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Arts and cultural event could dwarf rugby and cricket world cups
Unheralded, South Africa has won the right to stage an event that has the potential of eclipsing the importance and extent of either the World Rugby Cup or World Cricket Cup held here.
The National Delphic Council of SA (NDC) has won the bid to host the 2007 Junior Delphics which will see some 5 000 artists and cultural representatives take part in a massive international competition. It will be a showcase of all genres and disciplines of art and culture for 10 days during August 2007 with more than 25 000 visitors forming part of the support teams.
CEO of the NDC, Jill Sumption says in the run up to the games there will be 18 provincial mini-Delphic Games to unearth talent from approximately 27 000 schools to represent the provinces at the major national event where the National Junior Delphic team will be chosen.
"The Delphic Games are to arts and culture what the Olympic Games are to sport, and in essence, the arts competing for peace. South Africa is particularly honoured as the revival of the Delphic Games was only established in 1994 with the first Junior Delphics taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia in 1997 and the Delphic Games in Moscow in 2000."
"Now Johannesburg is set to become a cultural village as these artists and cultural representatives display the best of the six Delphic art categories - performing, fine, literary, traditional crafts, social and ecological - at theatres, on streets, in youth centres, arenas and other venues," she says.
"Imagine rock concerts, photographic exhibitions or street shows in Mary Fitzgerald Square and Newtown Precinct - all by talented kids under 18 and from around the world. It promises to be a kaleidoscope of art and culture 'showcasing and competing for peace' while linking arts and culture to promote global intercultural understanding. It will also be a gigantic stage of breath-taking entertainment that will attract audiences from around the country and overseas.
"The Junior Delphics will include art forms like graffiti, indigenous games, traditional story-telling, dance, music and circus acts to name a few."
The original Delphic Games were a platform for peace. As a prerequisite for the games to commence, all weapons were laid down. For almost a 1000 years the Delphic Games were the cultural and spiritual event in ancient Greece and enjoyed society's respect matched only by the Olympic Games.
The Delphic Games are a platform for intercultural understanding in order to create peaceful co-existence between nations. "In this ambience, we are grasping the opportunity to introduce art forms indigenous to Africa, such as beadwork, by having them supported by at least three countries - hence establishing the Delphic Council as a regional sub-Saharan body.
President of the NDC, Eric Miyeni quoting from the welcome address of the Secretary General of the Council of Europe at the First Junior Delphics in Tsibili, Georgia, says 'arts and culture are both our past and our future - deepest expression of our feelings, our identities and our personalities. Art helps us to understand different cultures while culture helps us understand different arts. Together art and culture allow different generations of different nationalities to communicate, create and co-exist peacefully."
"It is understood that there is a price to be paid for all developments of this nature. "And like all the great events of the recent past - the World Rugby and Cricket cups, and the World Summit on Sustainable Development, the Delphic Games has the capacity to earn enormous amounts of revenue for the country in delegates' spend, tourism and the stimulation of international investment.
"The Delphic Games also open the way for companies to invest in the youth of our country while securing multiple returns through exposure both nationally and internationally.
"Even more important to my mind is the establishing of sustainable skills developmental programmes and job creation. The national Delphic Council is a vehicle for Cultural Development, which has provincial, national and international platforms for promotion and development of the arts, artists, arts and cultural practitioners, traditional arts, holistic development and transformation to create a cultural renaissance in both South and sub-Saharan Africa."
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SA icons ambassadors for Arts World Games in 2007
The Delphics organisation in South Africa has appointed two of South Africa's music icons as ambassadors for the 2007 Junior World Dephics. Yvonne Chaka Chaka and Mimi Coetzer will head up the campaign to place the Delphics - what the Olympics are to sport, Delphics are to arts - in the forefront of everyone's minds in the run up to the games destined to outstage any world cup previously held in South Africa, according to Delphic National Council CEO, Jill Sumption.
Yvonne Chaka-Chaka first burst onto the South African music scene in 1984 at the age of 19, with her massive hit, 'I'm in Love With a DJ." She followed that with an even bigger hit, Umqombothi, a song about a magical African beer.
Yvonne's songs were among the first to be categorised as bubblegum music. Bubblegum is collection of music borrowed from the townships, it has overlapping vocals arranged in a call and response pattern. To add to the uniqueness of bubblegum is the mixture of African drumming and synthesised beats. It was from bubblegum that the present genre, Kwaito, emerged.
Over the years Yvonne has not only had success in her career as a singer, she has also been a radio broadcaster for a South African radio station. As patron of the Give and Sharing project, Yvonne recently travelled to Ethiopia to raise funds for a poverty eradication project. Earlier she had visited Botswana and Zimbabwe for a similar purpose.
Yvonne Chaka-Chaka has been dubbed a singer, an educator, talk show host but among these one stands out, Princes of Africa. It is a title most befitting of a woman who has contributed to so much to music industry not just within South Africa but on in international level too.
Mimi Coertse was born in Durban, Kwazulu Natal, and matriculated at the Helpmekaar Girls High School in Johannesburg.
In 1961 she was awarded the Medal of Honour of 'Die Suidafrikaanse Akademie vir Wetenskap en Kuns?, and in 1966 a most prestigious title from the Austrian Government : Kammersängerin. In 1985 she received in South Africa the Decoration for Meritorious Service in recognition of the contribution to the Arts.
Since returning to South Africa in 1973 she has been a regular guest on South African stages and also a frequent broadcaster on radio and television. Her support for her fellow South African musicians has been outstanding - as may be witnessed in her 'Debut with Mimi' and through the Mimi Coertse Bursary.
She is a co-founder of the 'Black Tie Ensemble', a development project which enables young, classically trained singers to bridge the gap between training and professional performance. This project has developed into the most exciting classical singing ensemble in South Africa, and is now on the brink of becoming a vibrant, new, young opera company. A project for future stars of Africa!
In August 1996 Mimi Coertse received the highest accolade an artist can receive from the Austrian Government: the Oesterreichishe Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst, and in September received the D. Phil (h.c.) from the University of Pretoria, South Africa.
Editorial contact
National Delphic Council
Tel – 27-11-462 2282
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