2019年5月4日、ご寄附者のひとりで府中市在住の中野一孝さんにご招待いただき、シュクルはロドリグとゴドフリー・ハンプワイエ博士と共に府中市のくらやみ祭に参加しました。お祭り体験に関する詳しい記事はこちらをご覧ください。 シュクルはこれまでに学んだ日本語で中野さんたちと話しながら、お祭りの雰囲気を楽しんでくれました。本人による体験記をご覧ください。 展示されていたおみこしの前で Kurayami Festival took place May 3rd to 5th, 2019 at Tokyo, Fuchu City. I attended the festival on May 4 on the second day of the festival. I was with Icishatse Elie Rodrigue from Burundi and Godfrey Hampwaye from Zambia. Also, I was together with three Japanese, Midorikawa-san from African Studies Center - TUFS and Nakano-san together with his sister. Before we went to the shrine, were given the costumes for the festival by Nakano-san for free and it was a gift too. At first, we went to the shrine for sightseeing and see how people pray. On the road goes to shrine, there were a lot of street shops, where people sold different things especially food staff and many people were buying. It was so crowded. After we came from the shrine, we waited around two hours for the main event to take place, which was kind of parade. There were different groups which were doing different drum performances. The main purpose of drum performance was to purify the roads where the portable shrines are carried. The different groups were having different drum melody, dressing code in term of color and dance. It was really nice to see and hear the different melodies from different groups. Also apart from Japanese people, there were other foreigners who come to see the festival and there was someone from city hall in charge of the foreign tourists who was explaining about the festival in English. I like how they provided the Brochures in English to help the foreigners to understand about the Kurayami Festival. The most thing I like is the idea of taking gods from the shrine for one night rest. It was new to me but at the same time surprising as a foreigner. In general, the Kurayami Festival was a really nice experience for me. In the essence of learning about Japanese traditional culture. Again, I like how the young Japanese participated in the festival, this showed me that even if this Kurayami Festival is an old traditional practice of Japanese but still in this modern days is still very important to Japanese people regardless the age. I really, I appreciate how the old Japanese people integrated the Japenese Youth in performing the different rituals in this festival and shows that there is long sustainability for Kurayami Festival. This is good to keep for the country's history.I would like to finish this report by thanking everyone who contributed something so that I was able to attend the Kurayami Festival. Especially thanks to Nakano-san for his invitation and support. It was a great moment for me in term of learning but at the same time having fun.

2019年5月4日、シュクルとロドリグの支援者のひとりである中野一孝さんにご招待いただき、府中市のくらやみ祭に参加しました。詳細についてはこちらからご覧いただけます。 ゴドフリーさんは初めての日本のお祭りを体験し、いろいろなものに興味津々で楽しんでくれました。以下、ゴドフリーさんによる感想になります。 長身のゴドフリーさんは烏帽子をかぶってさらに長身になり、人々の注目の的でした The Kurayami Festival event took place from 3rd to 5th May 2019 at Fuchu in Tokyo. Shukulu Murekatete, Elie Rodrigue Icishatse and I were privileged to be invited to attend this festival on Saturday, the 4th of May 2019 with the facilitation of Ms. Natsuko Midorikawa. Upon arrival at Fuchu, we were warmly received by a Mr. Nakano and later his sister also joined. Mr. Nakano dressed us in the rightful attire for the event. We then proceeded to the main arena; the main Shrine where we paid homage. The second activity that followed was witnessing the sounding of huge drums which as we were made to understand was meant to purify the roads in readiness for the passage of portable shrines. Later in the evening, we participated in pulling one of the carriages, and this attracted many on lookers who wondered in the first place how Africans could be dressed in that manner, and secondly how we would even be evolved in pulling a carriage. Our presence as foreign visitors at the festival was also noticed by one of the organizers from the municipality who took time to explain to us the significance of the festival. She was happy that we participated in the event and took some pictures with us, and promised to upload them on their website. Eventually, we left the festival in the night around 09.00 PM after being treated to a sumptuous meal by Mr. Nakano. I would like to conclude by stating that this festival was an exciting event in terms of cultural diversity across the world and will keep the attire which was given to us. It was indeed a Saturday well spent. Furthermore, I would like to thank Natsuko Midorikawa and Mr. Nakano for the wonderful hospitality at the festival.

ロシア科学アカデミーアフリカ研究所の博士過程に在籍するアシヤ・ハリトヴァさんがセンターを訪問しました。 アフリカにおけるフランスの政策をテーマに博士論文を執筆中で、ギニア映画の変遷にも関心をもつアシヤさんはプライベートで来日し、日本で暮らすアフリカ研究者との交流を希望して当センターを訪れました。松波特任研究員、ザンビアから招へい中のハンプワイエ博士、そして本学の博士過程学生であるウガンダ出身のイアン・カルシガリラ氏、シエラレオネ出身のエマニュエル・カロン氏と幅広いトピックにおいて意見を交わしました。

◆発表者：井上直美 ◆発行日：2019年5月13日 ◆発表媒体：『アジ研ポリシー･ブリーフ No.127』（アジア経済研究所） ◆発表タイトル：技術でアフリカの社会課題解決に貢献する――どのように現地ニーズに応じて技術を最適なものに変化させるか ◆概要： 日本企業がその技術でアフリカにおける社会課題の解決に貢献するには、保有する技術を現地ニーズに応じて最適なものに変化させる対応力が求められる。 現地ニーズ把握のためには国連機関とのパートナーシップが有効。日本の政府関係機関の支援が果たす役割は大きい。