Team
The idea for Great Trading Empires was born when Daves Guzha, Simon Bright and Jahman Anikulapo met to enjoy the rich variety of Saharan and West African music at the Malian Festival of the River. The festival takes place every year in Segou on the river Niger, which. has been one of West Africa’s greatest trade highways for over a thousand years. http://www.festivalsegou.org/
We all believe that early Africa’s powerful history has been buried by slavery and colonialism. We decided to pool our skills and global networks to develop and promote the Great Trading Empires of Africa project. We also share a burning conviction: history is a reservoir of human potential. That which was done once before, can been more easily done again.
Daves Guzha
President of Arterial Network, a Pan African organisation promoting theatre, visual arts, performance and music.
Guzha also founded Rooftop Promotions in 1986 in Harare, Zimbabwe. As a prolific and world renowned theatre producer, director and performer, he has helped develop theatre and the life of theatre artists in Zimbabwe and across Southern Africa. With over twenty theatre pieces under his belt, he has directed more than 15 plays and performed in 8 and his shows have toured Edinburgh Festival, Festival sur le Niger and the National Theatre of Norway.
In 1986 he built Harare’s Theatre in the Park, staging local, regional and international productions. The venue accommodates musicals and festivals including the European Union Festival, Harare International Film Festival and a live streaming event from Rotterdam’s International Film Festival. Theatre in the Park film unit has produced films for Mnet, ORF and VPRO.
Simon Bright
Simon Bright grew up in the shadow of the ancient city of Great Zimbabwe. Together with Ingrid Sinclair he established Zimmedia, a Harare-based film production company internationally known for its prize winning films. Co-productions with TV stations include MNet, Arte, Channel 4, Canal Plus and PBS. Two of his films, Flame and Bintou, were selected for the prestigious Cannes Film Festival. Initial productions focussed on southern African resistance to apartheid. Corridors of Freedom was broadcast world-wide from WNET in the USA as far as East Germany and Australia.
Later productions explored the diversity of African culture, history and environment, with the history film Tides of Gold gaining the coveted OAU award. His last series, Mama Africa, was co-produced with PBS and screened internationally including on MNet and Arte.
Jahman Anikulapo
Jahman heads the Nigerian Culture Advocates Caucus. CAC works in the field of arts, cultural advocacy and communication on programme/project design, management, administration, and execution. The organisation handles projects for private corporations and Government as well as collaborating with international agencies such as the Goethe Institut, Alliance Francaise, British Council and the American Consulate. CAC has created, produced and co-ordinated festivals and major cultural projects in the United Kingdom, USA, Ghana, Burkina Faso, Cote D’Ivoire, Kenya, Tanzania, and South Africa.
Anikulapo believes the arts can be used to deepen an understanding of the African continent’s great civilisations by tracing, documenting and exposing the contributions of the African family to the advancement of our common humanity.