My African Aesthetic
This podcast is part of My African Aesthetic.
On this Podcast, we shed light on the central and important roles Africans themselves have had, have and will have in creating sustainable neighborhoods and communities around the globe.
Our work centers African Aesthetics, African design philosophy and placemaking. We do this through dialogue, project work, research, documentation and education.
This podcast features thoughtful, constructive and reflective conversations with architects, artists, curators, designers, creatives, activists, innovators, community leaders and African design enthusiasts.
We hope this podcast helps you expand and deepen your knowledge on African aesthetics, African design philosophy and placemaking and its role in creating inclusive and sustainable communities in Africa and beyond.
https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/
My African Aesthetic
6.2. George Daniels: South Africa.Norway
George Daniels, Managing Director of the Oslo Afro Arts Festival talks about how the festival contributes to reshaping cultural narratives in Norway through the power of African arts.
From teaching salsa classes to directing one of Scandinavia’s most vibrant cultural festivals, George shares his personal journey from South Africa to Oslo—a path fueled by love, fatherhood, and a vision for representation.
We dive into how the festival reclaims Oslo’s Grønland neighborhood as a space of celebration, not stigma and negative stereotypes. George talks about curating experiences across generations—children’s drumming workshops, international music acts, fashion shows, food, and more—all aimed at uplifting African-Norwegian voices and building community.
Plus, we get a glimpse of his future plans: cross-Nordic collaborations, deeper civic engagement, and growing the festival into a platform for social change.
🔗 Learn more at osloafroartsfestival.no and follow @osloafroarts for the latest updates.
Instagram: @myafricanaesthetic
Website: https://www.myafricanaesthetic.com/
Welcome to my African Aesthetic. On this podcast, we shed light on the central and important roles Africans themselves have had, have and will have in creating sustainable neighborhoods and communities in Africa and around the globe African design philosophy and African placemaking. We do this through dialogue, project work, research, documentation and education. This podcast features thoughtful, constructive and reflective conversations with architects, artists, curators, designers, creatives, activists, innovators, community leaders and African design enthusiasts. I hope this podcast helps you expand and deepen your knowledge on African aesthetics, African design philosophy and placemaking, and its role in creating inclusive and sustainable communities in Africa and beyond. Thank you for tuning in. Thank you so very much, George Daniels, for sparing the time to talk to us here at my Africana Study.
Speaker 2:It is a pleasure getting the invite from you guys to be a part of your platform. Thank you for inviting us.
Speaker 1:You're welcome For our listeners. Today we have George Daniels, managing Director at Oslo African Arts Festival. This is an annual festival. It celebrates Afro arts in the form of art, music, folk and white poetry, dance performances, film screenings, workshops and many, many other things for children and youth. I would like for you to tell us a little bit about who you are and how did you end up in Oslo.
Speaker 2:Well, they say it's a long story, it's a short story, whichever.
Speaker 1:You choose.
Speaker 2:I always try to make it very short. I came with a boat a couple of years ago. I overslept, I was supposed to go to England but I ended up in Norway. That is normally the short story, the long story, the love boat. You meet people and then you decide to get together and then you have to make the decisions whether you're going to stay in the country of origin or if you guys are going to move to the country of the spouse. And then there's also pros and cons. You know you have to give up some things to gain something and yeah, so the choice was to move over here. So the choice was to move over here, and I just think you know, as an African child or child of the soil, we can take roots wherever we go. So it was the choice. Much, much more easier to move to Norway instead of staying in South Africa, if we wanted to pursue this being together with somebody and 20 years later me and you have talked a bit about this concept of home.
Speaker 1:when did you feel like Norway was home number two? When did you, at what time, at what point in these 20 years that you've been here, did you feel like, okay, I think this is becoming home and I have to start organizing my life around that fact?
Speaker 2:I think it happened when I broke up with my ex and we had a kid together. So my thing was just you know what? I think I'm just going to go home and you know, I have people that is, you know willing to. You know, the love is there, my family is there and everything. But then, you know, something just went open in my mind and say, you know, the love is there, my family is there and everything. But then, you know, something just went open in my mind and said you know what? Of course we have choices in life.
