Africa Village for London Olympics

(ATR) It will be the biggest single gathering place for Africa at the Olympics: Africa Village for London 2012.

After coming up short in Beijing, plans are being made for 53 NOCs to be represented at Africa Village in London.

The 2,000 square meter village will be located in Kensington Gardens in west London. The village will be made up of two areas, Africa Club and Africa Land.

"We stress that there are two areas, one that is about African hospitality which is about celebrating success and celebrating medals which is all about the 53 countries and the other part is for those countries within Africa who can afford to show off their culture, their tourism and their industry, they will each do this in a different way," said General Lassana Palenfo, president of the Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa.

ANOCA is organizing the project with the help of London based events company The Concerto Group.

"LOCOG has been very helpful with all the planning," says Palenfo.

Africa Club will be the official, private reception area for ANOCA and African NOCs to welcome African sports leaders, the athletes, and their sponsors.

Africa Land will allow a wide audience to discover a village of stands presenting the cultural and artistic diversity of the African continent through exhibits and a restaurant open to the general public.

"The African contingent that lives in London, England, and not just the English speaking ones but also the French speaking ones are extremely important to our project," Palenfo says about the support he’s expecting from the sizeable African ex-pat community in London.

According to Palenfo "the main finance is driven by individual African countries who will participate on an exhibition stand in their own right."

He says 26 countries will be contributing and represented at Africa Land.Missing from the African exhibition will be South Africa and Kenya which will have their own presence at their country’s embassies.

The general says that each country will be bringing their own bit of culture. The plan is to create a large stage in the middle of the village so that each country can show off dance, fashion and music.

Palenfo says Africa Village provides a showcase for the African countries todisplay diversity of culture, explore tourist opportunities as well as industry opportunities that Africa has to offer.

Palenfo says celebrations will take place each evening for African athletes.

"It’s very important that we celebrate all the success in one place for the first time."

The general public will be allowed in free of charge from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. The Africa Club will remain open two hours after the games until 12:30 so that if an athlete wins a medal "we can still celebrate them that day and get the newsfeed back out to the African countries," says Palenfo.

A website for Africa Village www.africa-village.com is now in operation. And helping to increase media attention to the project is Communication director Laurent Bagnis, a veteran of past French Olympic bids.

Written by Evan Owens and Ed Hula.