Abu Dhabi: African residents in the UAE have reason to celebrate the theme of this year’s Africa Day celebrations — women’s empowerment and development.
“Women’s presence in the 27 African embassies in the UAE are noticeable, with one woman ambassador [of Uganda] and a large number of senior women diplomats at key posts,” Dick Patrick Esparon, Ambassador of Seychelles to the UAE, told Gulf News on Saturday ahead of Africa Day held every year on May 25.
This is an indicator of African nations’ achievement in women’s empowerment, Esparon said on the sidelines of the African Day celebrations at the Armed Forces Officers Club today.
Twenty-seven of 54 African nations have embassies in the UAE and they served more than 100 traditional African dishes to around 1,500 guests. They also showcased various cultural programmes and traditional artefacts at the daylong event.
“We are showcasing the colourful African continent … its rich civilisation and culture,” Esparon said.
Africa Day is celebrated annually to mark the formation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963, and the African Union (AU) in 2002.
Mbarouk Nasser Mbarouk, Tanzanian Ambassador to the UAE, told Gulf News that embassies marked the event on Saturday as it was a holiday.
“The day unites all who uphold the spirit of Africa,” he said.
Spray A. Timbo, Ambassador of Sierra Leone, said Africa is the richest continent in resources but faces challenges of poverty and poor health.
The African Union is a common platform to overcome such challenges, Timbo said.
Visitors to the event enjoyed the unique craftsmanship of some African tribes and the rich cultural diversity of the continent displayed at the stalls.
Patricia Zimba, from Tanzania. said carvings made by the Makonde tribe in her country attracted many visitors.
“These handmade sculptures of wood generally costs $200 (Dh734) but they were not for sale here,” she said.
Visitors enjoyed tasting traditional sweets from the ‘baobab’ tree in Tanzania.
Mina Famnoune, from Morocco, said after seeing cultural programmes and artefacts on display that she felt “Africa is so colourful and so exciting”. Moreover, African expatriates were happy to see traditional items at the stalls arranged by their respective embassies.
They felt a sense of belonging in a foreign land.
Sonia Meskache, from Algeria, said many people were curious to know about Algerian pottery and a traditional bread named ‘chakchoukha’.
Abbas Othman, from Djibouti, said a traditional drum called “Tam Tam’ made of goatskin attracted many people. “But we just displayed it; it is not for sale. Seeing the leaflets on fish in Djibouti, I had to answer many questions about our rich diversity of fish,” he said.