Speaker 2:The choice was staying here or moving back. Moving back would have been easy because I'm used to where I'm coming from. But now, you know, you have a piece of you that is here and I didn't want to be one of those fathers moving back and don't know his son, you know. So I decided you know what then for me, I wouldn't just stay here and be here for him. You know, because of my background and growing up with a single mom, you know I didn't want to have the same thing going for my boy and that kind of said to me you know what? I'll say yeah, I'll be part of his life, be part of his school, be part of his upbringing you know, see his first girlfriend, his first apartment, you know, instead of being the father that is somewhere out there, you know.
Speaker 2:See his first girlfriend, his first apartment, you know, instead of being the father that is somewhere out there, you know, and maybe see him once or twice a year. Yeah, it leaves some updates, you know. It's it, that narrative. I don't really like it. You know that African fathers isn't really there to support their, you know, their offspring or their kids, you know, and I didn't want to be part of that, yeah, Even if you're both Norwegians, there is the experience of having to make the choice Do you go back or do you stay in Oslo and raise your kids?
Speaker 1:So I totally respect that decision, kid, so I totally respect that decision. You talked about being there for your son and you've expanded on being involved in his in his life. What is the biggest challenge that you have had in in being a father?
Speaker 2:maybe I was just lucky. For me, I think that when you come from the background we're coming from where you are used to not having much. You know there's not really much that can actually be taken from you In the context where, when you're used to, they say always experience is the master. So if you're used to not having anything, there's not really much people can take from you. But for me, the biggest thing here was more the fact that you are a foreigner in a different country. But I already knew that, so there was nothing new for me.
Speaker 2:I also knew that the society, especially in Norway, even though we don't speak about it, there is still bias and racist slangs going on all over the place, or whether it's in the business sector, it's always there. You know, in connection with you know, getting work, getting part of the social structure, it is there. But for me it was like I know where I'm coming from, I know where I am, so that shouldn't scare me in the least. For me, I always look at the glass half full, but I always believe that you know, wherever I am, there's always somebody worse off than me and I always deem myself very lucky.
Speaker 1:With your background coming from South Africa, that is quite. There is a richness you know from South Africa. That is quite. That is quite. Uh, there is a richness you know from South Africa. I remember growing up and being influenced mostly by South African music Yvonne Chaka Chaka, for example you guys yeah, Brenda Fassi.
Speaker 1:Oh, come on, Lucky Jube could fill the stadiums. I mean Kampala, you know, Naki Bobo Stadium. Oh my God, yeah. When I thought about everything that you offer, of course, I have to wonder do you have a background in music and the arts? And if you do, what is that background? And if you don't, how did you end up? Why? Why African arts, you know.
Speaker 2:Well, before I moved to Norway, you know, I started to dance and teach salsa in South Africa and but the music was always there. You know, african music was always there and it wasn't. It was for us, it was a normal thing. You would play music at home, everybody danced, everybody enjoyed themselves. So it was a normal thing. You would play music at home, everybody danced, everybody enjoyed themselves. So it was always there. It was nothing new. But by that time we never knew how rich we actually are or how we actually were.
Speaker 2:And moving to Norway, I moved a year and I was teaching with a company called Salsa Company and they were teaching salsa and the guy that took me in, jc Rees, he said hey, you know what, come and teach for us because you're a good dancer. So, like that, I started to teach salsa and much more in the Latin scene, although my background is coming from an African background. I mean, I didn't teach any African dance, but the dance was always there. But here, coming to a foreign country teaching a foreign dance which is salsa and bachata and all those things, so that kind of opened the sphere for me to actually be teaching people dance and music.
