MASA's 12th edition wraps up week of events in Abidjan

Ivory Coast's Abidjan held the 12th edition of MASA , the largest live performance market on the continent.

During one week, dozens of circus, dance, theatre and music groups from French-speaking Africa performed at the Palais de la Culture on the edge of the lagoon.

The event attracted many people, including many youngsters.

The "Zone Street" space dedicated to urban arts was the most attractive for the younger crowd.

Carina Style is a  young Ivorian rising star. She made a point of encouraging others to follow in her footsteps.

"In my songs I give advice not to give up  because I know  my background,  I know where I come from 

and I'm always persevering and fighting. I don't give up", said the artist.

Traditional African music was also present in this event.

Trio Juru which means strings in Bambara, one of the languages spoken in Mali.

The Trio is composed of young kora and ngonie players from Mali and an oude player from Tunisia.

Their challenge is to show the incredible richness of traditional  African instruments.

Achref Chargi wants the oude to conquer more hearts at international level.

"The Oude is a traditional instrument, also from Africa  but also from the Arab-Muslim tradition,

an instrument that dates back more than 3 thousand years.  This event shows that it is absolutely necessary to start from the roots,  a message that we are transmitting to these young people,  to always go back to the roots and protect these instruments  which unfortunately are disappearing", said Achref Chargi.

The group BIM, 'Benin International Musical', is promoting voodoo culture with the aim of bringing to the world the musical richness of Benin where it originates from.

"My particularity as a rapper is to draw from the Voodoo parables b ecause BIM's mission is to de-demonise Voodoo. To represent Benin,  and we know that the sense of contemporary Beninese music comes from voodoo.  So I draw from this richness to make my lyrics and rap" said Yewhe.

MASA is returning in 2 years time to entertain the Ivorian youth as well as visitors from all over the world.