The closure of French Cultural Centre in Blantyre now Blantyre Cultural Centre in 2011 was a very big blow as it among others created a very big gap in the teaching of the French language.<\/p>\n
But it seems that gap will now be bridged following the opening of the Maison de la France <\/em>and Jacaranda Cultural Centre at Mandala in Blantyre on Monday.<\/p>\n French Honorary Consul to Malawi, Luc Deschamps, who is also Executive Director of Jacaranda School for Orphans said the closure of French Cultural Centre was felt by many in the country.<\/p>\n \u201cI am happy that things are back in shape with the opening of la Maison de la France <\/em>and the Jacaranda Cultural Centre,\u201d said Deschamps.<\/p>\n He said la Maison de la France <\/em>will be offering French classes to everyone interested in Blantyre as well as the French international exams DELF and DALF.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be a place where information about tourism and business in France will be provided, and where French companies in Malawi will be able to communicate about their work and their presence in the country.<\/p>\n French Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) will also have the chance to tell the public about their actions in Malawi. We will also be showing French movies on a regular basis, and French books and CDs will be found right here at Maison de la France,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deschamps recalled that he came to Malawi in 1993 to do his French national service in a civil way and that he worked as assistant director at French Cultural Centre in Lilongwe and then in Blantyre.<\/p>\n \u201cI spent two years in Malawi and I enjoyed every minute of it, teaching French, organising exhibitions and concerts. I then came back to Malawi nine years ago to develop the Jacaranda School for Orphans, as executive director,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n He said it was three years ago that he was nominated French Honorary Consul in Malawi and that he started organising French cultural and linguistic cooperation activities in the country.<\/p>\n Deschamps said he re-launched the French Drama School Competition and then later set up French corners in schools in the country and that they are currently in the process of publishing the first French-Chichewa dictionary.<\/p>\n He further said that since the closure of the French Cultural Centre, through Jacaranda Foundation he has been managing the French cooperation in Malawi, in cooperation with French Embassy to Malawi.<\/p>\n \u201cIn France, the government and every city supports the arts. Cultural centres, movie theatres, dance companies, libraries, museums, can easily be found. Culture is part of life and artists, actors and writers are respected,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deschamps said they intend to open the Maison de la France and Jacaranda Cultural Centre to the youth in Blantyre and artists in Malawi, who are interested in showcasing their talents.<\/p>\n \u201cWe can do a lot to change the face of the creative industry in the country and a lot can be done within the facilities that we have opened today and we intend to use them to the maximum,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deschamps said the centre should be considered as part of Blantyre City cultural facilities.<\/p>\n \u201cI can already foresee exhibitions on the history of Blantyre on the various neighbourhoods of the city, photo exhibitions on Blantyre, on Blantyre City schools children art, and so much more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deschamps called on artists in the country to utilise the centre to hold their performances, act and showcase exhibitions of various kinds.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease do movie screenings and book readings here, we want to work with you. It\u2019s a beautiful space and together, we can make it alive. There is a lot of talent in Blantyre and we have to show it to everyone,\u201d said Deschamps.<\/p>\n He thanked French Ambassador, Laurent Delahousse for believing in the project.<\/p>\n According to Deschamps, the opening was colourful and attracted several high profile people including Mayor of the City of Blantyre Noel Chalamanda.<\/p>\n \u201cI am happy because many people were present during the opening. We also had the presence of 36 students and teachers from Shanghai American School in China and artists,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Deschamps also said during the event Jacaranda students performed a short play with Jaca Steppers collaborating with Shanghai American School in another performance.<\/p>\n Agorosso, Jacaranda Choir and veteran Patrick Simakweli also performed.<\/p>\n Visual artist Ellis Singano also exhibited 30 batiks for an exhibition titled Journey through the light<\/em>. The exhibition will go on at the centre until July 15.<\/p>\n Ther e was also an exhibition by children of Jacaranda School arts and a photo exhibition of the Jacaranda School choir children, portraits taken at Lake of Starts Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The closure of French Cultural Centre in Blantyre now Blantyre Cultural Centre in 2011 was a very big blow as it among others created a very big gap in the teaching of the French language. But it seems that gap will now be bridged following the opening of the Maison de la France and Jacaranda […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":26203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26199","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26204,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26199\/revisions\/26204"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}