By IANS,
Johannesburg : With an eclectic blend of cinema, music, art and photography exhibitions, entrepreneurs and bloggers workshops and panel discussions the 12-day Indiafrica Festival 2013 began here Monday aiming to reach out to the youth of South Africa. .
The festival will mark the completion of the “Indiafrica: A Shared Future” programme’s second edition of competitions. With a Facebook community of over 206,000, the programme has seen over 5,000 young people from 36 African countries and India participate in its competitions.
Four teams each from Africa and India will compete for two grand prizes – all expenses paid trips for one African and one Indian winner to Davos in January 2014 during the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting to interact with global business leaders, investors and media at the proposed Indiafrica Youth Hub in Davos.
An exhibition of the winning poster designs themed “What freedom means to you” will be open May 17-24. The exhibition will also feature posters from the “Gandhi at Tahrir Square” poster design contest organised jointly by the Indian embassy in Cairo and the programme.
The WITS Business School, University of Witwatersrand, will host the finals of the second Indiafrica Business Venture Competition May 16. Four Indians will be travelling to Johannesburg to present their business plans to industrialists from India and Africa.
A selection of films, to mark 100 years of Indian cinema, will be screened at different campuses. There will also be workshops on storytelling and animation films followed by interactive sessions with filmmakers and photographers from India.
“Indiafrica: A Shared Future”, is a unique people-to-people and youth outreach programme that uses contests, fellowships, collaborative projects, internships, events and cultural exchanges as platforms to bring the young people of India and Africa closer.
Designed and managed by IdeaWorks Design & Strategy, the initiative is supported by the Public Diplomacy Division of the external affairs ministry.
Brand South Africa is the country partner for the Johannesburg festival, which is supported by the Indian High Commission in South Africa.