About Kifa

The arts festival was formed by a community of diaspora artists from Namibia, Zimbabwe, and the United States in 2015 and was Incorporated in 2016 to foster growth in the Namibian creative economy and related industries. Offering stability and volatility for stakeholders to anticipate co-narrative markets that artists and audiences rely on. The festival also provides opportunities for the public to experience arts and culture activities otherwise known only through TV, CDs, films, books, and the internet.

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.

Integration

Peace Strings Network provides critical engagement tools in festival circuits from across southern Africa to develop cooperation between creative entities. The network offers opportunities for artists to have more than one perspective towards engagement. Peace String Network places Kifa program to implicate an innovative audience and to implement development strategies.

•             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.