Congo-Brazzaville:
Successful cultural event

In Congo-Brazzaville, Music Freedom Day 2008 was marked by a seminar, a roundtable and live music. The event was arranged by the cultural organisation Erwill Promo Entertainment and aimed to identify the process and the effects of music censorship in the country.

Article based on the report from Erwill Promo Entertainment



Erwill Promo Entertainment gathered together the music consumers, people active within the musical sphere as well as the actual decision-makers from the censorship administration, to closer investigate the questions around music censorship.

The Words
The activities started on 2 March with a seminar where artists and artist managers met with journalists to discuss new methods of artistic management.

The theme of Music Freedom Day in Congo-Brazzaville was “Les mots de la liberté d’expression musicale” (The Words of the Freedom of Musical Expression). On 3 March it was time for the round table session about music censorship.

Franklin Boukaka
During the round table session the importance of artists as messengers as well as educators was closer examined. For many people, freedom of musical expression in Congo-Brazzaville brings back the memory of Franklin Boukaka. Boukaka was a Congolese musician who was assassinated in 1972 for the messages in his music.

More than forty people attended the round table session and when it was time for the concert in the evening the audience was around 300 people. The concert was held at Mémoriam Savorgnan de Brazza and more than twenty artists took turns at the scene.