Speaker 2:And then I started to do festivals, together with some of like Raiden Swabu, which has run the Oslo Kribenfeeling Festival and there was also the 10th anniversary last year. So I started collaborating with her doing the Oslo Afro Arts Festival Not the Oslo Afro Arts but the Oslo Caribbean Feeling Festival, which was much more a Caribbean kind of vibe of festival. But then I was like, and then I saw the advert that they were looking for a festival director in the Oslo Afro Arts Festival and I was like, and then I saw the advert that they were looking for a festival director in the Oslo Air Force Festival and I was like, yeah, but I'm African, I like music, I like the drums. Why would I do Latin if I could actually do African? So I applied for it and yeah, and you got it.
Speaker 2:And I got it, and that was in 2020. And I was like, if I could do one festival, I should be able to do another one. And I had success with the other one. The first one was birthed in 2014. It came out as the Zimlai Festival, which was birthed by a lady called Cecilia Giesbügel, and she was actually the founder of the Oslo Air Force Festival, which was previously called the Zemfest, and it was built in 2014.
Speaker 1:That's 11 years.
Speaker 2:That's 11 years. That's why last year we had the 10th anniversary of the Oslo Air Force Festival. How was that? What are the highlights from that the 10th?
Speaker 1:anniversary of the Oslo Air for Arts Festival. How was that?
Speaker 2:What are the highlights from that? Well, it was really good. It was nice to come back, especially after COVID and after a little bit of up and down with the organizer not the organizer, but the board of the festival. So the festival was quiet for two years where it was a little bit back and front and trying to re-tingle the festival. So it was more for me, it was more coming back out of the shadows and it was nice.
Speaker 1:We have a lot of young people that are venturing into these kinds of spaces, trying to create platforms and arenas for celebration of, you know, other cultures in the Norwegian cultural space. One or two challenges or things, reflections that you think you would give to our, you know, 25, 26-year-old.
Speaker 2:I would say that you know doing festivals. You have to be very open-minded. You have to be open-minded to work with everybody, meaning that you should get as much people as possible on board to actually lift you up and go further. But that also means that it's not everybody that want to work with you want to have the best for you. You have to be open minded. You have to say that, hey, I'm here to make something good, and whoever want to come on board and work with me, hey, we are open, the doors is open, you are, you're more than welcome and you shouldn't be afraid, because I've realized that in norway.
Speaker 2:Everything is possible, you know, you just need to stick with it and go for it. You know, it might not be, it might not be easy sometimes, but it depends on how you approach things. And if you actually because you shouldn't just go one or twice and then think, okay, it didn't work, so now I'm going to let it go no, no, you should actually say, hey, you know, it didn't work today, maybe it will work tomorrow, but that will not be as a failure for me. This will actually be just a building stone to let me actually say you know what I've learned from this.
Speaker 1:Let me get stronger and do it better next time. Having an African festival in a Norwegian context, I think, is not only challenging but also exciting. In its own ways, it's quite specific. You know, understanding the Norwegian context or the Nordic context. Yeah, how do you curate the festival to cater for the Africans but, at the same time, stay relevant to the context, which is the Norwegian context, and Grönland, which is in the middle of Oslo?
Speaker 2:Well, I like the question because Oslo, well, it's. Actually, I like the question because Oslo Air for Arts Festival. You know, I know that when I came into the festival it was a festival that was based in Grönland. If you go back to the history of Grönland, grönland is, if people talk about Grönland, the first thing they tell you is it's not safe. You know there's a lot of foreigners there, you know it's.
Speaker 2:Uh, I will not sit down here and sugarcoat things, I'll just come back to your, to your question. But just, I need, just need to mention one thing, because I'm also, I'm also'm also working as a conference manager in one of the hotel groups. So I had one of the students. It was in Drammen. I have one of the students that was there for a wood placeri. So they came to have some experience in what we're doing in the hotel industry, have some experience in what we're doing in the hotel industry. And then I told him about I think he was about 15, 16, 17 years old. And then I told him that I have the festival in Greenland and the first thing he said to me but Greenland is very dangerous.
