Barely five days remaining to end the growing debate as to Gambia’s chances of making it in the 2010 world and African cup of nations qualifiers in Dakar against the Lions of Terenga of Senegal. An analysis from a Senegalese point of view has given the Scorpions the upper hand.

Santi Sene Hagne, Secretary General of the  Senegalese National Sports Olympic Committee  during a chart with  Pointsports at the Just concluded  IOC 6thWorld Forum on Sports, Education and Culture  which took place in South Korea  is of the believed that the game between the two neighbours schedule for the 11thOctober in Dakar will  not be an easy affair.

But having said that, Secretary General Santi Saine was quick to add that the Gambia has a greater chance of making it this time  around.

“Taking a look at the force ,performance of both teams and their level of preparedness, the Gambia’s team is on the up as their youthfulness  and determination is a force to be reckoned. Come the game, they can make history by forcing a victory over the Lions of Terenga,” he stated.

He backed his statement  with the previous records of both teams when Senegal use to defeated the Gambia both home and away. “ the fact that the Gambia is able to contain  Senegal in any game we meet now  as opposed to before is a great sign of the rigorous development of the Gambian football. The Gambia Authorities have done a great job by quickly identifying the development of football at grassroot as the solution to  end the days of the underperformance of  the Senior national team”

“The Gambia have done well especially by being able to produce two world cup teams at youth categories. This could be the Gambia’s time,” he highlighted.

However, the Senegalese sports icon seized the opportunity to preached peace between the two nations during the game and urged the two peoples not to forget about relationship between the two countries.

The Gambia, Senegal and Algeria are vying for qualification from group six. These three teams are rather face with  difficult circumstances but Algeria who top the group with 9 points has the greatest chance as a minimum performance of  draw can possibly  send them through.

Senegal and the Gambia who both level at eight points each have all what it takes to make it to the next stage.

As the Lions meet the Scorpions in Dakar on October 11, the  Lone Stars will play host to  Algeria in Monrovia the same day.

Despite not being able to make, Lone Stars are determine to put up a respectable performance against Algeria during this game. These words were strongly made by Liberian Head Coach Antoine Hey during his team’s shameless defeat in Banjul on September 6th2008.

The sixth world forum on sports education and culture aimed at educating the current generation on the positive Olympic values kicked off on Thursday September 2008 in Busan, South Korea.

The forum functions as a stage for the whole world to share the IOC vision of exchange  of cultures, mutual understanding  and education in the spirit of Olympism.

Hosted by the international Olympic and co-organized by the BusanMetropolitanCity and the Koran Olympic, the event has attracted about 800 international sports representatives from approximately 110 countries.

The sixth IOC forum  held in the city of international sports convention consist of four plenary sessions and eight parallel sessions with exciting debates during the three days under the theme ofsports and education for the now generation.

In his opening address, IOC first Vice President Mr Lambis V Nikolaou said the success and maintaining the values of the Olympic movement lies on the future generation.

According to him, this is in line with the Olympic charter, established by Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the Olympic Movement whose goal is to contribute to building a peaceful and better world by educating youth through sport practiced without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play.

“With the support of the global community, the forum will bring into focus the potential of sports as a tool to promote peace and human understanding. I hope that valuable recommendations will resolve in this forum,” he pointed out.

He commended Busan for being the first city that hosts the event and sponsors the trip of some of the delegates to the forum.

 The Chairman of IOC commission for Culture and Olympic Education  Mr Zhenliang  said this year, the IOC Commission for Culture and Olympic Education celebrated its tenth anniversary under his chairmanship.

He said, “There has been much to celebrate, not least the integration of education and culture as an integral part of the Olympic Games to a process of developing Olympism within the member countries.”

“The Youth Olympic games and the wider interpretation of education in the Olympic movement to encompass educating athletes for life post high level competition has created even greater interest among the general public,” he lamented, pointing out that the commission can take pride in having played a major role, continues to do so, in popularizing culture and Olympic education in the world.

“The event will also provide a chance to experience Busan’s progressive and open-minded attitude towards the world,”   said Mr   Nam-Sik Hur , Mayor of Busan Metropolitan city.

He said the city, which has played hosts to the  2002  FIFA  World Cup Korea/Japan, the 24 Asian Games and APEC 2005, which  he described as great successes,  has help to bring a wave of changes to Korea and the world.

