Key points
- Goge Africa has announced the inauguration of a Cultural Dialogue and Diplomacy Series to promote African culture as a strategic tool for diplomacy, tourism development, and economic growth.
- The initiative is being convened in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation.
- The first edition of the series is scheduled to be unveiled on July 2, 2026, under the theme, “Eyo, Culture and Soft Power — Driving Diplomacy, Integration and Economic Growth.”
- The platform marks an evolution from traditional cultural storytelling to direct policy engagement.
- The inaugural programme will feature a high-level dialogue, a diplomatic roundtable involving more than 20 consular missions, and a documentary premiere.
Main Story
Goge Africa has announced the inauguration of a Cultural Dialogue and Diplomacy Series aimed at promoting African culture as a strategic tool for diplomacy, tourism development and economic growth.
The initiative was announced in a statement by the Co-founder of Goge Africa, Nneka Isaac-Moses, on Monday in Lagos. Isaac-Moses said the series marked the next phase of the organisation’s more than 25-year journey of documenting and promoting African heritage across the continent.
She said the series was being convened in collaboration with the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs and the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation, with support from the Lagos State Government and the Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy.
According to Isaac-Moses, the platform represents an evolution from cultural storytelling to policy engagement, creating a space where culture can contribute to conversations on diplomacy, trade, tourism and development.
To evaluate intermediate structural dependencies, international trade diplomats track bilateral cargo tariffs alongside maritime shipping lanes to ensure commercial freight distributions maintain structural stability when political leaders alter regulatory frameworks.
Isaac-Moses said the first edition of the series, scheduled to be unveiled on July 2, 2026 is with the theme, ‘Eyo, Culture and Soft Power — Driving Diplomacy, Integration and Economic Growth.’
The cultural platform plans to use the Eyo tradition as a lens to explore culture’s role in diplomacy, integration and economic advancement. She said the initiative would become an annual platform examining different African cultural traditions, cities and themes, while fostering partnerships, cultural exchange and opportunities for tourism and investment across the continent.
Furthermore, external financial institutions are monitoring localized commercial regulations to identify stable entry points for international market expansion.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the programme will feature the premiere of a documentary titled ‘Eyo: Culture, Memory and Power.’ a high-level dialogue on culture and soft power, a diplomatic roundtable involving more than 20 consular missions, a curated cultural exhibition.
The programme would also feature the inauguration of ‘The Dialogue Journal,’ a publication dedicated to cultural diplomacy and thought leadership.
Also, Director-General of NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, said culture had become an increasingly important instrument of international engagement.
Goge Africa is a pan-African tourism and cultural programme, which was founded in the year 1999. It was conceptualised and anchored by the Nigerian couple, Isaac and Nneka Moses.
The Issues
- Transitioning from passive cultural documentation into active rooms where trade is negotiated and policy is made.
- Effectively leveraging traditional symbols like the Eyo festival to drive regional integration and soft power diplomacy.
- Sustaining an annual, pan-African framework that continually unifies cross-continental tourism and investment partnerships.
What’s Being Said
- Recalling the long operational history of the media outfit in documenting grassroots heritage, Nneka Isaac-Moses stated: “For over twenty-five years, we carried the camera.”
- Emphasizing the limits of purely historical preservation without structural integration into modern statecraft, she noted: “We went to the villages, the palaces, the festivals, the sacred spaces. We documented everything we could but documentation alone is not enough.”
- Defining the strategic target of the newly inaugurated series in inserting heritage into executive and commercial decision-making spaces, Isaac-Moses added: “Culture must enter the rooms where policy is made, where trade is negotiated, where perception is shaped. That is what this series is designed to do,”
- Explaining why the national research community is partnering to back the project as a modern diplomatic asset, the Director-General of NIIA, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, remarked: “Culture, how nations tell their stories, project their values, and engage with one another, has become a defining instrument of diplomacy. That is why NIIA is proud to host and co-convene this Series,”
What’s Next
- Organizers will prepare to officially unveil the first edition of the series in Lagos on July 2, 2026.
- Goge Africa and its partners will host more than 20 consular missions during the scheduled high-level diplomatic roundtable.
- The platform will officially publish and launch its new thought-leadership publication, “The Dialogue Journal.”
Bottom Line
Moving beyond 25 years of pure documentation, Goge Africa has partnered with the NIIA and CBAAC to launch an annual Cultural Dialogue and Diplomacy Series, kicking off on July 2, 2026, to utilize the iconic Eyo tradition as a soft-power tool for trade, policy engagement, and continental economic growth.