Speaker 2:So, for me, yeah, it's unsafe to be there. So for me, hearing that from a 15-16 year old boy, norwegian boy, makes me wonder where does it come from? You understand what I mean. So for me, what I'm saying is because of what I heard before. For me, saying what I'm saying is because of what I heard before, so that's why I will not make references and say things, because I'm just saying it. It's just because people have been talking about it. But back to your question Greenland is multicultural and Greenland. We felt like Greenland needs a facelift or we want to use the festival to actually show that Greenland could be a very nice space to be in. That's why the festival is there and it's a Greenland festival, because we want to uplift Greenland and show people that you know, greenland is like any other place in Norway, whether you go to Maestu or whether you go to. It's just that we have just much more colorful people there.
Speaker 1:Over the years? What has your experience been with regard to the demographic, with who comes to the festival?
Speaker 2:Well, we had in 2021, we had the mayor of Oslo that came up to open the festival for us. We reached out to the mayor's office and they said yes, of course we would love to be part of this and open the festival for you. So for me, that was very, very nice that the mayor of Oslo actually came to be part of the festival. So for me, there was a very, very, very surprising and a very good thing. But the festival in itself is a festival for everybody, because we're living in a multicultural world, right, and we live in Norway, but we are Africans in Norway.
Speaker 2:So now the question is the big question I'm always struggling with in this festival is it's called the Oslo Afro Arts Festival? Festival is called the Oslo Afro Arts Festival. Now the question is who are artists? Do you have to be African to be part of this festival, or could you be a Norwegian doing African art inside the festival? So that is sometimes the most difficult questions I'm sitting with, sometimes Because it is called the Oslo Afro Arts Festival. But what about an African singing Norwegian folk songs? Should I then have a stage for him as well? Yes, he is African. What about a Norwegian guy singing African music, should the Oslo Afro Arts Festival then have a stage for that artist?
Speaker 2:So that's why we decided the festival should be open for everybody, as long as you are involved in African arts and culture. It's a very thin line though, but it's one of the lines as long as you are involved in African arts and culture. It's a very thin line though, but it's one of the lines that sometimes we have to talk about things like this, unfortunately. We even reached out to Sroom Larson and one of my teammates was asking me why do you want to have a Norwegian company selling Pilser or providing us with Pilser in the Oslo Afras Festival? I said you know, first of all, you have mixed kids and, whether we like it or not, a lot of our kids like Pilser and Lumpur Right. So we are growing up in Norway as African Norwegians, so we shouldn't deny the fact that our kids will grow up liking Pulitzer.
Speaker 1:As we are humans. I think the easiest thing is to center myself. It's so easy to center myself. It doesn't matter what race or color or shape or age I am. You know, kids are the best at this. Of course I should center myself. I am the center of my universe. But if I am to interact with other people, if I introduce myself to another context and I have to interact with other people and I have to understand where I belong in the circle, yes so I belong in the center or the peripherals.
Speaker 1:The key, I believe, is in understanding when to center or de-center yourself, because there is, there is a beauty in de-centering yourself and looking at things from from the sidelines and and seeing other people shine at the center of something well, um, I just, I just feel like you know it it's.
Speaker 2:you know, I understand that, but you know, for me, the festival needs to. We need to be able to be inclusive and I think that, for me, I think that is one of the things that Norway lacks. We are too many Africans in Norway and do not have our own festival. You know I, for me, I look at Mela Festival. You know, would you tell me that we don't have so many Africans in Norway that could come out and make a space for our kids, for our families, showcasing our traditions? You know, so, for me, I believe that my vision in this festival is to make it as big as possible, a place for Africans where they can feel like. You know what I like braai you know, you know I like African things.
Speaker 2:I like to eat tapenvors, I like to sit down and drink coffee from Eritrea. That is what I want to have for at least that weekend or that week when we have the Oslo Air France Festival. It should be like this is our festival.
Speaker 1:How do you incorporate strategically the festival's mission in your ambitions to be inclusive?
