"Sisi Kwa Sisi - Three Way Encounters" was the first exhibition planned and executed by the group Marafiki - Friendship and Art. The exhibition featured ninety-nine exhibits: Paintings, prints, and batik by Julius NJAU - Africa encountered through the beat of Tanzanian Art, woodblock prints by Francis MARIE - Tribal culture in a French reflection, and street photography by Ulrich MOEHWALD - Japanese life seen through German eyes.

Planning for the exhibition started right after the group was founded in mid-February of 2003. From the start, Nagoya International Center kindly sponsored the event and we received the kind support of Mr. Atsushi TANGE, Assistant Chief of the Exchange and Cooperation Projects Division of Nagoya International Center.

The setup of the exhibition started on Tuesday, June 3 at 9 o'clock. The tight schedule of the day could not have been kept without the help of Ms. YANG Ning, Mr. Joe SICHI, Ben-san, Masayo-san, Ms. Yoshie KUNO, and Yoko TANGE. They helped with the setup of the show, giving it final touches, performed miscellaneous tasks that had been forgotten. The exhibition would not have been possible without them or without the help of the volunteers who manned the reception desk throughout the six days from June 3 to June 8. These are Ms. Justine BORNSTEIN, Ms. Yumi HOKIMOTO, Ms. Chika KAKENO, Ms. Yoshie KUNO, Ms. Chitose SINDO, Ms.Yoko TANGE, Ms. Kazuko YANASE, and Ms. Yang NING. They all have our deep gratitude.

The Opening Ceremony of the exhibition started at 16h30 on June 3. The opening speech was given by his Excellency the Ambassador of the United Republic of Tanzania in Japan, Mr. E.E.E. MTANGO who especially came from Tokyo to attend the event. His opening speech was followed by greetings from the Director of the Alliance Francaise Aichi, Mr. Jean-Paul PIERSON, the Director of the International Relations Division, Office of the Mayor, City of Nagoya, Mr. Hiroyuki HOSHINO, and the President of the Board of Trustees of the Nagoya International Center, Mr. Atsuo HORIUCHI. Mr. Atsushi TANGE, Assistant Chief of the Exchange and Cooperation Projects Division of Nagoya International Center, acted as the master of ceremonies throughout the opening of the exhibition. Mr. Ulrich MOEHWALD, Secretary of Marafiki - Friendship and Art gave the toast to open the Party. We have to thank all these people for attending the Opening Ceremony despite their tight schedule. Their attendance gave a boost to the publicity of the exhibition and thus strongly contributed to its success. The Opening Ceremony and successive Opening Party were attended by about 80 guests.

We also have to thank Mr. Theodore VAN METER and the staff of Pelican Pete's who took care for the catering during the Opening Party. Their kind service and savory buffet added greatly to the success of the Opening Party.

In the following five days the exhibition was attended by 484 visitors, 394 of whom were Japanese and 90 Non-Japanese. The number of visitors ran short of our expectations of overall 600. This was mainly due to the poor turn-out of Non-Japanese visitors. But this had been considerably compensated by the much higher than expected turn-out of Japanese visitors. The exhibition was very positively supported by the Japanese media. ASAHI SHINBUN and MAINICHI SHINBUN reported on it in lengthy articles about a week before the opening in their evening editions of May 21, and CHUNICHI SHINBUN did the same in its morning edition of June 4. A crew of the public broadcasting company NHK attended the Opening Party, and the event was extensively reported in both, NHK Television and Radio Evening News of the evening of June 3. Compared to this warm reception by the Japanese media, despite all efforts to promote the exhibition, the local Non-Japanese media took notice of it only in announcements in the NAGOYA CALENDAR and RADIO I. Nevertheless, on the whole we are very satisfied with the overall success of the exhibition, especially the attention it drew in professional circles.