some of the stereotypes about the African woman.
They are also to be employed to infuse confidence and passion into young women who are into these activities. Besides, they are to be used to accelerate a change in the lives of women and to promote women's human rights nationally and internationally.
Addressing a gathering in Accra last Thursday to introduce the Ambassador for the arts, the Interim Chief Executive Officer of AWDF, Ms Theo Sowa, noted that the new thematic areas were crucial human elements which were often missed out in social, economic and political discussion. She believed that the arts could be a powerful catalyst for understanding of issues.
According to her, whether traditional or modern, the arts was integral to an individual's cultural life and brought out about social, economic and political change in the arena of cultural norms, beliefs and practices.
The "arts can touch the soul as well as the mind of countless people, inspiring passion, anger, joy and other emotions that can catalyse actions in ways that court cases and academic lectures, and even protest marches, may never achieve," Ms. Sowa explained.
The new Ambassador, Ms. Nneka Egbuna, is of Nigerian father and German mother.
She studied at the University of Hamburg in Germany where she pursued a career in singing alongside a degree in archaeology and Anthropology.
She is a guitarist and her genre of music is jazz. Her ingenuity has clinched several awards on the international scene and these included the 2009 Music of Black Origin (MOBO), Nigeria Entertainment Award, and a South African award. Her track 'Kangpe' was also featured as a soundtrack on the EA Sports FIFA 2010 video game.
She is also the founder of ROPE Foundation, a Non-Governmental Organisation, which focuses on promoting and empowering children, young adults and women to use the arts as a platform to express themselves on major socio-political and economic issues.
In an interview, Ms Egbuna explained that, "Music is a reflection of everything happening within me." She added, "I don't look for topics to sing on they come naturally. It's almost like a confession; almost like therapy for me."
Asked what inspires her, she confessed, "I always knew that I could sing, but I never knew that I wanted to sing. I never thought I'll be doing what I am doing now. All I wanted was to get out and be free, and learn. I wanted a degree."