/About Bana-bana/
BIO
With a diploma in Operational Marketing and a degree in International Relations Management from the University of Paris Xi – France, Benjamín ECHE CAZELLES is an independent consultant, installed in the Canary Islands since 1999, perfecting his knowledge of the regional economy, its relations with the environment and strategic Marketing in teaching and doctoral programs at the University of La Laguna – Spain.
Winner of Tenerife Emprende awards in 2005, he has been a continuously registered freelance professional in the Canary Islands since then, and highly specialized in the revitalization and assistance of mutually beneficial projects and relationships, of an institutional, business, cultural or cooperation nature between organizations, professionals and people of the African continent, in particular its French-speaking markets in the Atlantic, and those of the Spanish-speaking markets, with special attention to the Canary Islands and its positioning as a tricontinental and multicultural platform ideal for the development of these same international relations.
Knowledge being the basis of any sustainable relationship, Conexión AfriCana obtains, analyzes and disseminates information of strategic interest for the internationalization of Canarian and African organizations through various consulting services, studies, dissemination and knowledge exchanges. Although it offers its clients the data, opportunities and contacts that best respond to the capabilities and needs of each client; It also designs and develops projects, activities and events that promote and foster new international or intersectoral collaboration relationships, highlighting transversal synergies.
In order to offer the maximum possible proximity to its African partners and greater operations in destinations to its clients in the Canary Islands and Latin America, the international subsidiary AfriCan Connection, sarl was born at the beginning of 2014. operating from Agadir in the South of Morocco and focusing on relations with and from North Africa; while both a stable network of collaborators and an operational space (coworking) have been developed in Dakar – Senegal to serve the West African markets and in Yaoundé – Cameroon for Central Africa.
Artistic proposals
“Bana-bana” is the Wolof name traditionally given to the street vendor who brings wonderful rural or exotic productions to the city; a sonorous word that perfectly reflects the mission and philosophy of the BanaBan'ART catalog of artists, speakers, events and artistic activities promoted by Conexión AfriCana from the Canary Islands: bringing the riches of the intangible, creative, cultural and artistic Heritage of Africa and the Canary Islands to new audiences. The Arts are undoubtedly the best link between people, a common emotional space that brings them closer and creates the ideal conditions for the development of new and better intercultural relations, tolerance and co-development.
Since 2015 we have put our marketing and international project management skills, in addition to a dense network of institutional, tourism, cultural collaborators and other providers in Africa, Europe and Latin America at the service of artists and cultural agents from both the Canary Islands and Africa, and to a lesser extent the Caribbean, to accompany them in their international promotion and programming, promoting multicultural, multidisciplinary and intersectoral collaborative relationships.
Likewise, in Spanish-speaking markets, traditionally less erudite but no less interested in African Cultures, we respond to an increasingly intense demand from local audiences, visitors and programmers for quality artistic proposals that present the cultural and sound diversity typical of Africa. In parallel, we present a catalog of artists residing in the Canary Islands, returning a certain prominence to the virtuosos that the region hosts to public and private programmers, and we produce artistic, collaborative and promotional events supported by music in various destinations on the Atlantic coast of the African continent.
