The first Heritage Festival was launched in Nyala, the capital of South Darfur on Monday. The official opening ceremony took place on Tuesday. The festival includes camel and horse races.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe festival, in which 99 Darfuri ethnic groups take part, is the first of its kind in the region. It reflects the fundamental cultural values \u200b\u200bof Darfur\u2019s inhabitants, who have always complained about marginalisation by the successive central Sudanese authorities\u201d, a listener explained to Radio Dabanga. \u201cIt is a means of informing each other and the world about the richness of the Darfur folklores.\u201d<\/p>\n
The festival takes place at El Buheir Family Park, popularly known as the Neem forest, located on the banks of Wadi Burlei which runs through Nyala. \u201cThe people have enjoyed the activities for a week prior to the official start of the festival. Competing teams showed their tribal cultures. They sang, danced, and showed the way they traditionally dress. They built examples of rural and nomad dwellings, and exhibited their tools made from local materials, such as bull horns or pumpkins.\u201d<\/p>\n
A large number of ethnic groups in Darfur participated, the listener said. \u201cOne of the groups came from Rahad El Berdi in South Darfur. They showed cultural practices of the Ta\u2019aisha tribe. They were great, and everyone present was proud of them. The best thing about the festival is that we can exchange our cultural backgrounds.\u201d<\/p>\n
A resident of Um Kirdous village, the stronghold of the Dajo tribe, boasted to Radio Dabanga that they are famous for producing the best trumpets in Sudan. \u201cWe came to the festival to show the power of our musical instruments that have been silent for years.\u201d<\/p>\n
The official opening ceremony on Tuesday of the 12-day festival will be attended by the head of the Darfur Regional Authority, Tijani Sese. In the evenings, 17 artists from Khartoum will perform, in addition to the Darfuri artists, the South Darfur Minister of Youth and Tourism, Khatab Ibrahim Wida\u2019a told the press. Representatives of international and local organisations have been invited, including Unesco and Unamid, and Peace Studies\u2019 Centres of various Sudanese universities, and cultural institutions from all over Sudan.<\/p>\n
File photo: Darfuris performing a traditional dance (<\/em>Albert Gonz\u00e1lez Farran\/Unamid)<\/em><\/em><\/p>\n