The ceremony, chaired by  TA Ganda Sithole, IOC Director of International Cooperation and Development, was a well planned one and had also portrayed a culture emboldened with richness of the people of Korea.

A tribute was also paid to the Chairman of IOC commission for Culture and Olympic Education, Mr Zhenliang He, who will be retiring next year from IOC and a presentation of the 2008 Olympic Sport and Art Awards also took place during the  opening ceremony.

Other speakers who spoke at the occasion included;  Mr yeon-Taek Lee, President  of the Korean Olympic Committee, Mr Wararu Iwamoto, Director, Division of social Sciences, Researche and Policy of UNESCO and Mr In-Chon Yu Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Korea.

The opening ceremony was wrapped up by cocktail and welcome dinner was also held in honour of the event.

History
The origins of African art was long before recorded history. African rock art in the Sahara in Niger preserves 6000-year-old carvings. The earliest known sculptures are from the Nok culture of Nigeria, made around 500 BCE.

Along with sub-Saharan Africa, the cultural arts of the western tribes, ancient Egyptian artifacts, and indigenous southern crafts also contributed greatly to African art. Often depicting the abundance of surrounding nature, the art was often abstract interpretations of animals, plant life, or natural designs and shapes.

More complex methods of producing art were developed in sub-Saharan Africa around the 10th century, some of the most notable advancements include the bronze work of Igbo Ukwu and the terracottas and metal works of Ile Ife. Bronze and brass castings, often ornamented with ivory and precious stones, became highly prestigious in much of West Africa, sometimes being limited to the work of court artisans and identified with royalty, as with the Benin bronzes.

Influence on Western art
At the start of the twentieth century, artists like Picasso, Matisse, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin and Modigliani became aware of, and inspired by, African art. In a situation where the established avant garde was straining against the constraints imposed by serving the world of appearances, African Art demonstrated the power of supremely well organised forms; produced not only by responding to the faculty of sight, but also and often primarily, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical and religious experience.

These artists saw in African Art a formal perfection and sophistication unified with phenomenal expressive power. The study of and response to African Art, by artists at the beginning of the twentieth century facilitated an explosion of interest in the abstraction, organisation and reorganisation of forms, and the exploration of emotional and psychological areas hitherto unseen in Western Art. By these means, the status of visual art was changed. Art ceased to be merely and primarily aesthetic, but became also a true medium for philosophic and intellectual discourse, and hence more truly and profoundly aesthetic than ever before

Traditional art
Traditional art describes the most popular and studied forms of African art which are typically found in museum collections.

Wooden masks, which might either be human or animal or of mythical creatures, are one of the most commonly found forms of art in western Africa. In their original contexts, ceremonial masks are used for celebrations, initiations, crop harvesting, and war preparation.

The masks are worn by a chosen or initiated dancer. During the mask ceremony, the dancer goes into a deep trance, and during this state of mind he "communicates" with his ancestors. The masks can be worn in three different ways: vertically covering the face: as helmets, encasing the entire head, and as crest, resting upon the head, which was commonly covered by material as part of the disguise. African masks often represent a spirit and it is strongly believed that the spirit of the ancestors possesses the wearer. Most African masks are made with wood, and can be decorated with: Ivory, animal hair, plant fibers (such as raffia), pigments (like kaolin), stones, and semi-precious gems also are included in the masks.

Statues, usually of wood or ivory, are often inlaid with cowrie shells, metal studs and nails. Decorative clothing is also commonplace and comprises another large part of African art. Among the most complex of African textiles is the colorful, strip-woven Kente cloth of Ghana. Boldly patterned mudcloth is another well known technique.

Contemporary African Art
Africa is home to a great and thriving contemporary art culture. This has been sadly understudied until recently, due to scholars' and art collectors' emphasis on traditional art. Notable modern artists include Marlene Dumas, William Kentridge, Kendell Geers, Yinka Shonibare, Zerihun Yetmgeta, Odhiambo Siangla, Olu Oguibe, Lubaina Himid, and Bill Bidjocka. Art biennials are held in Dakar, Senegal, and Johannesburg, South Africa.

Many contemporary African artists are represented in museum collections, and their art may sell for high prices at art auctions. Despite this, many contemporary African artists tend to have difficult times finding a market for their work. Many contemporary African arts borrow heavily from traditional predecessors. Ironically, this emphasis on abstraction is seen by Westerners as an imitation of European and American cubist and totemic artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Amedeo Modigliani and Henri Matisse, who, in actuality were heavily influenced by traditional African art. This became the first step of evolution in Western art where people started becoming more open-minded and came out of their shell to explore the different aspects of art.

