Russian humanitarian agency Rossotrudnichestvo is interested in being present in Africa and plans to open non-state Russian Houses in Equatorial Guinea and Burkina Faso, deputy head of the agency, Pavel Shevtsov told Sputnik.
"We are most interested in being present in African countries: both in Burkina Faso and in Equatorial Guinea. We understand that our centers cannot appear there quickly, so now we and these countries will move towards opening non-state Russian Houses," Shevtsov said.
Africa-Russia cultural cooperation has a long history and the countries continue to foster new joint projects.
Thus, a Russian language and culture center was recently opened in Mali. In addition to promoting language and cultural education, the center's activities will encourage the development of novel concepts, talents, and collaborative projects, says Oleg Yastrebov, Rector of Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia said.
Moreover, at the beginning of December, Russia launched the international education project "Russian Language in Africa: the way of friendship and cooperation" for people who are eager to learn the Russian language, history and culture.
In addition, a significant number of young Africans study at Russian universities and Russia maintains relations with graduates, for example, by holding special forums. In November, a two-day Forum of Alumni of Soviet and Russian Universities was held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which brought together over 150 participants, mostly from African countries, to discuss the development of relations between Russian and foreign educational organizations.
It was the third event of its kind for Rossotrudnichestvo. In December 2022, Egypt hosted a similar event that brought together over 150 alumni from 15 countries in the region. And in October this year, Vietnam organized a regional alumni conference of the same kind.
And, of course, speaking about cultural cooperation between Russia and Africa, we cannot fail to mention the BRICS+ Fashion Forum. It took place from November 28 to December 2 in Moscow. The event was attended by designers, entrepreneurs and fashion industry professionals, where they could share their experiences and agree on joint projects.