NATIONAL REGGAE SOCIAL COHESION AWARENESS AS PART OF INTERNATIONAL MANDELA MONTH,
CELEBRATES DURBAN INTERNATIONAL REGGAE DAY, MANDELA DAY AND HAILE I SELASSIE I DAY
THEME: “REGGAE VOICES AND FACES IN PROMOTING NATION BUILDING AND SOCIAL COHESION IN
SOUTH AFRICA”
This year, the Reggae community in South Africa, through the support of National Department of Sports, Arts & Culture, Lioness Productions SA, and the Institute for Afrikology will on the 27th & 28th July commemorate the 2019 International Mandela Day & Reggae Day in Durban and Ladysmith, KwaZulu Natal respectively.
We are also celebrating the Ethiopian Emperor Haile Sellassie I ‘s life, born in the month of July. In 1962 the Emperor provided Nelson Mandela with military, political and spiritual training as part of the solidarity to liberate the Southern Afrika.
The cream and crop of South African Reggae Artists are all coming to EThekwini (Durban) & Uthukela (Ladysmith) for a FIRE HOT showcase of reggae music vibrating and gravitating towards social cohesion and nation building from our length and breadth of South African provinces.
All roads lead to Blue Lagoon Beach, Durban on the 27th July 2019 and Ezakheni High School Sportsfield, Ladysmith on the 28th July 2019 – for a day of pure joy and edutainment, skanking to conscious roots and dancehall music with the who’s who of the South African Reggae Industry. The lineup includes the SAMA 2019 nominees & winner for the Best Reggae Album award (Black Dillinger aka Nkululeko Madolo and the host province nominee Meditators).
The purpose of the International Reggae Day celebrations in South Africa on the 27th – 28th July 2019, is to instill Reggae’s voice and face into the promotion of social cohesion, nation building, and community conservation, by engaging all South Africans and reggae audience country wide in the cleaning and tree planting campaign and sharing with the needy and destitute. It is also to promote South African reggae music by taking reggae music to the people.
Significant milestone to note is that, International Reggae Day is linked to South Africa, as it was the speech of the late Mama Winnie Nomzamo Mandela during the visit of herself and Nelson Mandela in Jamaica in 1991, which inspired the birth of International Reggae Day worldwide and South Afrikan reggae community is part of the story making and shaping. Reggae music has a central place in South Africa cultural tapestry, and the rest of the world – with regard to healing the past wounds of neo-colonialism, neo-imperialism, apartheid, marginalization and social inequality.
As part of this year’s International Mandela month and Post International Reggae day celebrations, the Reggae and Rastafari community will host the following activities:
A Special National Reggae feedback dialogue on Saturday, 27 July 2019 host on social cohesion and nation building at Bat Centre in Durban from 09h00 to 11h00am. The programme also includes the planting of trees and exhibition of hand-made crafts of reggae art form. The purpose of this special dialogue session is to provide feedback on the resolutions taken during the Special Reggae Indaba held on March 2019 at Freedom Park, Pretoria.
Live South African reggae bands and musicians, social cohesion messages, collection of donations at Durban Blue
Lagoon Beach on the 27 July 2019 from 12h00 – 21h00.
Rub A Dub Reggae session (music event) on the 28 July 2019 at Ezakheni High School Sportfield at 12h00. The
programme also includes, cleaning campaign and planting trees in the neighboring schools. Member of the media are invited to attend.
“The social cohesion plan of action demands that we must promote a solid Pan African identity, solidarity, unity,
patriotism, increase knowledge and appreciation of National and International days amongst the South African
communities”.
For further enquiries, please contact: Ms Fikile Makhalemele – Lioness Productions SA or Adv Ras
Sipho Mantula (C) +27 74 524 3732 or +27 79 565 7799 or