The Knowledge Art Festival in Arusha

The Knowledge Art & Networking festival, hosted in Arusha was a success.

The festival saw decent participation from the public, euphoria that culminated in street processions around the city. From the short screened film at the Gumzo Square to the powerfully delivered poetic lines by award-winning Kenyan poet Teardrops, everything was exceptional. 

The theme for 2020 was Development and Develop mentalism, a phrase attributed to the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere, the first president of Tanzania. A simple way to interpret the tagline is, development is people. That explains the hashtags that earmarked the event #DevelopmentIsPeople and #MaendeleoNiWatu. The event took place at the Ms. Training Center for Development Cooperation, MS-TCDC in Arusha.

In a conversation with The Citizen before the festival, Art Director Dave Ojay promoted the event as a perfect platform for people to share their development conscious ideas with an intention to utilize them through visual performing art. As the festival slowly progresses, their intention was to call upon industry stakeholders invested in the creative industry. That way they could exploit opportunities, share knowledge and network together. Part of the festival included workshops and dialogue sessions that were engaging.

Top artists who attended KAN were Fid Q, Vitali Maembe, Florence John (Tanzania), Siti the Band, Sandra Nankoma (Uganda), Bengatronics (Kenya), Isabella Novella (Mozambique), Victor Kunonga (Zimbabwe), and Juma Tutu.

The festival featured storytelling sessions, film screenings, artistic performances, exhibitions, debates, inter-generational dialogues, and workshops. Part of the talent that was showcased came from Emanuel Manoti who thrilled everyone with his brilliant paintings, Koko Kabamba and the thrilling dance moves, Masoud Ibrahimu Kibwana, who worked his talent like magic in transforming waste into stuff that matters, and many others.