MALAWI: Blantyre Arts Festival Channels Laudato Si Messages through Arts
Luke Bisani
Organizers of the Blantyre Arts Festival (BAF) in Malawi’s commercial city of Blantyre have scheduled this year’s festival with messages echoing on the care for the ‘Common Home’.
The organizers said through the use of art, they hope to disseminate messages that may help people to take action towards care for the environment.
Through traditional dances, drama and songs, the BAF event organizers hope to reach different age groups with messages urging them to take good care of mother nature.
Patron of the Catholic University of Malawi (CUNIMA) Arts Theatre Brother Andrew Makocho a member of the congregation of Brothers of Immaculate Conception (FIC) expressed optimism on the use of various talents in sharing messages to the masses on the care of the common home.
Brother Makocho said art plays an important role in human behavior change hence the involvement of arts in this year’s festival to share messages on Laudato Si has huge potential of changing peoples’ attitudes towards the environment.
The three-day arts festival which commenced Friday, October 7, 2022, in Blantyre brought together various artists around and outside the city to share different performances with key messages on taking good Mother Nature.
The festival started with a parade from Blantyre’s Old Town Hall to Njamba Freedom Park with various messages pasted on placards on the care of our common home while participants were also involved in a cleaning exercise in a move to keep Blantyre City clean.
This year’s BAF event is celebrated under the theme: Climate Resilience through Cultural Preservation.
Laudato Si’ is an encyclical of Pope Francis published in May 2015. It focuses on caring for the natural environment and all people. During their 20th Plenary held in Tanzania in the month of July this year, the Catholic Bishops under the regional body of the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa (AMECEA) urged Christians to take the leading on caring for the common home.
The AMECEA plenary that was held under the theme ‘The Impact of Climate Change on Integral Human Develop’ in the AMECEA Region urged different players to join hands in taking care of the suffering ‘Mother Earth’.