Speaker 2:Well, the festival, for me, is always split in a couple of different parts, because we want to work with kids and families, we also want to work with youth and then we also want to work with, of course, the adults. Incorporating all of this is making sure that everybody will have a space in the festival, whether you are two years old or whether you're 50 years old, and also making sure that because, as Africans, we are very well spread. Whether you're Cape Verdean, whether you're Cuban, whether you, we have African descent coming from somewhere. We have African descent coming from somewhere. So we want to incorporate everything in it to make sure that you would have your African lineage coming out of the festival, whether it's music, whether it's dance, whether it's poetry, whether it's bookbath, whether it's filming, whether it's food, whether it's clothing, we have all of these things and we want to make sure that we bring out everything to include everybody. Everybody should have a place somewhere in the festival.
Speaker 1:The podcast also focuses on placemaking, you know, which extends beyond just me as a person, but about the physical spaces that exist to make me feel comfortable, to make me thrive, when you choose where the events will be, inside, outside, creating maybe niches or spaces. Is it an outdoor? I would like for you to paint a picture of me going through maybe last year's festival, like how is the street? You know what is outside, is it grilling? What do I visually, how do I experience the space, the space that we have, the street space. You know the cultural spaces, you know what the authorities give us and how we can explore the opportunities.
Speaker 2:Well, let's, maybe I should do it like this. Then I will talk a little bit about last year's festival and I will talk a little bit about this year's festival. For me it's last year's festival. We had a family day up in Botsparken, right, and that space. We had a little bit of a stage because we wanted to make sure that we have performances going all day long for kids. We had a drummer from South Africa that came in and teach kids one hour of sessions of drumming and then they would perform for the audience, meaning we include all the kids.
Speaker 2:As part of the festival, we made space for our aunties to come and sell food, because we think that whenever you have a festival, you have to have food, and the festival always has food since the birth of it. So we want to make sure that the food is there and it has to be African food. We also made sure that we make the space for clothing because, you know, we need to show our colours because, as Africans, we are very colourful, so we cannot have a festival without having all our clothing and our jewellery. Yes, so that has to be there, and we were very lucky to have the lady that made the African Bunat. Yes, yes, we were very happy that she brought her work to the festival. Unfortunately, she couldn't be there. She couldn't be there last year, but she did send somebody in with some of her Bunads, so that was very, very nice for us to actually have it there, meaning that crossing between Norwegian and African culture, yeah, and then we, of course, we had African DJ playing on the piano and African beats all day long. That was nice.
Speaker 2:We used the Grenadine, which was just next to the park, part of our collaborators that space we used to put out art. And when we talk about art, we took a lot of young artists, african artists, to actually show the paintings. We invited the National Museum, which is some of our collaborators. We invited the National Museum, which is some of our collaborators. We invited them to come and see the art that we have put forward from our young African artists, because we believe that we need to be a platform and a space for our African children to showcase what we can, because there's not everybody that can go to the museum and say, hey, look, this is my art. But we want to use that kind of spaces to make sure that if you are an artist, we will be able to get you a space so people can see your work.
Speaker 2:What the concerts concerned, indoors we used Nordic Black, which is our house, so I'm very grateful for them. They've been there since the beginning of the festival. So we used Nordic Black to have our concerts. So we had a concert Friday, saturday and Sunday in Black and that was very, very vibrant. It was good for us to showcase the musical talents that we had. Just down the road we used it's called Flandring Zuse for the youth, because I also have young kids, I'm also a father and I know the challenge with our youngsters, so we want to make sure that we touch on that as well. So what we did was we used a set of youngsters to have their own mini festival inside the festival. So we apply for money. We say to them this is your budget, choose your artist, promote it yourself and have your little festival inside the festival. That means that we create actually a space for them to be, to be able to use their own mindsets and get the artists that they like promoting and actually arranging their own festival inside the Oslo Afro Arts Festival.
Speaker 1:So these institutions? I like how you are using the different physical institutions and the public space to weave a festival that uses the resources that we have at our disposal.
Speaker 2:If we want to uplift Greenland, we need to use the local spaces, because we can't uplift Greenland and don't take the locals with us, so we have to make sure that we use the resource that we have around us in order for us to build a better Greenland and a safer Greenland for everybody.
