May 7, 2023 – Page 3 – Djibouti News Gazette

May 7, 2023

Mize Koko reopens in Seychelles as island nation plans its first-ever coconut festival

Seychelles is stepping up its efforts to recognise and give due value to the coconut by reopening the “Mize Koko” – the coconut museum – dedicated to the nut’s significant importance and contribution to the islanders’ lives.

The island nation in the western Indian Ocean also has plans to host its first-ever coconut festival later this year.

The museum will also be used to give visitors a live experience, tasting the coconut and various delicacies made from it, as well as participating in different coconut-related physical activities part of the island’s culture and tradition.

The museum’s reopening on April 28 is an initiative of the Creative Seychelles Agency (CSA) and the Seychelles National Institute of Culture, Heritage and the Arts (SNICHA).

The Mize Koko is based at Domaine Val de Pres at Au Cap. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

The director general of CSA, Emmanuel D’Offay, explained in an interview with the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation (SBC) TV that the museum will not only offer visitors a new attraction, where they get information through an exhibition with features on coconut and the economy, the history of coconut amongst others, and view different artifacts made from the coconut but visitors will be sold an experience.

“So when they come, they will be able to drink coconut water, drink some toddy and eat some dry coconut,” explained D’Offay, adding that the area will eventually be turned into a coconut village.

“When we will have large groups for those who can, they can try to de-husk a coconut and grate a coconut,” said D’Offay, where there will be Seychellois who will demonstrate these activities as attractions of the museum.

The opening of the museum is one step in the agency’s plan to host a first coconut festival in Seychelles later in September.

The various products that are made from coconut. (Seychelles Nation) Photo License: CC-BY

“We would like to, on the International Day of the Coconut on September 2, have a festival, making Seychelles the third country in the world after India and the Philippines to do that. We will have several competitions, de-husking, coconuts, grating coconuts, who can climb a coconut tree and reach the highest as well as felling the most coconuts,” added D’Offay.

CSA hopes to host this festival as an international event where other countries can attend and compete.

The Mize Koko is based at Domaine Val de Pres at Au Cap on the east of the main island of Mahe. The museum is located in the same location as a similar museum which closed down some 20 years ago.

In the early 1960s, Seychelles was producing some 45,000 tonnes of coconut turned into copra and oil to export to Europe as well as some Asian countries including India.

But today most of the plantations have been cleared making way for many infrastructure developments, mainly houses and tourism establishments.

But the crucial and vital role that the plantation era played in the Seychelles, before tourism is not forgotten. In recent years there has been an effort to revive the plantation, for instance, on Coetivity island, where cold pressed coconut oil is the main product.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

May 7, 2023

50th anniversary: Archbishop Makarios Foundation of Seychelles gives bursaries to 100 schoolchildren

One hundred Seychellois schoolchildren will be the recipients of bursaries donated by the Archbishop Makarios Foundation following a ceremony on Friday.

The foundation celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, as one of the oldest charities in Seychelles.

In a ceremony at the Ministry of Education’s headquarters at Mont Fleuri, the foundation’s chairperson, Chief Justice Rony Govinden, handed the ceremonial cheque of SCR100,00 ($7,300) over to the Minister for Education, Dr Justin Valentin.

The Makarios Trust Fund, today known as the Archbishop Makarios Foundation of Seychelles, was founded in 1973 and gives schoolchildren in need bursaries through the Ministry of Education annually.

Through this collaboration, the ministry selects students from the state primary and secondary schools during the first term of the school year for the committee to assess and select from.

So far over 3,600 students have received bursaries since the fund was created, with an average of over 200 awards annually in recent years.

The chairperson said: “It is our intention to do this as often as it takes, and as often as our investment permits and we wish that those students make good use of these monies so that they invest in their future in the educational needs and their social needs.”

He added that this especially applied to the students’ guardians who are the prime handlers of the money.

“The Makarios Foundation set up by Makarios III of Cyprus epitomises what is best in us; strong moral fortitude to do good, to give to the needy inspires us,” added Govinden, who appealed to those who can donate to the Foundation.

