The Paris Olympics begin this Saturday, July 27. The fan zone called the Africa Station was inaugurated on Saturday, July 20, entirely dedicated to African sports and cultures. Located in Île-Saint-Denis, a small town, it hosts part of the Olympic village. For 23 days, it will be animated by musical performances and other activities and residents will be able to meet medal-winning African athletes.
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Parade of flags, dances, music… The public sets off to discover this new village Africa Station. ” We appreciate it, it’s a pleasure to meet all the cultures of the world, especially African cultures and Algerian culture. It’s rich and I’m proud. I came with my friends and my son “, says a visitor. ” This is the first time we see Africa station near us. It is a pleasure. That is why we came from the first day to see the various countries, the culinary specialties or the artisanal products “, reacts another.
At the bend in an alley, a sculpture attracts the curious: a giant mosquito 2 meters high and 3 meters wide all made of wood. The opportunity for the association “Zéro palu” to do prevention. Here, we are at the Africa station. It will be a bit of a link between France, Île-Saint-Denis, Seine-Saint-Denis and Africa during the Games. We have a lot of people from the Paris region who will be going to Africa on holiday. We know that a lot of people come back with cases of malaria and so we wanted to do some prevention at that level. We said to ourselves that we would mark the landscape of the Africa station “, explains Delphine Thizy
The opening marks the start of 23 days, marked on Sunday July 21 by the special Mali day.
Station Afrique is also the celebration of the African athletes who will come, the broadcasting of the Olympic Games events, sports and cultural activities, conferences, entertainment for 23 days. On a city scale, it is a big place of celebration for a city of 8,500 inhabitants and 85 nationalities, managing a fan zone for an entire continent, yes, it is something.
Mohamed Gnabaly, the mayor of Ile Saint Denis, is the initiator of this Station Afrique project.
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