With rich varieties of colors, abundance of musical performances and visual arts exhibitions, The Goree Diaspora Festival, held from Nov. 13-16, 2008 on this West African Island, provided a glimpse of what visitors can expect when they travel to Senegal this year for the World Festival of Black Arts.
The fourth edition of the festival drew thousands of visitors from Europe, the United States, South America, Asia and other nations on the African continent. The festival was a tribute to World renowned Martinique-born writer Aime Cesaire (1913-2008) and was co-sponsored by Ethiopia and Venezuela.
Fashion shows, dance, music concerts and speeches, before an audience composed of Cultural authorities from local, regional, national and international agencies, marked the opening ceremony on Nov. 13. The festival presented an 
opportunity for the city of Goree, under the leadership of Mayor Augustin Senghor, an Attorney, to showcase the rich cultures and traditions of Senegal and remember the past of this Island redeveloped in 1978 as a world historical site by the United Nations Education Science a
nd Culture Organization.
For three centuries, the Island of Goree was a holding dock from where millions of Africans kidnapped by Europeans were forced onto slave ships bound for Europe and the Americas. It is located at about two miles off the coast of Senegal’s capital City, Dakar and is known for the infamous “DOOR OF NO RETURN”, which was a gate in one of the numerous compounds used to house the captives. Slaves had to go through the “DOOR OF NO RETURN” in order to board the slave ships. Going through that door meant never to return.
One of the Goree Diaspora Festival’s objectives is to keep “The door of return” open for the descendants of those who did not have a chance to comeback, and also to remind Humanity never to forget.
In the early 50s, Aime Cesaire and a group of young Black intellectuals started a movement to celebrate blackness. They were mainly concerned with exposing the falsehood of racist ideologies in the academia and contributing to the uplifting of the Africans on the continent and in Diaspora.
In September 1956, Alioune Diop, then editor of the magazine, Presence Africaine, and chief organizer, convened the First international Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris. In addition to Cesaire and Diop, participants included Leopold Sedar Senghor, Frantz Fanon, Josephine Baker, Richard Wright and James Baldwin. The congress institutionalized the world Festival of Black Arts, as part of the African Renaissance effort. Senghor, Senegal’s first president, and also a poet, convened the first edition in the spring of 1966.
Considered the largest celebration of African Heritage and Culture, the World 
Festival of Black Arts is scheduled to be held from December 1 to 14, for the third time in 43 years.
Delegations from 80 countries are expected to compete in disciplines, ranging from Architecture to Music, including dance, ancient and contemporary arts, cinema, urban Culture, literature and fashions. Internationally acclaimed performers, politicians, writers, musicians, comedians and sculptors will be among the participants. The festival will celebrate black Arts and its impact in the development of Humanity.
For two weeks, visitors will live the legendary hospitality of Senegal and its neighbors who will host some of the festival events, and also to connect with the ancestral homeland.
