Festac (Second Festival of Black Arts and Culture)

FESTAC 77, the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, was a major cultural event held in Lagos and Kaduna, Nigeria, from January to February 1977. It continued the tradition of the First World Festival of Negro Arts held in Dakar in 1966 and became one of the largest gatherings of artists of African descent in history. The festival brought together over fifteen thousand participants from dozens of countries across Africa and its diaspora, including painters, musicians, dancers, writers, scholars and filmmakers. Its emblem was an ivory mask from Benin, symbolising the heritage and dignity of African peoples. The event had a distinctly postcolonial, pan-African character: it asserted the continent's cultural independence after decades of colonial rule and sought to reconsider the place of Black art within a global context. FESTAC had a lasting influence on the development of modern African art, strengthened networks of cooperation among diaspora artists, and became a symbol of cultural renewal and solidarity among peoples of African descent.