President Jammeh hosted a banquet at Sindola Hotel in Kanilai on Wednesday night to mark his 40th birthday anniversary on May 25th, which coincided with the opening of the third Gambia-African Kanilai Inernational festival, which is also marked as Africa Liberation Day the founding date of the defunct Organisation Africa Union (OAU).
On behalf of the Secretary of State for Tourism and Culture, Edward Singhatey, the Secretary of State for Forestry and the Environment, welcomed participants to the annual event. Vice President Isatou Njie Saidy officially opened the 12-day cultural festival, which has drawn performing artistes and troupes from The Gambia, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso. Apart from the sub region, the thousands of participants, spectators and special invited guests attending this yearís Kanilai cultural festival have come from as far as Asia, Europe and the Americas.