The music of Tanzania and East Africa will be the protagonists of the 5th edition of Casa África's Vis-à-Vis Project

Casa África will hold the 5th edition of its Professional Encounters between Spanish Programmers and African Musicians (Vis-à-Vis) as part of the Sauti Za Busara Festival in the island of Zanzibar, Tanzania. The collaboration agreement between what is known as the “Friendliest Festival on the Planet” and the Spanish consortium of public diplomacy with the African continent will allow two of the bands participating in the Festival to do a tour of Spain in the summer of 2014, which will include  playing at some of the most important Music Festivals committed to African music in our country.

Sauti Za Busara will take place on 13 and 16 February at the heart of Stone Town, Zanzibar. In this edition, the Festival not only features an extensive line-up with over thirty artists, most of them from East Africa, but also includes a wide range of simultaneous activities, which will allow for the proper integration of the Vis-à-Vis project, which includes meetings between Spanish programmers and the African musicians who stand out the most in each day of concerts.

Vis-à-Vis is a cultural cooperation project, through which Casa África intends to increase the presence of African music on Spanish stages. The four previous editions have allowed groups from Senegal, Cape Verde, Ethiopia and South Africa to get the chance to become known in Spain. Furthermore, this commitment to young bands with little or no international experience also represents a push for the musical industries in countries where the Professional Encounters are held.

In each edition, Casa África has made travelling to the chosen country possible for a group of cultural programmers, most of them directors of the Festivals that have traditionally included music from the African continent in their line-ups. Thus, Festivals such as Pirineos Sur, Etnosur, Imagina Funk, La Mar de Músicas, the Canarias Jazz&Más International Festival and MUMES of Tenerife, producers such as Radiation or Dr. Zhivago and other musical producers and managers are part of this project, which has also generated a collaboration network between festivals to share expenses and thus facilitate the continued presence of African music on their stages.

The 5th edition of Vis-à-Vis, called Zanzibar Vis-à-Vis, represents the second collaborative project between Casa África and an existing music festival, after some of the Encounter took place in the Acacias Jazz Festival of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the 2012 edition. The extensive line-up of the Sauti Za Busara festival, where bands from East Africa and Tanzania predominate, will allow the group of Spanish programmers to select two high-level groups for the summer tour, with at least one of them being required to be from Tanzania, as part of the agreement reached with the Sauti Festival.

Public diplomacy
The activities of Casa África are part of the foreign actions of the Spanish government as a public and economic diplomacy tool. In the area of public diplomacy, Casa África works with the goal of promoting good understanding and trust between Spain and Africa and of strengthening the relationship between Spain and Africa through informative, educational and cultural activities.

In the field of economic diplomacy, Casa África operates as part of the strategy of Marca España, publicising the opportunities offered by the African continent to Spanish professionals, companies and investors. To fulfil this mission, Casa África supports internationalisation, mainly in the political and strategic areas, for Spanish companies that already operate or that are interested in operating in Africa and promotes collaboration between public and private stakeholders.

Since its foundation, one of Casa África's main objectives has been to bring Spain and Africa closer through awareness, the creation of strategic alliances and the promotion of bilateral and multilateral relationships in the long term.

Set up as a Public Consortium since 2006, Casa África is currently comprised of the Ministry of Cooperation and Foreign Affairs, the Government of the Canary Islands, the Spanish Agency of International Cooperation for Development and the City of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, where its headquarters are located.