The Africa International Documentary Festival Foundation (AFIDFF), a Pan-African organisation dedicated to the documentation and promotion of Africa’s cultural heritage, has expressed readiness to partner with the Kebbi State Government to train young people in digital content creation and the documentation and promotion of the state’s rich cultural heritage, festivals and tourism potentials.
The Director-General of AFIDFF, Malame Mangzha, disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja when the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed Birnin Kebbi, accompanied by media aides to the Kebbi State Governor, Comrade Dr. Nasir Idris, paid a courtesy visit to the Foundation to explore areas of collaboration and partnership.
Mangzha said AFIDFF had, for about a decade, been documenting Africa’s rich cultural heritage and history, collaborating with international organisations, including UNESCO and Google Arts & Culture, to promote heritage sites, monuments, festivals and other cultural assets.
She noted that the Foundation had previously documented the Argungu Fishing Festival, with videos from the coverage generating more than 18 million views across various platforms, demonstrating the immense potential of Kebbi’s cultural events to attract global attention when professionally documented and promoted.
According to her, AFIDFF has built a community of more than 5,000 young content creators with diverse digital skills and is prepared to extend its training opportunities to young people in Kebbi State.
She explained that the proposed training would equip Kebbi youths with the skills to produce compelling and professional digital content capable of telling authentic stories about their communities, cultural heritage, festivals, tourism destinations and people to audiences within Nigeria and around the world.
“We want to see how we can collaborate with you in training your youth to be able to tell the stories of Kebbi. When the Argungu Fishing Festival, the one in Yauri or the one in Zuru is coming, we want the indigenes of Kebbi to be able to tell the stories of Kebbi.”
Mangzha added that the initiative would go beyond content creation to cover responsible digital storytelling, cultural heritage promotion and opportunities for young people to monetise digital content and build sustainable livelihoods from their creative skills.
She observed that Kebbi State possesses numerous cultural festivals, historical sites and heritage assets capable of attracting greater national and international attention if strategically documented and promoted by its own young people.
She further proposed the possibility of Kebbi State hosting a World Heritage Volunteer Programme in 2027, which would bring together young people and international volunteers to experience, document and promote the state’s cultural heritage.
Responding, the Commissioner for Information and Culture, Alhaji Yakubu Ahmed Birnin Kebbi, said the visit formed part of the state government’s ongoing efforts to build strategic partnerships and advocacy networks with organisations and individuals capable of promoting Kebbi State and projecting the achievements and development initiatives of the administration of Governor Nasir Idris.
The Commissioner expressed appreciation to AFIDFF for its previous documentation of the Argungu Fishing Festival, noting that the successful coverage had demonstrated the enormous potential for deeper collaboration between the Foundation and the state.
He invited AFIDFF to extend its activities to other major cultural events across Kebbi, including the Gwandu Emirate Horse-Racing Festival, Yauri Emirate Rigata Cultural Festival and Zuru Emirate Uhola Festival, which he said deserved greater national and international visibility.
Alhaji Yakubu said Kebbi State was endowed with enormous agricultural, cultural and tourism potentials, alongside abundant human resources, stressing that the state government remained committed to promoting these assets while investing in infrastructure, human capital development and economic growth.
He emphasised that the proposed partnership with AFIDFF would create an important platform for Kebbi youths to tell the state’s stories from their own perspectives, while using digital media to project its cultural heritage, tourism attractions, investment opportunities and development potential to a wider global audience.