Comtemporary African Art was pioneered in the 1950's and 1960's in South Africa by artists like Irma Stern, Cyril Fradan, Walter Battiss and through galleries like the Goodman Gallery in Johannesburg. More recently European galleries like the October Gallery in London and collectors like Jean Pigozzi and Gianni Baiocchi in Rome have helped expand the interest in the subject. Exhibitions like the African Pavilion at the 2007 Venice Biennale that showcased the Sindika Dokolo African Collection of Contemporary Art have gone a long way to countering many of the myths and prejudices that haunt Contemporary African Art. The appointment of Nigerian Okwui Enwezor as artistic director of Documenta 11 and his African centred vision of art jettisoned the careers of countless African artists into the international headlights.

This week, Arts and Culture brings to you an indepth analysis and history of arts and culture from the African perspective courtesy of African Art.

African Art is an edition which focus on arts and culture in Africa and the world at large. African Art constitutes one of the most diverse legacies on earth. Though many observers tend to generalize "traditional" African art, the continent is full of peoples, societies, and civilizations, each with a unique visual culture. The definition also includes the art of the African Diaspora such as the art of African American. Despite this diversity, there are some unifying artistic themes when considering the totality of the visual culture from the continent of Africa.
Emphasis on human figure.

The human figure is the primary subject matter for most African art. During the historical period involving trade between Africa and Europe, the introduction of the human body into existing European pottery and other forms of art can be reliably taken as evidence of contact with African cultures.

In the fifteenth century, Portugal traded with the Sapi culture near Ivory Coast in West Africa, who created elaborate ivory saltcellars that were hybrids of African and European designs, most notably in the addition of the human figure.
Visual abstraction

African artworks tend to favor visual abstraction over naturalistic representation.  Ancient Egyptian art  was naturally depictive and it makes use of highly abstractive and regimented visual canons, especially in painting, as well as the use of different colors to represent the qualities and characteristics of an individual being depicted.

Sculpture
African artists tend to favor three-dimensional artworks over two-dimensional works. Even many African paintings or cloth works were meant to be experienced three-dimensionally. House paintings are often seen as a continuous design wrapped around a house, forcing the viewer to walk around the work to experience it fully; while decorated cloths are worn as decorative or ceremonial garments, transforming the wearer into a living sculpture.

Performance art is an extension of the utilitarianism and three-dimensionality of traditional African art. Much of it is crafted for use in performance contexts, rather than in static ones. For example, masks and costumes very often are used in communal, ceremonial contexts, where they are "danced." Most societies in Africa have names for their masks, but this single name incorporates not only the sculpture, but also the meanings of the mask, the dance associated with it, and the spirits that reside within. In African thought, the three cannot be differentiated.

Area of influence.
 African art has a long and surprisingly controversial history. Up until recently, the designation "African" was usually only bestowed on the arts of "Black Africa", the peoples living in sub-Saharan Africa. The non-black peoples of North Africa, the blacks of the Horn of Africa, as well as the art of Ancient Egypt, generally were not included under the rubric of African art.

Recently, there has been a movement among African art historians and other scholars to include the visual culture of these areas, since all the cultures that produced them, in fact, are located within the geographic boundaries of the African continent. The notion is that by including all African cultures and their visual culture in African art, laypersons will gain a greater understanding of the continent's cultural diversity. Since there was often a confluence of traditional African, Islamic and Mediterranean cultures, scholars have found that drawing distinct divisions between Muslim areas, ancient Egypt, the Mediterranean and indigenous black African societies makes little sense. Finally, the arts of the people of the African diaspora, prevalent in Brazil, the Caribbean and the southeastern United States, have also begun to be included in the study of African art.

To be continued

One year after re-introducing the Tidentine Mass and two years after the Regensburg address, Benedict XVI's popular new traditionalism has re-ignited the catholic culture wars.

The new traditionalism
On 14th June this year about 1,500 people filled Westminster Cathedral. Every seat was taken; people stood in the aisles and spilled out on to the piazza outside.

The occasion was a mass, but not an ordinary mass. It was indeed a mass in what is now officially called the ``extraordinary form'' of the Roman rite, i.e. the mass as it had existed before the changes that followed the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965). It was celebrated by Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos, and was the first mass in the traditional form to be celebrated in the Cathedral by a cardinal in thirty nine years.

