The Market Theatre Foundation applauds Business Arts South Africa for acknowledging the US Embassy’s contribution to the development and preservation of the arts in South Africa as well as the US Embassy’s continued prioritisation of cultural diplomacy programming between South African artists and their US counterparts.

China's Mid-Autumn Festival will fall on September 15th this year. Chinese people mark the festival by getting together with their families and eating mooncakes. Even if you're not in China, you can still get a taste of the festive atmosphere. We'll take you now to a special performance in Australia and a mooncake-making contest in Cape Town, South Africa.

An inaugural University Dialogue on Nation Branding will be held by Brand South Africa at the University of Pretoria on Wednesday 5 October 2016 from 8am-8pm. It will assess the theoretical discourse around the discipline of nation branding in order to enable South Africa to evaluate how the current efforts to build a cohesive nation brand can be strengthened. 

he challenges will always be there. When you look at nations like the US and China, they still have political challenges. [...] as a resilient South Africa, are going through that phase. We are a developing nation that is faced with many challenges, but instead of being overwhelmed and being overtaken by this negativity, Brand SA has chosen to work with people who actually want to promote the good news. 

Communications Minister Faith Muthambi on Wednesday said more needed to be done by the government, private sector and civil society to achieve a “consistent and cohesive” approach when marketing South Africa locally, in the African continent and internationally. Building a national brand depends on nation building and how cohesive we are as a nation. 

This pattern was seen after the Second World War too, with the most notable example being of Tokyo hosting the 1964 Olympics to shed Japan of its militaristic past. In fact, one of the first major actions of post-apartheid South Africa under Nelson Mandela was to host the Rugby Union World Cup in 1995. [...] The success of it — South Africa became the champions — and the improved image of the country convinced Mandela to lend support for the FIFA World Cup bid.

The Founder and Executive Director of the Black Star International Film Festival Juliet Asante, made this known at a press briefing in Accra. According to her, films are a source of national pride and identity, a cultural diplomacy tool; employment creator and also attracts investments. [...] According to her, the industry in Ghana is picking up fast.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded his five-day, four-nation tour of Africa on July 11. He spent two days in South Africa and made brief visits to Mozambique, Tanzania and Kenya. As he left Nairobi at the end of the tour, Modi had covered 42 countries in his 51 trips abroad. Antarctica is now the only continent he has not visited in his two years in office.