As Africa commemorates the Day of the African Child today under the theme “Budgeting for the Rights of Children,” a wave of rhythm, colour, and ancestral pride continues to echo from Bamenda where the Youth Outreach Program (YOP) and Mission 21 led a celebration that reminded the continent what it means to grow a child with the African spirit.
From electrifying drumbeats to handwoven costumes stitched with meaning, the Youth Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC) held on June 14, 2025.
“We are not just dancing, we are telling our story. We danced in the rain, after school, even when tired because we believe in who we are.” 12-year-old Doris Victory, whose group, The Forest Children, claimed first prize for a second consecutive year in the cultural dance contest said
Their win earned them 200,000 FCFA, but the prize was only part of the reward. The true victory, as their manager Bayong Emmanuel Che put it, is “seeing children embrace their roots in a world trying to make them forget.”
This year’s FESTAC came with urgency. While the African continent boasts a young population, it is also contending with an erosion of culture among children fuelled by unchecked exposure to foreign content, filtered beauty standards, and digital mimicry.
According to organisers, the internet is both a blessing and a burden. It connects children globally, but it disconnects them culturally. The festival thus reminds children that before being a TikTok dancer, you are a Mankon child, a Nso child, an African child.
The challenge is not theoretical. A 2024 AU report on the cultural rights of children warned that “digital environments are promoting cultural amnesia” urging African governments to invest not only in education, but in cultural education. From language loss to declining traditional practices, the danger is real because an African child who no longer sees value in their heritage is a child at risk of identity erasure.
The FESTAC runway mirrored this tension and resistance. Eddy’s Fashion, run by young designer Ndangmo Edward, emerged as winner of the fashion segment not for simply being trendy, but for being boldly African.
“Every stitch tells a story. I grew up watching my grandmother dye fabrics with tree bark. Now I design clothes with the same patterns, just reimagined.” Edward explained.
For him and many others, fashion isn’t vanity, it is more about cultural continuity.
In the lead-up to the event, children from four regions of Cameroon took part in a week-long mentorship program: workshops on leadership, cultural excursions, and even a cross-country race all built to shape not just cultural performers, but cultural custodians.
That mission identifies deeply with the roots of June 16, the day in 1976 when thousands of Black South African school children marched for their right to education in their own language only to be met with police bullets in Soweto. Over 100 were killed. Since then, the Day of the African Child, established by the African Union in 1991, honours their legacy by spotlighting children’s rights and struggles across the continent.
In Bamenda, that spirit lives on not in marches, but in movement of feet pounding to the beat of ancestral drums, of threads weaving together the past and the future.
With the African Union’s 2025 theme demanding real budgetary commitment to children's rights, cultural actors like YOP Cameroon believe government support must go beyond classrooms and textbooks.
“What is education without identity? We do not just need school fees, we need cultural budgets." A participant observed during the festival
FESTAC’s organisers are already looking to expand the event, drawing in more regions and establishing year-round cultural clubs for children. Their dream: that in every Cameroonian school, children will not only recite the national anthem, but also learn the stories of their people, in their own languages.
Editor’s Note
The Day of the African Child is commemorated every 16 June. It honours the 1976 Soweto Uprising and promotes awareness of the continuing need to improve education and rights for children across Africa. The 2025 theme is “Budgeting for the Rights of Children.”
By Bakah Derick with reports
Photo credits: Drayinfo
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