International Lusophone Festival

In News

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in partnership with the Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) and the Government of Goa is organizing the International

Lusophone Festival in Goa from 3-6 December 2022. 

About Lusophone Festival 

  • The festival seeks to further India’s connection with the Lusophone world. 
  • Goa has had historical linkages with the Lusophone world, which has been nurtured through the presence of Portuguese cultural institutions like the Orient Foundation and the Camoes Institute, which promote Portuguese language and culture in India. 
    • This has deepened our economic, cultural co-operation and people-to-people ties with the Community of Portuguese Language (CPLP) member countries.
  • As part of the festival, workshops on Lusophone music for artists and volunteers, as various workshops and exhibitions of unique Goan architecture, Goan handicrafts and Goan furniture are being organised. 
  • The Lusophone Food and Spirits Festival will also showcase the culinary links between India and the Lusophone world.

Do You Know?

  • The Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking countries) world is spread in nine countries across four continents, and Portuguese is the most widely-spoken language in the Southern Hemisphere.
    • from Vasco da Gama onwards, India’s Portuguese connection has not been diplomatically leveraged.
  • Lusophone economies are among the fastest-growing in the world, with Brazil, Angola, Portugal, and Mozambique being some of them.
  • India’s trade with the Lusophone world has grown six-fold in the last decade.

The Community of Portuguese Language Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa)

  • It is  also known as the Lusophone Commonwealth (Comunidade Lusofona)
  • It is a multilateral forum, founded on 17 July 1996 at the 1st CPLP Heads of State & Government Summit in Lisbon. 
  • The founding members were Angola, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Guinea Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and Sao Tome e Principe; while Timor Leste and Equatorial Guinea joined later. 
    • These 9 Lusophone countries comprise approximately 300 million people in 4 different continents (Africa, Latin America, Asia and Europe).
  • India joined CPLP as an associate observer in July 2021. 
    • As part of India’s engagement with CPLP, the Ministry of External Affairs celebrated the World Portuguese Language Day in Delhi on 5 May 2022, soon after joining CPLP.

Source: IE

 
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