DAR ES SALAAM, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Tanzania's Zanzibar President Hussein Ali Mwinyi on Monday launched the Festival of Black Arts and Culture (FESTAC) 2022 and called on African governments to promote culture and arts within the continent.

       President Mwinyi said the festival that has brought together over 10,000 artistes from across the continent should be used as a vehicle for the promotion of cooperation and trade among African countries.

       "The FESTAC festival which combines African cultures comes at the right time," he said when he launched the week-long festival.

       Mwinyi said the festival is important to ongoing efforts taken by Tanzania's Zanzibar authorities to revive and promote tourism after it was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

       He invited participants in the festival to learn about the history, arts and culture of Zanzibar and become ambassadors to their countries of origin, and also promote Zanzibar as a tourist destination.

       Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 2021, is among the famous artists attending the festival, said Yinka Abioye, chairperson of the FESTAC Africa.

       The festival, featuring "FESTAC Africa 2022 - Destination Zanzibar," will showcase arts, culture, heritage, music, tourism, hospitality literature and travel, among other things, said Abioye.

       The festival will also include an exhibition designed to showcase the richness of the African continent through a "Proudly Made in Africa Expo".