Its first debut
was on 1 September 2016 at Windhoek's various venues alongside Robert Mugabe
Street under the theme ‘Collaboration Active’. Held under a three-day program,
the platform lived up to its theme by allowing for collaborative artwork from
different spheres of influence. Presented alongside educational workshops, the
platform allowed for enhancement of financial literacy, transcription,
marketing, social media skills, facilitation and proposal writing. Following its
explosive debut, the festival carried out three more editions at grass root
community levels in a bid to bridge the gap within the Namibian cultural
industry.
Since 2017, Kifa has been produced by the capable hands of VM Born
Stars Productions CC. The CC is an educational arts company in Namibia, led by
creative curators, Nyasha J Kuchekana- Chirau and Veronique B Mensah. The
duo specializes in educational theatre, focusing on children's theatre, theatre
for development and theatre for young people. Their
methodology brings together drama, music, visual arts, dance, and research in
an interdisciplinary approach. The idea is to be diverse and inclusive from
both conscious and democratic involvement.
As a project-based closed
corporation, VM Born Star Productions uses the arts as a universal form of
civic engagement to work towards social change and human development in Namibia
and around the world. The Corporation’s active collaborations and
partnerships involve the Parliament of Namibia, UNFPA, PAWO-SARO, Goethe
Institut, College of the Arts, the National theatre of Namibia, National Art
Gallery, Old Mutual, Bank Windhoek, Peace Strings Network, The Hot Haus
Zimbabwe and West Red Culture.
Principles
As a member of the Peace Strings Network together with VM Born Stars Productions, Kifa hopes to ensure peaceful and progressive intercultural engagements within humanly evolving spaces.
Hence our three-point strategic code of principles are:
• Communication within intention for direction.
• Creativity within intelligence for effectiveness.
• Collaboration within innovation for balance
The Network expands public access in a manner that develops distinctive promotional possibilities hence establishing wide-ranging partnerships and further integrating schools, tertiary institutions, and local community arts organizations. Below is a 10-year theme timeline that Kifa is following as a contribution towards Namibia’s development endeavor of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Goals by the year 2025.
KIFA ANNUAL THEME TIMELINE
Kifa Core TEAM
Nyasha, also known as “Nayasha Kristen” brings to Kifa regional and international experience gained from his musical career as a lead vocalist at Savannah Afros and his role as co-narrative curator of Peace Strings Network. His old hand in the game of music pushed him to create more platforms where artists can engage and thrive in, such as Peace Strings Network's, Kalahari International festival of Arts CC and VM Born Stars Productions CC. The artistic curator also founded the Arch Indigo Group, a global arts association based in Zimbabwe.
He formed the Arch Indigo group in line with his passion for peaceful and progressive engagement within artistic evolving communities and spaces. Nyasha, also known as “The Major Arch Indigo” has gained and gathered a decade plus worth of experience in afro-musicology, project development, production, fund management, and de-colonial learning at local and inter-continental level.
• Collaboration within innovation for balance
The Network expands public access in a manner that develops distinctive promotional possibilities hence establishing wide-ranging partnerships and further integrating schools, tertiary institutions, and local community arts organizations. Below is a 10-year theme timeline that Kifa is following as a contribution towards Namibia’s development endeavor of achieving the United Nations Sustainable Goals by the year 2025.
KIFA ANNUAL THEME TIMELINE
Kifa Core TEAM
Nyasha, also known as “Nayasha Kristen” brings to Kifa regional and international experience gained from his musical career as a lead vocalist at Savannah Afros and his role as co-narrative curator of Peace Strings Network. His old hand in the game of music pushed him to create more platforms where artists can engage and thrive in, such as Peace Strings Network's, Kalahari International festival of Arts CC and VM Born Stars Productions CC. The artistic curator also founded the Arch Indigo Group, a global arts association based in Zimbabwe.
He formed the Arch Indigo group in line with his passion for peaceful and progressive engagement within artistic evolving communities and spaces. Nyasha, also known as “The Major Arch Indigo” has gained and gathered a decade plus worth of experience in afro-musicology, project development, production, fund management, and de-colonial learning at local and inter-continental level.
• Kifa 2016 – ‘Collaboration Active’
• Kifa 2017 – ‘Peace String Attached’
• Kifa 2018 – ‘It takes a village to
raise a child’
• Kifa 2019 – ‘Selebrating Afrika’
• Kifa 2020 – ‘Ko-Narrative
Ekfnomixs’
• Kifa 2021 – ‘After Art’
• Kifa 2022 – ‘Smart Kulture’
• Kifa 2023 – ‘Integration Active’
• Kifa 2024 – ‘Creative Competence’
• Kifa 2025 – ‘Imagine Namibia’
Veronique Bernardine Mensah: Executive Producer
Veronique holds
an Honors Degree in Drama (2013) from Tshwane University of Technology, in
Pretoria South Africa. On her belt of success is becoming a Naledi Award
nominated performer, a theater maker, researcher, writer and a producer. She
incorporates these hard-earned skills in her current position of being an
executive director for Owela Festival. The Mariental born artists also serves
as an artistic director for VM Born Stars Productions. She co-founded Peace
Strings Network, where she still contributes in a co-founding president
position.
Veronique gained
intercontinental experience by working as an executive director for OWELA
Festival held in Germany, and later on in Namibia. In 2017 she also co-produced
The Kalahari International Festival of the Arts that was held in Namibia.
Veronique’s approach of using theatre to work towards social change and human
development has made her a valuable comrade to Kifa.
Nyasha J Kuchekana-Chirau: Executive
Co-narrative Curator
This annual
event is promising to be one of the flagship events that can ever be hosted in
Namibia and it is likely to uplift the creative economy in the country as well
as put Namibia on the international map as it promises to make Namibia one of
the countries with a conducive environment for nurturing impact based
body-space literacy. Moreover, there is more reason to believe that as the
years go by; this event will integrate many International networks in the mold
of a world class industry.
