Celebrate African Heritage
At the heart of the Embassy Cultural House community is to value and celebrate the accomplishments within our diverse arts and culture community. As part of our commitment to equity our digital and online programming includes events and content to recognize the contribution of Black, Indigenous, People of Colour, elders and youth, women, LGBTQI2, and people with disabilities. We are proud to partner with Mongezi Ntaka to celebrate the pan-African education and cultural project Ngoma Zethu, which includes London's own Lorraine Klaasen, a Juno award-winning musician. Lorraine recently was honoured with the Forest City London Music Award in the category for World Music in September 2020.
Celebration for Lorraine Klaasen's FCLMA World Music Award
Celebration of Lorraine Klaasen's FCLMA World Music Award, February 13, 2021
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The Ngoma Zethu Project
Vusi Mahlasela one of South Africa's living legends preforming with Lorraine Klaasen in Toronto in 2019.
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Supporting the Pan-African cultural project Ngoma Zethu: The ECH is proud to be a supporter of the Ngoma Zethu project, a Pan African Cultural Revolution Conference. The phrase ‘ngoma zethu’ comes from various Bantu languages of East, Central and Southern Africa and it has a wide interpretation and a slightly different spelling on the possessive pronoun [Zethu/Zathu/Zetu] depending on the region of Africa where it’s being used. It can mean ‘Our dance’, ‘Our Song’, ‘Our Culture’, ‘Our drum’ or ‘Our History’. But philosophically it simply means ‘Our way of life’.
This project deals with African Oral Tradition, Humanity, Consciousness, African philosophy, African mythology, African spirituality [Gratitude] & African history. There are 7 Chapters on this project and six are delivered in six different African languages namely Berber, isiZulu, Chichewa, kiSwahili, seSotho and Yoruba. One chapter is delivered in English. Four languages excluding Berber and Yoruba are of the African Bantu tree branch and are very closely related. The objective of this musical project is to share basic information about indigenous African way of life and its corresponding concepts without colonial and slavery influences. In almost all indigenous African cultures, art is the foundation of all learning. Before slavery and colonialism, most African societies had a shared understanding of humanity [Ubuntu - I am because you are]. Each chapter included in this project focuses on one specific topic and the artists chosen to deliver the individual chapters are of an African tree branch identifiable by the language they are singing in. please visit the Ngoma Zethu website for more information. On February 28, 2021, the Ngoma Zethu project will be featured at the ‘Pan Africanism in a Changing World Order’. There will be a discussion on Pan Africanism by some of the most distinguished Pan Africanist scholars from some of the world’s best education institutions. Get your free ticket by registering here. |
Collaboration with Rungh.org
Rungh is a Canadian multidisciplinary space for creative explorations, featuring work by Indigenous, Black and People of Colour artists.
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Collaboration with Rungh.org. The Embassy Cultural House has recently started a conversation with Zool Suleman, one of the founders and Executive Director of Rungh, on ways to cross-promote IBPOC art and culture in Canada. Rungh is a Vancouver-based, Canadian multidisciplinary space for creative explorations, featuring works by Indigenous, Black and People of Colour artists. Rungh has made an important contribution to the diversity and inclusion agenda in Canadian arts and culture and we are proud to have the opportunity to support their work.
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