Dolph Banza, a visual artist and founder of Inkstain, a creative company that creates different illustrations for different institutions and Malik Shaffy, a creative entrepreneur, a few months ago started their video blog, Ikawa talk, a creative conversation about art, design and creativity.

This for them is the first platform in Rwanda that centers on creativity and art, stemming from their 12 year friendship, thanks to their passion for art.With over a decade of experience in the creative industry, the duo are among the pioneering creatives in the country.

"We like to talk about design when we meet and we are always criticizing things we don’t like or praising things we like. We decided to extend the idea of what we have already been doing in a way that can inspire other people because we know how we started out and how hard it was for us to have mentors or guidance.

"At the time, internet was not even good enough to help you get what you wanted. We decided to extend our conversations but this time with a camera and what better name to embody that kind of conversation than "Ikawa”, which means coffee in Kinyarwanda,” Banza shares.

Dolph Banza (right) and Malik Shaffy founded Ikawa talk show to engage creatives in the industry. / Courtesy

Malik also chips in: "We have witnessed the creative industry growing and evolving in Rwanda from all different perspectives, we tried to take these conversations to a wider audience in the creative space so that they can learn more.

I usually have people calling me about my opinion on their designs and Dolph as well. This for us is a platform, taking everything we talk about and just putting it out there for the public.

The motivation for us is to inspire each other because of the lack of such conversations in Rwanda, where creatives can meet and talk.

"People have different interests but mainly when you talk about these things, you know there is someone out there who would love to hear or know, so we are doing this as some kind of responsibility. Plus it is fun for us as creative people, we will talk about everything and anything but in the creative world, so we may talk about sports or nature in the creative or design eye.”

Plans for a bigger platform

Malik believes that the only thing that boosts creativity in the arts industry, is things like videos, podcasts and in the era where internet dominates communication channels,it is only right that they share these conversations but also widen the platform so that young people can use them as a reference.

"I’ve been privileged to work with high level international branding and creative organisations, travelling around the world and as a Rwandan I have so much that I can share. Dolph too, has also had good international clients that have and continue challenge him. This is our time to share what we know and what we have learned.

People think that design is simple but we want to show them that it’s a process and we want to show people the highs and lows of being a creative. This is why we need to have workshops, conventions to elevate the industry,” he says.

With four episodes already up on YouTube, the duo is also looking forward to having other different creatives on board to share their skills and their experience, after US- based Rwandan creative Angel Uwamahoro became their first guest on the channel.

"We’ve had comments from many people suggesting a lot of things, so the challenge has been differentiating something constructive or what people would do if they were doing the same thing. Our main challenge however, is to get time to do this regularly, as per our objective.

People have expectations of what Ikawa will be and so we hope to do more shows, we could do events and have people who are interested in a certain topic have questions or suggestions and ideas,” Banza adds.

A decade ago, Malik reveals, as the creative industry in Rwanda was only trying to emerge, it was dominated by East Africans. Rwandans did not have any formal training and so resorted to self-teaching some of the things with internet being a major player.

"There is no doubt that people will start having their own talk shows , so many people will come up with similar concepts. Our aim is that when young people go online, they can have relevant things to consume.

This is also another way of showing young people out there that you do not need to have an expensive camera to show what you can do. Our content costs us almost nothing, as we use our own equipment,” he says.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com