{Carnival organisers in Guinea Bissau celebrate conservation of tradition and biodiversity through fashion and dance.}<\/p>\n
Guinea Bissau – With instruments made of bamboo, plant-based face paints, and skirts woven from local fauna, groups at Guinea Bissau’s Carnival dance competition displayed the biodiversity of their country.<\/p>\n
Watching the contest, spectators dressed up in a colourful modern street style lined the streets of the capital Bissau. This fashion fusion of past and present reflects how modernity and tradition co-exist – yet sometimes clash – in Guinea Bissau.<\/p>\n
Teams of performers competed in ceremonial dances from the country’s many ethnic groups in a carnival themed Rescue and Promote Our Culture. The dances represented traditional events such as the harvest and coming-of-age ceremonies.<\/p>\n
The emphasis on biodiversity was a common thread throughout. “I think when you protect your culture, you are protecting the environment, at least from our perspective as a Guinean. There’s a strong connection between the environment and the culture of this country, and you can’t disassociate the two,” said Rita Le, a spokeswoman for the carnival committee.<\/p>\n
Organisers chose the theme because they said they see their traditions disappearing. “We saw that the culture of our people is getting a little lost,” added Le, “We [wanted to] choose a theme that would make people think about what is really important as a nation that is divided into many ethnic groups.”<\/p>\n
Despite the eclectic mix of styles, the revellers had another thing in common – they were all intent on having a good time. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Carnival organisers in Guinea Bissau celebrate conservation of tradition and biodiversity through fashion and dance.} Guinea Bissau – With instruments made of bamboo, plant-based face paints, and skirts woven from local fauna, groups at Guinea Bissau’s Carnival dance competition displayed the biodiversity of their country. Watching the contest, spectators dressed up in a colourful modern […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2474],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24097","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-al-jazeera"],"bylines":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2474,"name":"AL JAZEERA","slug":"al-jazeera","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24097\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24097"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24097"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}