A film by Callie Ann Lum of Cool Loon Movies about Kenya’s African Heritage Festival.
A story about Kenya and the African Heritage Festival Millennium Tour. Stunning models, acrobats and dancers rock the runways from Nairobi to Mombasa welcoming in the new millennium.After 30 years in Africa, American expatriate, Alan Donovan, gives Kenya a show they’ll never forget, come hell or high water!
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THE AFRICAN RENAISSANCE SHOW was first staged in South Africa for the First African Telecoms Conference in May 1998, sponsored by the Government of the Republic of South Africa and the International Telecommunications Union.
It was a very memorable event. The South African organizers came up to Kenya three times to see Kenya’s African Heritage Festival perform at African Heritage Libra House on Mombasa Road. They had surveyed the whole of Africa to find the best cultural show and finally unanimously agreed that Kenya’s African Heritage Festival was the best on the continent. However, the South African government was still hesitant about having a group from Kenya as the headliner for this very important and prestigious conference. It was only at the last minute that the air tickets were finally released and Kenya’s African Heritage Festival was on the way.
The show combined music and dance groups from every part of South Africa as the curtain raiser for the “Textile Tour” from African Heritage. It was renamed the African Renaissance Show and a song African Renaissance was especially penned and performed for the occasion.
As the organizers could not find a hotel facility large enough for nearly 4000 guests, they finally bought an old warehouse near Johannesburg (where incidentally Nelson Mandela had once worked as a watchman) and bulldozed out the interior. Stages, catwalks were set up according to African Heritage specifications and kitchens, a façade and parking lots were added all within three weeks! The facility is now the Crown Mines Entertainment Centre.
The show was performed for three nights on South African television although it was never shown in Kenya. The show was later produced for the Gala Night of the Century and Millennium Festival in Kenya in 1999-2000.
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Models & Dancers