Before the mass, Cardinal Castrillon had addressed the Latin Mass Society of England and Wales, a group which had striven for forty years to preserve the ancient liturgy. He told them to `take heart' because the new Pope sympathised with them, and he spoke of the `sacrifices' of those members of the Society `who have not lived to be here today.'

To outsiders, all this emotion, this talk of sacrifices made by dead Catholics for the liturgy might well be unintelligible. What are the great issues at stake? Why should people throng Westminster Cathedral and spill out onto the street, including many too young to remember the old ways, just to experience a service in Latin conducted by a prelate with his back to the people?

In July the Pope was in Australia for World Youth Day. About four hundred thousand of the young, who had travelled from all parts of the globe, acclaimed him at a vast open-air mass in Sydney. But the mass had some new-old features Latin (Gregorian) chant, an altar adorned in the old style with crucifix and seven candles, and an attempt at solemn reverence that is not usually seen at these mass liturgical events. Something is in the air.
 
The truth is that the Roman Catholic Church has been in crisis ever since the Second Vatican Council, a crisis not only of falling numbers attending mass, a reduction of vocations, the virtual extinction of some religious orders, but a crisis of identity of the Church itself. The confident, tightly centralised ``triumphalist'' Catholicism that followed the sixteenth century Council of Trent and regained many of the lands that had been lost to Protestantism, the Church that claimed to be `the one ark of salvation for all,' has been replaced by the ``pilgrim Church'', tentatively stretching out to other faiths, often apologetic about the past, sometimes ready to play down its most distinctive doctrines.
 
There is a deeper issue. Hilaire Belloc had said `Europe is the Faith, and the Faith is Europe.' Although Catholicism is a world-wide religion, and an Abrahamic faith, its European inheritance has been central, its philosophical theology deriving from Greece, its language and structures of authority from Rome. It was not for nothing that Hobbes described the papacy as `the ghost of the dead Roman Empire sitting crowned upon the grave thereof.' Enthusiasts for Vatican II thought they had changed all that. Rituals, language, even theology were to reflect the diverse cultures of the faithful, and even the subjective convictions of the individual.

The attempt since the Counter-reformation of the sixteenth century to resist some of the most important developments in modern culture, with an index of books forbidden to Catholics to read that included most of the greatest philosophers and imaginative writers of the modern world, was to be seen as a sort of auto-immune disorder -- an inability to cope with foreign bodies. In the light of this, an attachment to tradition seemed like a rejection of intelligence, and a scarcely defensible surrender to clerical dictatorship. The Church had raised the drawbridge against the modern world, and Vatican II would confidently lower it again. Central to that was the rejection of the traditional Latin mass. It was there that the battle lines were most obviously drawn.
 
The culture wars
Nearly twenty five years ago, a Pole was dining in my college in Cambridge. He told us that he had been an altar boy in Poland, and had often served the masses of the Archbishop of Cracow. A year or two after that prelate, Karol Woytila, had been installed in the See of Rome, he decided to visit him, for John Paul II never became too grand for his old Polish friends.

 The Pope (so he told the story) strode up to him, punched him lightly in the chest, and began: Introibo ad ad altare dei ... to which our guest responded: Ad deum qui laetificat iuventutum meum. (``I will go unto the altar of God'' ``To God who giveth joy to my youth.'') This was the opening exchange between priest and server of the old ``Tridentine'' Latin mass, abolished in the early1970s, and the two continued it right down to the Confiteor. Then the Pope shrugged his shoulders and said: `Well, that''s no use to us anymore.' His old altar boy replied: `No, Holy Father, and that''s why I no longer go to church.' To which the Pope (he said) instantly rejoined: `Don''t blame me. Blame that maniac John XXIII!'

Last September, a motu proprio (legislation of his own volition) of Pope Benedict XVI, liberating the old mass, and obliging parishes to provide it for those of the faithful who want it, came into effect. It was clearly an attempt to console those who were still attached to the old rite, including the followers of Archbishop Lefebvre, who rejected the new mass and many of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council (summoned by `that maniac, John XXIII.') ``Liberal'' Catholics grimly suspect that the Pope himself has long been disillusioned with the Council, and is bent on restoration of the old order. One Italian bishop said that he actually wept when he read the motu proprio, because he saw one of the greatest achievements of the modernists, a new style of liturgy, dissolving before his eyes. He was right to be alarmed. Benedict''s undoubted love of the old liturgy is also a love of the European culture which produced it.