He added that it also works in developing strong relations with Cyprus, a faithful partner of Seychelles.

A new website for the foundation was presented, where information concerning donations can be found on www.archbishopmakarios.com .

Special mention was made of the late honorary consul for Cyprus in Seychelles, Panos Papakokkinos, who played a great role in the charitable organisation, as well as Archbishop French Chang-Him of the Anglican Church, who is the longest serving member of the foundation’s board.

Minister Valentin thanked the foundation for the bursaries and said that since his ministry cannot do it alone, it welcomed all the help it could from such initiatives.

“This is an old foundation and I know people who are close to me who benefited from such donations, so I hope that the children who receive the bursaries today can receive the donations with a big heart,” he said.

The charitable organisation was created by Cypriot Orthodox Archbishop Makarios III, following his exile in the island nation in the western Indian Ocean from March 14, 1956, until April 5, 1957.

As Cyprus was under British colonial rule at the time, the latter had exiled Archbishop Makarios to Seychelles as he was fighting for his country’s independence.

Over the years, the fund has supported many Seychellois school children, such as Linda Rosalie – a former chief editor of the newsroom of the national broadcaster, the Seychelles Broadcasting Corporation.

Rosalie was attending the School of Humanities and Science at Anse Royale on the main island of Mahe in 1987, when she received the grant to pay for her accommodation. Roselie –originally from La Digue, the third most inhabited island in the archipelago – had to live on Mahe to continue with her studies.

Another recipient of the bursary is Flavien Joubert, former head of the Seychelles Tourism Academy, who at the age of 16 got a scholarship from the Seychelles government offered by Archbishop Makarios of Cyprus in 1973. Through the scholarship, he attended the Hotel and Catering Institute, a prestigious boarding school located in the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia, for a five-year course in hospitality.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

May 7, 2023

Seychelles’ President congratulates King Charles III at Commonwealth meeting in London

Seychelles’ President Wavel Ramkalawan and First Lady Linda Ramkalawan have attended a series of events held on the margins of the coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, according to a press statement from State House on Saturday.

On Friday, they were present for the Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Breakfast event attended by various heads of states, governor generals, prime ministers, other senior government officials from UK and some heads of certain international organisations. The event was an opportunity to discuss SIDS related issues, leading up to the 4th SIDS Conference in Antigua and Barbuda in 2024.

“Following the SIDS event, the President and First Lady also attended the Commonwealth Leaders’ Event hosted by the secretary general of the Commonwealth, Baroness Patricia Scotland, in the presence of King Charles III, at Marlborough House, London. During the Commonwealth event, the President met King Charles and had the opportunity to congratulate him personally,” for his ascension to the throne, said the press statement.

The President and First Lady also attended a reception at the Buckingham Palace on Friday evening in advance of the coronation ceremony on Saturday afternoon at the Westminster Abbey.

Source: Seychelles News Agency

May 7, 2023

King Charles III crowned in UK’s first coronation since 1953

Charles III was crowned monarch of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth realms on Saturday at Britain’s first coronation for 70 years, during a ceremony steeped in a millennium of ritual and spectacle.

Charles, 74, became the oldest sovereign yet to be crowned at London’s Westminster Abbey, after a lifetime as heir to his late mother Queen Elizabeth II.

At 12:02 pm (1102 GMT), Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby placed the solid-gold St Edward’s Crown on Charles’s head as a sacred and ancient symbol of the monarch’s authority.

Welby also crowned Charles’s wife, Camilla, 75, capping a remarkable transformation from her role as royal mistress to queen consort, and now queen.

Cries of “God Save the King” rang out from the 2,300-member congregation, which included royalty and government leaders from worldwide.

US President Joe Biden, represented at the abbey by First Lady Jill Biden, tweeted his congratulations and paid tribute to the “enduring friendship” between the United States and Britain.

French President Emmanuel Macron, who did attend the ceremony, said: “Proud to be with you on this historic day.”

