christmas food bank 2022

Ceebee Gold Foundation International was very proud to present, thanks to funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, our African Cultural Heritage Project, which ran from September 2021-Feb 2022. Our goals were to deliver a programme of engagement activities and public events showcasing local African people’s experiences and stories relating to migration and settlement in Openshaw, while exploring and sharing customs and traditions with the community. We ran a range of events and workshops over the course of the project, which encompassed topics such as:

- The Ancient Civilisations of Africa

- The Continent of Africa: Our Countries of Origin

- The History of West Africa

- The Journey of Chocolate from Africa to Britain

- Yoruba Language and Cultural Dance Class

- African Textiles Workshop- Adinkra Block Printing

Our two African Cultural Heritage Events were extremely well attended, and featured food and drinks from our shared heritages, dance performances from a range of cultural backgrounds featuring members of local dance troupes, a quiz, and gift giving as well as prizes for the best dressed. All attendees really enjoyed, and made the most of, an opportunity to dress up in their finest cultural garments and socialize with their peers and others from similar backgrounds in the local community. Local dignitaries, community leaders and respected authority figures attended, most notably Lord Mayor of Manchester Tommy Judge and his wife the Lady Mayoress, as well as representatives from the NHS and local churches.

The response was huge and the feedback has been fantastic. People travelled from all over Manchester, and thanked us from the bottom of their hearts for putting on an event that celebrated each of their shared heritages and cultural backgrounds, saying they had wished for such an African cultural occasion to attend for so long. The attendees of the workshops said they found them incredibly informative; children loved the history covered in the workshops, and so many of the adults even commented that they had learned many things about their own heritages and cultural backgrounds that they had previously been completely unaware of- they were amazed at the depth and beauty of their African history. In total more than 200 people from the local area, many of them well respected community figures and leaders, attended our events and workshops over the course of the project. We are incredibly proud of all we could achieve for our local community, and look forward to providing similar events and initiatives to share and celebrate our African cultural heritages.