On the other side, traditionalist Catholics, who were so joyously in evidence at Westminster cathedral, rejoiced mightily. Benedict XVI is on the way to becoming a hero as dear to them as Cyrus the Great was to the ancient Jews, because he freed them from the Babylonian captivity. When the motu proprio was issued, their websites triumphed in the imminent defeat of the philistines and were filled with accounts of celebratory champagne parties and suggestions that everyone should send flowers to the Pope in sign of gratitude.
 
Not just talking to God in Latin
But what is the fuss all about? Is this just a matter of some people preferring to talk to God in Latin? Or is it the re-igniting of a subterraneous culture war that has troubled the peace of the faithful over the past forty years?

First of all: it is not just a question of Latin. The ``Tridentine'' mass and the Latin mass are not one and the same thing. True, the Tridentine mass must be said in Latin in the Roman church. But decades ago you could attend Tridentine masses in High Anglican churches in Cornwall celebrated entirely in English. The new order of mass, promulgated by Pope Paul VI after the Second Vatican Council, was originally meant to be usually in Latin, but is nearly always said in the vernacular.

But whatever the language, it is different from the old mass, in feel, liturgical gesture and some would even say in theology. The liturgy has always embodied both prayer and doctrine: it is both lex orandi and lex credendi. The ultras would argue that the changes in the mass were part of a stealthy attempt to alter doctrine. The great Council of Trent (1546-63) marked the final separation between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism with ferocious clarity. Catholic doctrines such as the real presence of Christ in the eucharist, reaffirmed by Trent, are liturgically enforced in the Tridentine mass with no possible ambiguity.

The ultras have a point. A pious Catholic who had fallen asleep in 1960 and woken up forty years later would be puzzled indeed at a modern mass (unless he had been allowed to slumber all those years in Brompton Oratory or a few other traditionalist redoubts.) He would find the modern Church culturally and psychologically so altered that he might be tempted to see it as a new religion masquerading under the old name. He might, like my Polish acquaintance, decide not to bother any more.

The first time I was taken to mass as a child, my mother told me to watch the altar attentively, because an angel might fly across it. My hope in seeing the angel faded quite soon, well before my faith did, but the feeling that the celebration of mass marked a mystery in which Godhead was truly present on the altar, body, blood, soul and divinity, under the appearances of bread and wine was astonishingly powerful. The form of the old mass enforced it. There was an overwhelming emphasis on the mass as an actual sacrifice, a mysterious re-enactment of Christ''s sacrifice on Mount Calvary.

The priest began at the foot of the altar, with prayers that he might be worthy to ascend the steps: Introibo ad altare dei. In mounting the altar steps the priest was being brought ``unto thy holy mount, and into thy tabernacles.'' These are the words of psalms from the Hebrew Bible, and they go with an extraordinary insistence on using the language of ancient Jewish sacrifice -- `a holy victim, a pure and unblemished sacrifice.' (A Jewish friend of mine, attending a Tridentine mass for the first time, said that this language, and the elaborate cleansing of the sacred vessels, took his mind back to Temple Judaism.) The ritual proceeded with the inevitability of a piece of intricate and beautiful mechanism, as the priest mounted the steps, read the epistle and gospel and came to the canon of the mass.

The climax, the obvious focal point of the exercise, was the consecration. The Latin words of this were uttered in a very audible stage whisper, and were followed by genuflection, elevation, genuflection, accompanied by the ringing of bells.
Every gesture by the priest, the signs of the cross, the genuflections, the many kissings of the altar, were strictly controlled by the rubrics. There was no place for ``creativity'' or the expression of personality.

The authority of liturgy has always been its immemorial antiquity, and this strange, intensely focussed ritual certainly took you back to the remote past. This was sometimes a cause of scandal. The Good Friday liturgy (which was not actually a mass, Good Friday being the only day in the year when mass was not said) notoriously had a prayer for the `unbelieving Jews' (perfidis Judaeis) that God would remove their ``blindness'' and lead them to Christ. Even worse, this was the one prayer during which the congregation did not have to kneel. (John XXIII removed the offensive words in 1962.) There were also curiosities of an innocent sort. A missal published in 1935 contains a Good Friday prayer that God will `look favourably on the Roman empire' and `render all barbarous nations' subject to the Emperor.

