The Italian Cultural Institute of Pretoria, in collaboration with the Embassy of Italy in South Africa and the WOMAD Festival, has invited the Italian band Modena City Ramblers to a tour in South Africa from 1 to 8 October as part of the WOMAD South African Safari.

The Modena City Ramblers is an Italian folk rock band founded in 1991 in the Italian region Emilia-Romagna, a region always deeply involved with the struggle against Apartheid, intolerance and social injustice: all themes that can be found in their music, heavily influenced also by Celtic themes, and that can be compared to folk rock music.

The band will take part with several performances in the WOMAD Festival South Africa, Peter Gabriel’s esteemed annual international festival that celebrates the various forms of music, art and dance. One of these performances will be a special concert, called Italy for Soweto. In the seventies and eighties of the last century, the Emilia Romagna region was the epicentre of an influential strategy of solidarity with the liberation movements of South Africa, Mozambique and other countries in the region.

The relationship with the city of Reggio Emilia in particular has been a long and significant one, with the city actively participating in the promotion of the anti-apartheid movement abroad and in the support of struggle exiles such as Oliver Tambo and Anthony Mongalo.

In line with this historic solidarity, and with the intention of cementing the collaboration between Italy and South Africa, the Embassy of Italy and the Italian Cultural Institute of Pretoria have organized the above-mentioned concert in Soweto, in which the Modena City Ramblers and the Sowetan group Sisonke Bafo will perform. Sisonke Bafo’s music pays tribute to the quintessential 1985 album ‘The Indestructible Beat of Soweto’, which served as the primary influence for several International artists

More information on: iicpretoria.esteri.it.