Celebrating culture on the net in Europe and Africa

At Google, we are excited about the opportunities the Internet provides to preserve and promote local culture around the world. The Hay Literary Festival, whose organisers share this interest, has grown from its origins in Wales into a international organisation that now hosts festivals around the globe, most recently in Nairobi and Segovia. We were pleased to be a sponsor of these events.

During 15-18 September, in downtown Nairobi, we joined teams from Hay and Kenyan publisher partner Storymoja, alongside numerous internationally-acclaimed authors, poets, journalists and local entrepreneurs. We participated in speaker panels on ‘Online Entrepreneurship’ and ‘the Power of Free Expression in the Digital Age’.

Many young children showed up and showed their enthusiasm through dance performances. It was thrilling to see how older Kenyan entrepreneurs are looking to use the Internet to bring African culture and business to their peers and indeed the wider world. Companies such as Eat Out Kenya, the Can-Do! Company and Fluid presented great examples. We also took the opportunity to highlight our own Google initiative to help get Kenyan Business Online.

Segovia’s festival took place 22-25 September. The medieval Spanish city, about an hour north of Madrid, boasts a famous 2,000 year old Roman aqueduct, a stunning Gothic cathedral, a medieval old town, and a fairy-tale castle, the Alcazar. Yet the Hay Festival brought modern intellectual firepower to these ancient stones - everything from an exhibition by German artist Anselm Kiefer to a talk on leadership from the Spanish national football team coach Vicente del Bosque.

Google’s presence focused on free expression. The Internet has given all of us, every single individual, the possibility of expressing ourselves. However, the audience seemed surprised to learn also that the number of attempts by governments around the world to crack down on and restrict such free flow of information is also growing. We talked at length about our Transparency Report, which sheds light on requests for information we receive from governments.

The Hay Festival organisers are keen to bring their culture and literary festivals to more countries around the world, and we look forward to further partnerships.

Posted by William Echikson, Head of Free Expression EMEA in Segovia, and Susan Pointer, Director of Public Policy and Government Relations, Europe, Middle East and Africa, in Nairobi.