Photographic Exhibition ‘Africa’ in Parliament

March 31, 2009

In March 2009, the Parliament hosted the Photographic exhibition ‘Africa’ in its Committee Room. After travelling through various cities in Italy, the exhibition was brought to Malta from Assisi on the initiative of Fr. Dionysius Mintoff, Founder and director of the PeaceLab (Laboratorju tal-Paci), and Hon Galea, Speaker of the House of Representatives.

The exhibition comprised 50 portraits by Cesare Pippi. The photos showed a diversity of African faces, mainly of children and young people from Mali, the Ivory Coast, Zanzibar, Kenya and Senegal, amongst others.

In his speech during the opening of the exhibition, Hon Galea said that this exhibition should help the visitors to understand that Africa is not just about poverty, dictatorships and was, often leading to illegal immigration into other countries. Although these aspects feature prominently in the news, Africa is also a continent full of opportunities wherein lies a great part of the future of the world. Mr. Speaker noted too that the exhibition was taking place at the same time that the House was debating for aid.

Fr. Mintoff also referred to the fact that the exhibition was being hosted in the place where decisions are taken, enabling visitors to look at Africa from a different perspective, not solely as a continent begging for aid.