Speaker 1:How do you think the festival and its different art forms and how you share it? How does it inspire new interpretations of African aesthetics and African ways of living and being? And the narrative and, if so, how?
Speaker 2:Well, because of the festival, because I think that what we also brought on board last year something happened so we couldn't put it through was that we wanted to work also with local hair salons, because I believe that I wanted to use the festival to use our hairdressers, African hairdressers, to teach Norwegian moms in how to actually do mixed kids' hair. Yeah, Because, you know, not everybody knows it, but it's also the education that sometimes the kids don't like when everybody come and touch their hair. But we as Africans, sometimes we need to educate people and tell them hey, you know what Don't do that. I know you are curious, but not all the kids love it. So I'm using the festival to actually be also a learning curve for interracial relationships. Norway is not changing, but you know, the space for greater things is there, especially African greater things. So we want to use this actually also to cultivate and show that you know what being African is actually gold, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Hmm.
Speaker 1:Yeah there is also the pride, uh, the pride that the festival for me personally, the pride that the festival instills in in me as an african from the continent, born in the continent. For me it's reflection, it's nostalgia, but it's also just sitting in it and enjoying it, I don't know, just diving deep in in something that I know inherently mine, but I do not see it expressed in my everyday life living here in Norway. You know, you're from Uganda, yeah, I'm from Uganda. So to have a weekend or, you know, three days that are a celebration of that, that gives me a lot of comfort. It gives me something to look forward to. You know, the Oslo African Arts Festival 2025. Could you please fill us in on that?
Speaker 2:Well, just shortly, we're actually expanding, so we're going a little bit bigger. This time we will be planning on taking the whole downstairs off of the park where we will have three big concerts. One is a Kizomba concert with some bands from a band called Tebanka Jazz. They play Kizomba music which is very African, but it's also Cape Verdean, so like that you can bring the Cape Verdean community to come and join us. And of course, everybody the Dansky Zumba, more than welcome.
Speaker 2:On the Saturday we'll have a band called probably a lot of people from the Congo knows it it's called Inos B. So Inos B will be performing on the Saturday. Very well-known artist in Congo, and you know, for all the Congolese that is listening at the moment, I am praying and we are with you in what you are going through in the DRC at this point of time. So we, even though we not mentioning many times, but we know your struggle and we are with you and I know a lot of people. There's been very hardships going on in in the congo. Um, on the sunday we will go over and we'll have a salsa band playing, which is um, we want to bring the afro-cuban uh beat to the park as well.
Speaker 2:But then, most of all, even though we have these big artists coming and performing, we want to make sure that we also include a lot of our local artists as part of the stage, because the festival is there to promote and make space for our local artists and make sure that we give them the airtime that they need to show their greatness, them the air time that they need to show their greatness.
Speaker 2:We also have been in contact with the Ghetto Kids of Kampala. There we actually want to bring them in for one whole week. What we wanted to do is we actually are in touch with a lot of schools in Norway, so we want them to come to Norway for one week and then we want to send them to different schools and there we want to do a cultural exchange educational and cultural where we want them to see how Norwegian schools are operating, but then we also want them to bring the message in how schools operate in Africa, to see if we can make a bridge between that. But then we also want to show dance, of course, and we want to make this as this cultural exchange not just educational but also musical and dance and then, hopefully, we're going to take the schools and then bring them to the park on the Saturday to perform alongside the Ghetto Kids and show what they've learned.
Speaker 1:It shows the festival's commitment to youth and education, you know, for this cross-cultural understanding and cross-cultural dialogue, you know, and breaking down stereotypes about not just areas like Greenland but also certain groups of people. I'm so happy that your platform gives us the opportunity to experience that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and we did send a mail to Sue Swipina. Actually, I sent it personally to them because in September we'll have the elections. Yeah, we have the elections in September, but we were thinking that we want to use the platform as the Oslo Afroas to also engage the minorities into the election process. We wanted to have debates with our young youth as part of the festival and then we'll have debates with, maybe, young people and then we'll have debates with some people from Storttinger, because we don't just want to engage on one place, but we want to make sure that we engage in different places to showcase our worth.
