Revisiting FESTAC ‘77, the largest pan-African festival in World history

In Jan­u­ary 1977, they came 17,000 strong to Lagos, Nige­ria, to attend FES­TAC ​’77, the Sec­ond World Black and African Fes­ti­val of Arts and Cul­ture — a glob­al cel­e­bra­tion fea­tur­ing artists, per­form­ers, and intel­lec­tu­als from 55 nations. It was, and remains, the largest Pan-African fes­ti­val in world history.

Bol­stered by oil wealth, the Niger­ian gov­ern­ment spent $400 mil­lion ($2 bil­lion in 2023 dol­lars) to stage a month-long series of events cen­tring the arts, sci­ence, his­to­ry, pol­i­tics, and spir­i­tu­al­i­ty with a scale and scope that has nev­er been replicated.

Envi­sioned as a restora­tion of pow­er, sol­i­dar­i­ty and genius after 500 years of sub­ju­ga­tion by the Glob­al North, FES­TAC show­cased a daz­zling array of ground­break­ing fig­ures across the dias­po­ra and the con­ti­nent includ­ing Fela Kuti, Miri­am Make­ba, Ste­vie Won­der, Sun Ra, Wole Soyin­ka, Audre Lorde, Amiri Bara­ka, and Barkley Hen­dricks, among many others.

Now the new exhi­bi­tion So Be It! Asé! Pho­to­graph­ic Echoes of FES­TAC ​’77 looks back at this once-in-a-life­time expe­ri­ence through the lens of Roy Lewis, K. Kofi Moyo, and Bob Craw­ford. As mem­bers of the Unit­ed States del­e­ga­tion to FES­TAC, the pho­tog­ra­phers doc­u­ment­ed the kalei­do­scop­ic array of per­for­mances, art exhi­bi­tions, sym­po­siums, pageants, and cer­e­mo­ni­al events that affirmed Africa’s place as the cen­tre of the world.

For many, FES­TAC marked a home­com­ing and a fam­i­ly reunion long over­due. ​“This was my first trip to Africa, a dream pur­suit,” says K. Kofi Moyo, now 84.

Born in Chica­go in 1939, Moyo took up pho­tog­ra­phy at age 8 under the tute­lage of his moth­er, a pub­lic school teacher who encour­aged her son to pur­sue his pas­sions for the arts. Exposed to racism and struc­tur­al inequities from a young age, he became involve in com­mu­ni­ty activism, using his cam­era as a tool of liberation.

As inde­pen­dent pho­to­jour­nal­ist, Moyo’s activ­i­ties kept him close to the streets on assign­ment for Ebony mag­a­zine and The Chica­go Defend­er, devel­op­ing rela­tion­ships that would ulti­mate­ly bring him to FES­TAC. Like Lewis and Craw­ford, Moyo chron­i­cled the extra­or­di­nary encoun­ters and events as they unfold­ed over the course of 29 days, cre­at­ing an inti­mate and immer­sive por­trait of this his­toric festival.

“At times it was over­whelm­ing,” he says, describ­ing a sense of joy and won­der whose pow­er has not dimin­ished with the pas­sage of time. ​“The vil­lage at night was alive. No one ever real­ly slept.”

Roy Lewis feels the same way. ​“It was one of the great moments in my life, and affect­ed my work in a very pos­i­tive way.” Born in Natchez, Mis­sis­sip­pi, in 1937, Lewis grew up on a plan­ta­tion before mak­ing his way to Chica­go in 1956. He launched his career in ​’64 when Jet mag­a­zine pub­lished his por­trait of jazz leg­end Thelo­nious Monk.

A decade lat­er, Lewis made his first trip to Africa to pho­to­graph the leg­endary ​“Rum­ble in the Jun­gle” heavy­weight cham­pi­onship fight between Muham­mad Ali and George Fore­man. FES­TAC marked his return to the con­ti­nent, this time exhibit­ing his pho­tographs as well as shoot­ing the festival.

“There was a great spir­it in the air,” Moyo says.

So Be It! Asé! Pho­to­graph­ic Echoes of FES­TAC ​‘77: Roy Lewis, K. Kofi Moyo, Bob Craw­ford is on view through Decem­ber 22, 2023, at Gray New York, and will trav­el to Gray Chica­go in ear­ly 2024.

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