Ghana’s culture ministry signs MoU with Spain

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) between both organisations allows Ghanaian musicians to show their work with Spanish music festival directors in March 2019.

The Ghana partnership is part of the 10th edition of a programme created to showcase African music in Spain. A different country has been partnered for each of those years. As a result of the partnership, various music festivals have been made aware of the music industry of a country in Africa.

The Minister of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Catherine Afeku, and Luis Padrón, director-general of Casa Africa, were tasked with representing their countries. Casa Africa is a public diplomacy institution connected to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Spain.

Both Afeku and Padrón were accompanied by their respective ambassadors: Alicia Rico, who represents Spain in Ghana, and Elisabeth Adjei, who represents Ghana in Spain.

In the last 10 years, Casa África has chosen different African countries to celebrate this professional meeting. It allows the music festivals to know the situation of each country's music scene and generates direct contacts between Spanish promoters and African musicians, record companies and institutions.

According to reports, by January, Ghanaian artists will be asked to participate in the project by submitting their music (MP3 or YouTube videos) to a website created for the project. All genres are welcome.

Once the projects are presented, the same promoters will choose 12 bands. After three days of concerts and meetings in March, the promoters will choose two groups to travel to Spain in the month of July. These two bands will tour Spain, playing at various venues.

The Vis-a-Vis programme had previously berthed in Ethiopia, South Africa, Senegal (twice), Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania and Angola.

Some of the festivals that have worked with the Vis-a-Vis programme include Pirineos Sur (Sállent de Gállego, Huesca), Etnosur (Alcalá La Real, Jaén), La Mar de Músicas (Cartagena), Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz&Más Heineken, Sin Sal Son Estrella Galicia and Festival MUMES (Tenerife).