Speaker 1:I think last time's election, immigrants that I mean, that's the, that's the umbrella in which they decided to put this, this statistic that is another discussion for another time but the immigrants were the group that participated the least in elections. But then again, it's not engagement, it's about making a point out of this in the different contexts. We always say go to the people, talk about their priorities and try to find solutions to their problems with them, and try to find solutions to their problems with them. So I think the ways that you're trying to go about it through your platform, I think it's exemplary. If you would compare how far we have come with celebrating African aesthetics in terms of art, architecture, the festival you know all the arts and the creative disciplines in Norway compared to our counterparts in the UK, in the US and the other contexts where Africans are dominant in the diaspora. What are your thoughts about that? How far have we come in comparison to the others, or should there be a comparison? Is Norway so special to the others or should there be a comparison?
Speaker 2:Is Norway so special? Well, I'm thinking. You know, I've been in Norway now for 20 years and Norway is always laid out to everything, unfortunately.
Speaker 2:You know things will always happen everywhere else and then it happens in Norway. Well, I think that you know, we have the capacity to actually stand up against other festivals. I mean, norway is normally not a big country, but the problem always was with people didn't want to travel to Norway because, first of all, it was expensive. So people always used their money to go to festivals in different countries because they get much more value for their money. So we have to think a little bit different. We have to make sure that whoever's coming into our festival should be able to afford it.
Speaker 2:Yes, also think it's worth it to actually come to the festival and that's why this year we actually go a lot more with international artists, because we have big artists like Siddiqui, for example. But I cannot understand, for the 20 years I've been living in Norway, how come Siddiqui has never performed in Spectrum as such a big artist, you know, and for me conclusion is because nobody actually gave them the platform to actually perform there. So now I was thinking that then what I'll do is we'll do our festival. We go big with big artists, big names, and we'll make sure that we. We go big with big artists, big names and we'll make sure that we get a stage where our artists which is quite big can actually be recognized not just nationally but also internationally.
Speaker 1:So what is the plan to make the festival at least expand to the European or the global stage? What are you doing to make sure that other people, at least in the Nordics, have it on their agenda?
Speaker 2:Well, we are in talks with the festival in Finland, the African festival in Finland. So we were thinking we will do a Nordic Austria, air France, finland, sweden, denmark and Iceland. We will form a Nordic Oslo Air France, finland, sweden, denmark and Iceland. We will form a Nordic festival where we'll exchange artists between the Nordic countries. So if you, as an artist, have been performing in the Oslo Air France Festival, we will recommend you to go to the Finland festival next year or this year to make sure that we actually swap around and we actually move our artists around and making sure that we create that space to not just be national but also international. I believe that we are always stronger together, you know, instead of Because at the moment it feels like we all pull to that point but we pull in different directions where we could actually come together and all pull in the same direction, and then we will become stronger, like that.
Speaker 1:So, as we conclude, I will ask you a question that we always ask our guests, which is about African aesthetics. I mean, what is your African aesthetic? What does the African aesthetic mean to you, or what comes to mind when you think of African aesthetic?
Speaker 2:Well, african aesthetics, you know it's. I think that African embodying, african aesthetics can take many forms, depending on whether you are focused on fashion, Art, design, lifestyle or philosophy. In our case, we want to embody as much as possible. We want to. I want to have a pet walk in the festival when we show fashion and style. I want to do arts, I want to do design, I want to do music and dance. I want to sit down there in philosophers.
Speaker 1:You know, I want everything it is poetry, it is how we express ourselves. It, it is a vibe and it's a combination of so many things and I believe your festival gives us that vibe, where you get in and you're like okay, there's something for everyone, and the common thread here is African aesthetics. So thank you very much for embodying that and for giving us that experience in Oslo.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having us. We are very lucky and we feel very honoured to be a part of your podcast.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed listening to this episode, then I'd encourage you to visit our website or follow us on our socials for updates on our work and opportunities to collaborate or support our work. Thank you for joining us today.