{"id":6525,"date":"2023-12-04T10:07:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T10:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/?p=6525"},"modified":"2023-12-04T10:07:30","modified_gmt":"2023-12-04T10:07:30","slug":"derik-cultural-festival-dcf-2023-embraces-diversity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/2023\/12\/04\/derik-cultural-festival-dcf-2023-embraces-diversity\/","title":{"rendered":"Derik Cultural Festival (DCF ) 2023 Embraces Diversity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Agencies – Sudan Events<\/strong><\/p>\n

Culture is what makes a place or people\u00a0unique. In a\u00a0world full of\u00a0different\u00a0cultures and arts, we prove our existence by performing what represents\u00a0us.\u00a0\u2018Let\u2019s celebrate our cultural diversity\u2019 was the slogan\u00a0of the 3rd\u00a0edition of Derik\u00a0Cultural\u00a0Festival\u00a0(DCF), concluded celebration,which took place in Juba,\u00a0South Sudan in November 2023 at\u00a0the University of Juba, bringing out people from diverse communities and cultures all in one united\u00a0in music\u00a0and love for the late\u00a0national icon\u00a0Derik Alfred Uya.\u00a0For eight days, the dream of having a peaceful country is realised \u2013 people healed\u00a0from the wounds of conflicts, displacement and tribalism.<\/p>\n

According to 500 Words Magazine, DCF is not only a musical festival, but a small village of intellectual minds and changemakers, collaborating to\u00a0spread\u00a0the peaceful message of\u00a0social coexistence and cohesion between the people of the young\u00a0nation,\u00a0South Sudan.\u00a0Established in 2021, the first\u00a0edition of DCF\u00a0presented\u00a0a series of lectures and papers written by Uya.\u00a0After the first\u00a0edition, the founders, who are a group of intellectual people, including writers such as Boie John and Atem Simon,\u00a0felt that there is a necessity to continue with Uya\u2019s work, legacy, and vision because the cultural movement for Uya was a lifetime project.<\/p>\n

Uya\u00a0graduated from the College of Music and Drama in Sudan University with a diploma in acting and directing. He was\u00a0co-founder and director of Kwoto\u00a0Centre, which\u00a0made a significant impact in the lives of\u00a0the talented\u00a0South Sudanese youth in Khartoum\u00a0\u00a0in the early\u00a090s.<\/p>\n

Themes of identity and belonging are heavily reflected in\u00a0Uya\u2019s work,\u00a0whether\u00a0in theatre, music, or a lecture. \u2018He was a director, actor\u00a0and musician. He\u00a0played the\u00a0guitar and drums and was also a translator and journalist. He was a member of the\u00a0Union of Sudanese\u00a0Writers\u00a0and he was also a secretary at the union.\u00a0After the independence of South Sudan, Uya was appointed as\u00a0the Minister of\u00a0Culture in Bahr El Gazal state from 2013\u00a0to 2015.\u00a0He is also a founder of Bahr El Gazal\u00a0Cultural\u00a0Festival,\u2019 said Boie\u00a0John a co-founder at DCF and one of the organising committee members.<\/p>\n

The seven days of the event were energetic, informative\u00a0and artistic at the same time. Papers were presented in the first days, with\u00a0topics such as national\u00a0identity\u00a0as well as language in South Sudan by Professor\u00a0Bul Deng Chol. South Sudan is home to 64 ethnic groups and finding a common language\u00a0is\u00a0still an issue,\u00a0in addition to Arabic and English.<\/p>\n

The diversity\u00a0in the audience was not only within the\u00a0South Sudanese\u00a0community,\u00a0but also the Sudanese. Hadiya Mahdi Ali Kalol,\u00a0a Sudanese filmmaker and director, participated in the ongoing\u00a0bazaar at\u00a0the festival as cosmetic specialist doing facial sessions for men and women.<\/p>\n

Every\u00a0edition of the DCF,\u00a0the committee award\u00a0a person with \u2018The\u00a0Person of the\u00a0Festival\u2019. This year,\u00a0the award went to\u00a0Emmanuel Mark Kembe, a South Sudanese singer who sings\u00a0for peace, love and unity. On the seventh\u00a0and eighth\u00a0day of the festival,\u00a0Kembe and his musician band Lwanga\u00a0performed\u00a0a masterpiece. Kembe is a\u00a0much\u00a0loved singer\u00a0in South Sudan and he many\u00a0fans. His songs are touching\u00a0and relatable to many. The committee is looking forward\u00a0to award the next\u00a0Person of the Festival in the four\u00a0editions of the festival. By doing so,\u00a0they are celebrating the journey of the outstanding people who have their fingerprint on the society.<\/p>\n

Although the DCF is not fully funded\u00a0by any\u00a0entity, it\u00a0is a collaboration between many institutions\u00a0who\u00a0are concerned\u00a0about Uya\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n

The organising committee is aiming for bigger plans.\u00a0\u2018We don\u2019t want to centralise this festival or the cultural movement in the country. That\u2019s why we want to enhance the work of the other cultural entities outside Juba like Wau and elsewhere,\u2019 said Atem\u00a0Simon,\u00a0chairman of the\u00a0DCF\u00a0organising committee and co-founder\u00a0of DCF.<\/p>\n

The committee\u00a0has\u00a0a long-term goal of establishing a cultural centre. Walking\u00a0in Uya\u2019s footsteps, the founders wish that the community and government would stand on one side and give out a\u00a0helping\u00a0hand to support the artists\u00a0and talented people\u00a0of the country by creating cultural institutions\u00a0and opportunities to reflect the beauty of South Sudanese\u00a0music and culture worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Agencies – Sudan Events Culture is what makes a place or people\u00a0unique. In a\u00a0world full of\u00a0different\u00a0cultures and arts, we prove our existence by performing what represents\u00a0us.\u00a0\u2018Let\u2019s celebrate our cultural diversity\u2019 was the slogan\u00a0of the 3rd\u00a0edition of Derik\u00a0Cultural\u00a0Festival\u00a0(DCF), concluded celebration,which took place in Juba,\u00a0South Sudan in November 2023 at\u00a0the University of Juba, bringing out people from …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6525"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6527,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6525\/revisions\/6527"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sudanevents.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}