The Photographer Who Immortalized a Pan-African Pageant - Marilyn Nance who has produced exceptional photographs of unique moments in the cultural history of the United States and the African Diaspora, and possesses an archive of images of late 20th century African American life. Nance a two-time finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Award in Humanistic Photography for her body of work on African American spiritual culture in America, was in Festac from 15 January through 12 February 1977, while most Americans were busy watching “Roots,” seventeen thousand people convened in Lagos, Nigeria, for the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (festac).
A monthlong festival with over 15,000 artists, intellectuals, and performers from 55 nations worldwide gathered in Lagos, Nigeria. Formally titled the Second World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture, FESTAC 77 drew on the Négritude foundations of Senegal’s 1966 World Festival of Negro Arts and emphasized themes of Pan-Africanism and global black liberation.
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There were concerts and colloquia, film screenings, art shows, and even a regatta. Wole Soyinka lectured, Miriam Makeba sang, and Jayne Cortez denounced global capitalism in verse. Nigeria’s oil boom financed the construction of a national stadium and a dedicated festival village, where guests from across the continent and its diaspora formed lasting bonds. For Marilyn Nance, then a twenty-three-year-old photographer from Brooklyn, it was an opportunity to connect with her roots that was infinitely more exciting than the travails of Kunta Kinte.
