By Henry Akubuiro
Youths all over the world have something to look for ward to as the 2021 edition of the Wole Soyinka International Cultural Exchange (WSICE) kicks off in Lagos on Tuesday, July 13, 2020. The event, which is an annual gathering of global youths, will be held in a hybrid format: live and virtual.
This was communicated in a press statement signed by Ayo Aladekomo, the producer, and made available to Saturday Sun.
With the theme, “That Our Future May not Disappear”, the 2021 event is expected to feature over 5,000 young people drawn from across four continents of the world.
In the last 13 years, the WSICE has always featured a writing competition for students, and will hold this year as a forum to air the views of young people about critical developments in world polity, in keeping with its current youth segment.
According to the statement, this year, young people, from as many as 20 countries, will engage in discourse on the now widely spread incident of “disappearing humanity” through acts of kidnapping, abductions, human cancels, social and cultural discriminations on the bases of colour creed, faith, physiomental features, and others – all predicated on the theme — “That our future may not disappear.”
Past winners of the yearly contests of the WSICE will be joined by contemporaries from other countries and cultures, and will converge on a panel called “The International Youth Assembly” to brainstorm on the issue of disappearance of all forms and how it affects their future and the survival of the human family.
While the discourse will hold in the virtual space, the live event will hold at the Ijegba Theatre Resort, located in the Soyinkan-styled Autonomous Republic of Ijegba, A.R.I – his thickly forested residence of the Nobel Laureate who is the initiator of the project.
Among others, this segment will feature over 1, 000 pupils and students of Ogun State having a mentoring session with members of the Association of Nigerian Authors, ANA (Ogun State Chapter), with a group of specially selected eminent cultural and educational leaders.
“Advocates of Conscience”, made up of renowned individuals who have dedicated most of their time to speaking for and working with young people.