Further away in the Pacific nation of Vanuatu, hundreds gathered to celebrate on the volcanic island of Tanna, where Charles’s late father Prince Philip is venerated as a local deity.

Trumpet fanfares sounded at Westminster Abbey along with gun salutes across Britain and beyond.

Returning to Buckingham Palace in the day’s second horse-drawn parade, the royal family appeared on the balcony to applause and more chants of approbation from tens of thousands of well-wishers braving a spring downpour.

Some had camped out for days. A ceremonial fly-past was scaled down due to the weather.

– ‘Not my king’ –

As well as being the first coronation since that of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, it was the first of a king since 1937.

It was only the second to be televised and the first in colour and streamed online.

But not everyone joined in the celebrations.

Shortly before the coronation, London police arrested dozens of protesters, using new powers rushed into law this week by the UK government to crack down on direct action groups.

The anti-monarchy movement Republic — which wants an elected head of state — said six of its organisers were detained, while climate activists Just Stop Oil said 19 of its number were held.

Nevertheless, dozens of Republic activists held aloft banners on the route of the procession route, declaring: “Not my king.”

Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and other campaign groups condemned the arrests. “This is something you would expect to see in Moscow, not London,” HRW said.

Hundreds held an anti-monarchy rally in Edinburgh, chanting “down with the crown” and demanding Scottish independence.

London’s Metropolitan Police deployed some 11,500 officers for one of its biggest ever security operations.

The force had warned that it would have an “extremely low threshold” for protests, and controversially planned to use mass facial recognition technology to monitor the crowds.

– Changes –

Charles pledged “I come not to be served but to serve” during the Anglican service, much of which would have been recognisable to the 39 other monarchs crowned at Westminster Abbey since William the Conqueror in 1066.

But while many of the intricate rituals and ceremony to recognise Charles as his people’s “undoubted king” remained, the sovereign sought to bring other aspects of the service up to date.

Female bishops and choristers participated for the first time, as did leaders of Britain’s non-Christian faiths, while its Celtic languages — Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Irish Gaelic — featured prominently.

A gospel choir sang for the first time at a coronation while a Greek choir intoned a psalm in tribute to Prince Philip, who was born on the island of Corfu.

As king, Charles is supreme governor of the Protestant Church of England and has described himself as a “committed Anglican Christian”.

But key elements of the service recognised that Charles heads a more religiously and ethnically diverse country than the one his mother inherited in the shadow of World War II.

In another change, the coronation themes mirrored his lifelong interest in biodiversity and sustainability.

Ceremonial vestments from previous coronations were reused, and the anointing oil — created from olives on groves on the Mount of Olives and perfumed with essential oils — was vegan.

Charles was anointed out of sight of the congregation behind a three-sided screen in front of the abbey’s High Altar, to the strains of Handel’s soaring anthem “Zadok the Priest”, sung at every coronation since 1727.

– Outcasts –

Rishi Sunak, a Hindu who is Britain’s first prime minister of colour, gave a reading from the Bible at the service, having described the coronation as “a proud expression of our history, culture and traditions”.

But polling indicates waning support for the monarchy, particularly among younger people.

Charles’s younger brother Prince Andrew — sidelined due to his friendship with the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein — was booed as he headed to the abbey.

Another royal exile, Prince Harry, who has criticised the family since leaving for the United States in 2020, attended the coronation on his own.

Overseas, Jamaica and Belize both signalled this week that they are moving toward ditching the UK monarchy and becoming republics, while Australia, Canada and others may eventually follow suit.

Britons struggling with the soaring cost of living have meanwhile questioned why taxpayers should stump up for the coronation, with the bill estimated to be over £100 million ($126 million).

Yet the huge crowds of royal fans that built up all week in central London indicated that the royals still have a central role in British culture and history.

“It’s just too good an opportunity to miss,” said Nick Demont, 60, outside the abbey. “There’s a good chance I won’t see another one.”

Source: Seychelles News Agency