Written by Linda M. Kagire for The New Times
It takes quite an effort to keep something going consistently for 10 years, especially if it is an event that depends on many aspects, many of them external. It is akin to raising a child. A lot can happen in the first 10 years of a child.
Giving birth to a child and watching them grow for the first decade of their life is what Hope Azeda, the curator and organiser of Ubumuntu Arts Festival, compares to putting together the annual festival which started in 2014.
In an interview with The New Times, Azeda, who is also the founder of Mashirika Rwanda and Ubumuntu Arts Organisation, says that being able to keep the festival going against many challenges is similar to conceiving a child, giving birth and raising the child.
At 10 years, Azeda says ensuring that the festival happens every year has not been an easy journey, pointing out that they went in without knowing what the future holds but like an innocent child who is not afraid of anything, they persisted.
Today, Ubumuntu has come of age. Azeda says they faced many obstacles because it was supposed to be a platform where people from different countries come together, but the resources to do that are quite enormous and require deep pockets, which she didn’t have.
“It is a journey we faced challenges but somehow, we found a way to sustain it and, today, here we are. If you asked me to imagine what we have achieved today 10 years ago, I honestly wouldn’t know,” says Azeda, who survives on fundraising through donors, arts organisations and well-wishers.
From the onset, Ubumuntu Arts Festival was not designed to be a commercial festival because of its purpose and the location it has been held for the past decade—the Kigali Genocide Memorial Amphitheatre in Gisozi.
It means that they do not charge entrance fee, nor do they seek commercial partnerships of any kind. That, in fact, is what makes the 10-year journey more incredible and impactful because even commercial festivals in Rwanda have proved to be unsustainable due to limited sponsorships.
“Today, I can say this child of ours is now walking and at a point where we are pondering what the next 10 years will look like,” says Azeda, pointing out that they never imagined that, in a decade time, the festival would have given a platform to artistes from more than 60 countries across the globe.
For Azeda, it is just the beginning because the world is at a point where peace is a luxury and every year people across the globe continue to encounter all sorts of challenges in their societies and they need a platform to talk about them and find solutions through art.
Ten years down the road, Azeda says Ubumuntu has been a priceless platform for young people to hone their talent and express themselves and it should still be over the next decades or so, if only she could get the support to keep it going.
In Azeda’s world, the word ‘impossible’ simply doesn’t exist and one could say that it is simply why the festival is still happening today. Not even the Covid-19 pandemic was able to halt it.
“We were just talking and imagining at the time. It was simply an idea but nobody knew that in 10 years Ubumuntu would be where it is today. All we knew was that we are creating a space where people can come together to talk about their problems and find solutions,” she says.
It has been a platform where ideals have been born and brought to life and it also became a space where people could speak about things some of which don’t come in day-to-day conversations in life.
From expressing pain, love, guilt and reliving the past, the ugly and the good and the situations people go through – everything goes at Ubumuntu Arts Festival. The world comes together.
From three difficult days to ten days this year, the growth speaks for itself. Azeda says, from the start, even putting together the festival for three days was an uphill task in terms of resources and logistics.
“Whatever happened today we manifested it in words 10 years ago, without knowing how we will do it but we knew it would be a platform which would bring the world together and we’ve done that,”
“As they say, words create. When you manifest something, it happens. Each step we took was intentional and had a purpose” she says, adding that today they are looking for ways to take it beyond Rwanda to other countries and outside Kigali to other districts around the country.
This year, they included Bugesera district, where the caravan went for one and also considered mainstream media platforms to take the message far and beyond. For the first time, the festival has a radio segment dubbed ‘Urwandiko -Letters of Legacy’, airing on Radio Rwanda.
“This year we were in Bugesera but next year we want to see how we can get to other provinces of the country with something we’ve called the ‘memory caravan’. Before the festival, we will be doing a community outreach program with the caravan,” Azeda says, adding that the audio plays on Radio Rwanda will also help reach more people across the country.
This year’s theme is “Integrity: Resilience in the Face of Adversity,” which was chosen to honour the unwavering determination and patience of the visionary minds behind the festival. It features a wide range of themes, from science and technology to environment, literature and music for humanity. Children were not forgotten.
Azeda says that the festival has been able to show what can be achieved through art, particularly reflecting on how this year the festival has given a platform to Generation 25, giving young people space to come and talk about the challenges they face, the questions they have in their heads and everything in between.
“Today, we are here because we persisted but we have every reason to still be here because every day, the world has a new problem to deal with. Art remains a priceless way to address these challenges because art stays for long, way after the artiste is gone,” Azeda says, adding that the festival has even inspired similar festivals in other countries including Benin and Brazil.
Some of the questions that are in Azeda’s head is what can be added to the festival to fit in what young people want to see and how it can be made more inclusive and diverse.
The Minister of State for Youth, Culture and Arts, Sandrine Umutoni, hailed Ubumuntu Arts Festival for sustaining the momentum over the past decade in terms of spreading the message of peace,unity and reconciliation, reiterating the commitment of the Government of Rwanda to continue support initiatives that boost the creative and arts industry.
Apart, other participating countries this year include the United States, Pakistan, South Africa, DR Congo, France, Sri Lanka, Burundi, Kosovo, Spain, Uganda, Belgium, Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe and host nation Rwanda, among others.