The curious thing about the old mass was that it did not much matter if it was performed badly. It often was. Some priests spoke the Latin intelligently and well. Others gabbled it. We altar boys fought to serve the Low Mass of a certain Franciscan priest because he got through it, by means of remarkable elisions, in twelve minutes flat.

The priest was a craftsman, bringing Christ to the altar, and distributing Him to the faithful in communion. In many ways, it was the priest''s mass, to which the congregation were onlookers, or listeners in. Much of it was in silence, with the priest raising his voice at certain moments to indicate what point the mass had reached. In northern Europe and the United States most of the congregation followed in their missals, which were in Latin and English. But in earlier times people would instead read ``prayers during mass,'' rather than follow the actual words. Illiterates would simply tell their beads. Perhaps they looked for angels to fly across, or at the stained-glass windows. Yet there is overwhelming evidence that they, too, were moved, for they participated in a ritual that signified visually and in terms of movement as well as in words.

Babucarr Etu Ndow, a renowned Gambian artist who left The Gambia on July 22nd to attend the 9th edition of the famous Changchun Art Exhibition in China, has said children have a potential role to play in the development of arts and culture.

According to Mr Etu Ndow, children have to be caught young in the world of arts. “To catch them young in the world of art is the best method of teaching arts to them. It’s the best tool for the children to appreciate and understand what the whole essence of arts is about and help them develop and specialise in it,’’ he said.

Mr Babucarr Etu Ndow made these remarks in a recent chat with Arts and Culture from his base in China, where he is attending a 40-day extensive and intensive arts exhibition with 42 top flight artists drawn from all parts of the globe. Mr Etu is amongst the top 8 artists selected from Africa.  He represented The Gambia and West Africa at the arts festival, where he would place his artistic work at the famous Changchun Park Exhibition as is the case with all the participating artists.

Mr Ndow revealed to Arts and Culture his plan to establish a kindergarten art centre at his Tunbung Art Village Gallery in Tujereng, Kombo North. The kindegarter centre will be open to children from within and outside the communities of Tujereng. It will provide training sessions for  children and be used  as an exhibition centre for them.
“These children will  play with words, colour, and forms.  They will be fully equipped with skills on arts and culture,’’ he said.

He seized the opportunity to appeal to the general public to render assistance towards the establishment of the  kindergarten art centre.

As part of activities marking the official establishment of the West African Pranic Healing Foundation in The Gambia, a day’s free pranic healing session was held at its new office in Bijilo, Western Region .

The session aimed, among other things, to promote healthy living,to minimise the risk of accumulated fats and excess energy in the body and to promote the culture of peace, unity and understanding among people of diverse cultures and backgrounds.

The free pranic healing session, which started at 10:00am and ended at 7:00pm on August 30 brought together hundreds of participants from the government, private sector, the business community and individuals.

Mr Srikanth Jois, pranic healer and trainer, who doubles as the country representative of the West African Pranic Healing Foundation, in an interview with the Daily Observer at the end of the session, expressed happiness over the large turnout.

He said he had been a pranic healer for the past couple of years and has worked in many countries, especially in West Africa and other parts of the world. He spoke about the efficacy of pranic healing.

According to Mr Srikanth Jois, pranic healing is an ancient science of healing the whole physical body based on two laws or principles, the law of self recovery and life force.

“What the pranic healing essentially does is that it enhances the healing process of the body by increasing the life energy on the affected part of the body.  Every peron is surrounded by a luminous energy field called bio-plasmic body or energy body.

 This energy body keeps the physical body healthy and alive.  Therefore any disturbance in the energy body can manifest as an ailment,” he said. On what pranic healing can do for you as an individual Mr Jois said, it heals fever, headache, muscle pain, cough and cold, asthma, liver, kidney ailments, fracture, cancer to name a few.  

“It help you attain inner peace, physical and emotional balance, brings you awareness of the energy world. It could be used to solve family or marital differences and improve relationships at the office and increase performance at work,” he said.

Eva Wagher, a health practitioner who also spoke to the Daily Observer described pranic healing as very effective. According to her, she has been doing pranic healing for quite some time and it has proven to be effective.

For his part, Lamin Camara, pranic healer, trainer and assistant country representative of the West African Pranic Healing Foundation also reiterated comments made by previous speakers in describing the healing as cost effective.

