Call it Alliance Francaise de Blantyre and not Jacaranda Cultural Centre (JCC) and Maison dela France in Blantyre.
The centre, which closed temporarily for a week recently due to other works, was reopened on Thursday night as Alliance Francaise de Blantyre by French Ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi, David Martinon, during a colourful ceremony patronised by several players.
During the unveiling of the Alliance Francaise de Blantyre, which has a board with names such as former minister and legislator Aaron Sangala, University of Malawi French lecturer Timwa Lipenga and gospel musician Chigo Grace, the French Ambassador also bestowed the award of Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite (National Order of Merit to French Honorary Consul to Malawi Luc Deschamps and Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (The Order of Arts and Letters) to veteran filmmaker Shemu Joyah, creator of award-winning movies – Seasons of A Life, The Last Fishing Boat and Road to Sunrise.
The opening of Alliance Francaise de Blantyre reminded patrons of the opening of the once mighty entertainment mecca French Cultural Centre now Blantyre Cultural Centre, in 1973 before its closure in 2011.
In his remarks before unveiling Alliance Francaise de Blantyre, Martinon recalled that when he visited Malawi 15 months ago, he interacted with Minister of Foreign Affairs Nancy Tembo, who engaged him on bringing France back to make sure that “we have French lessons”.
“So, I spoke to the authorities and we thought that a good way to respond to that desire of France would be to change the Jacaranda Cultural Centre to a full Alliance Francaise; Alliance Francaise is a network of schools of French around the world,,” he said.
Martinon said the unveiling of the centre marked the foundation of the Alliance Francaise in Blantyre.
“This is the 18th in the Southern African network and among the 320 French speakers, 60 percent are in Africa. We are very happy that JCC now hosts the Alliance Francaise,” the French Ambassador said.
He said the centre is expected to provide lessons to children, French teachers so that they become trainers, Malawian diplomats, military officers and police officers. He said the opening of the Alliance Francaise de Blantyre is significant and that they would be taking steps.
“We are eager to include creators from Malawi in our programmes just as we did recently in in an entrepreneurship programme, where Malawian players Kwacha Productions and Terry Made were among the top,” he said.
Martinon said they will continue to include projects from Malawi with an aim of giving storytellers from Malawi the ability to tell their stories to the world, hence decorating Deschamps and Joyah for their exceptional work and contributions.
Deschamps and Joyah said they were honoured to be decorated with the highest merit awards. Deputy Minister of Education Nancy Chaola Mdooko said the launch of Alliance Francaise de Blantyre underscores the strong ties between Malawi and France.
“We welcome this development. This is important in terms of promoting inter-cultural dialogue and exchange,” Mdooko said.
The unveiling of the centre was spiced up by performances from Jacaranda School for Orphans and Kukana Kuba Kasambwe, which has just returned from a tour of United States of America.
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