Nancy Njie, the secretary of state for Tourism and Culture, has said that culture is becoming more recognised as an integral component in the country’s socio-economic process.

SoS Njie made this remark as she delivered the opening statement yesterday at a four-day workshop on music, dance and drama, organised by the University of The Gambia (UTG), in collaboration with the Education through Culture and Communication Organisation (ECCO) and the Norwegian College of Dances, at the Sunset Hotel in Kotu.

The Tourism SoS said this trend is manifested in the weight given to cultural affairs by the government, through the support of the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) - the institution mandated to coordinate research on the preservation, development and celebration of our national heritage.

"It is therefore my fervent belief that by the end of this workshop, the recommendations will encourage the setting up of ensembles, troupes and drama groups at the national level,” she told the workshop participants. She further pointed out that this will further encourage local artists by giving support to the development and dissemination of the performing arts, citing the significance of the involvement of the UTG and others.

The SoS stated her department’s continued support for arts and culture programmes that can provide access to and improve on the capacities of the young and old in the communities, to give creative expression to the diversity of our heritage and the promise of the future.

“The vision of the government of The Gambia, under the visionary leadership of Dr Alhaji Yahya Jammeh, is to integrate the country’s cultural assets into an essential fabric of governing the country. And, also, to integrate cultural heritage into our departmental planning for the economic well-being of our people in the long term,” she said.

SoS Njie, however, maintained that the government recognised the importance of tourism and culture and their linkages with the national vision for development.

For his part, Professor Andreas Steigen, the outgoing vice-chancellor of the UTG, said the purpose of the seminar was to mark the commencement of the process of establishing a faculty of music, dance and drama within the UTG. He described the development as an important element in the development and preservation of national culture - something he said was the responsibility of his institution.

“West African music, dance and drama are the roots to artistic expression all over the world. It is my sincere hope and ambition that an institution of such nature can contribute to bringing home multi-cultural expressions in the Diaspora,” Professor Steigen said. He went on to say that music is the most international of all languages, arguing that for one to be a musician or an artist, they needed to practise it.

The outgoing UTG vice-chancellor further noted that these areas were carriers of tradition as they represented the basic human cultural expression.
He thanked the Norwegian College of dance and ECCO Gambia for their foresight in organising such an important forum.

Babucarr Sarr, the head of ECCO Gambia, described the day as historic, citing the fact that it came as the country endeavours to achieve its Silicon Valley objectives.

Mr Sarr revealed that the whole idea was conceived some years back, but that due to the lack of funds, they had not been able to put the idea into action. He thanked their Norwegian counterparts for their support in the implementation of the programme.

Other speakers at the ceremony included Ann Kristin Norun, the principal of DNBH, and Guro GH Broste, and the general director of ECCO international.
The ceremony was attended by musicians, promoters, NCAC officials, a delegation from Norway, as well as senior officials of the UTG.

In an attempt to place arts and culture of the black world at the centre stage of development, Alioune Badara Béye, the general coordinator of the mega-event, on Friday, hosted a press conference at Sun Beach Hotel in Cape Point, Bakau.

After a three-decade abeyance, the third edition of the World Festival of Black Arts (WFBA III) has been scheduled from December 1 to December 20 in Senegal, on the theme: The African Renaissance.

Alioune Badara Béye, who also doubles as the President of the Senegalese Writers Association, told media practitioners that the preparations for WFBA III were at advanced stage, as the Senegalese government has been sparing no effort towards making it a successful event.

According to him, this progress only fuels expectations for WFBA III, which will bring together leading intellectuals from Africa and the Diaspora.

“The festival will draw 1,500 officials and 1,000 invitees from 80 countries,’’ he said.
Mr Béye also outlined the strategic objectives of the festival, which will serve as a platform to examine the cultural heritage of the black world; reaffirm the role of artists and intellectuals in the ‘African Renaissance’; and promote the protection and the wider distribution of the artistic and cultural works of the black world; amongst others.

He went on to explain the organisation of activities, including up-to-date exhibitions and new efforts to enhance performances in different disciplines such as music, dance, painting, photography, sculpture, design and handicrafts, fashion and design, cinema and video, literature and architecture (exhibition of models).

The press conference was attended by Kaliba Senghore, the permanent secretary at the Department of State for Tourism and Culture, Momodou Joof, the executive director of the National Centre for Arts and Culture (NCAC) and Dr Momodou Tangara, who is a member of WFBA’s International Organising Committee.