‘I am Kigali’ festival getting bigger, better

Kigali is home to many different people and types of migrants as well; locals, the person from a neighboring country that came to work, the refugee fleeing conflict in their native country, those returning home after many years in the diaspora, the growing social entrepreneur class, the businessman/woman seeking investment opportunities, the expatriate … It’s with this diversity of souls in mind that the idea for ‘I am Kigali’ was birthed last year. The inaugural ‘I am Kigali Festival’ was held in December 2016 at the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) headquarters in Kimihurura, a Kigali suburb. It sought to highlight and celebrate this very diversity and its contribution to the development of the City of Kigali. The festival was a test of the organizer’s nerves, with a heavy downpour prompting a change of venue from the RRA parking lot as initially planned to the auditorium. However when the downpour subsided, the festival returned to the initial outdoor location. The International Organization of Migration (IOM), in collaboration with the Impact Hub Kigali organized the festival. It was held on December 17th, to coincide with International Migrants Day which falls on December 18 every year. “For the inaugural festival the timing for us was important – to link it with the diversity of Kigali and the contributions that migrants play in society,” explained Catherine Northing, the IOM chief of mission in Rwanda. “The Festival went well, we had a great crowd and the artists put on wonderful sets and we were all blown away by the drummers from Burundi who are refugees in Rwanda and it was such a pleasure to have them join the Festival. The line-up was diversity in action with artists from Rwanda, DRC, Burundi, Chile, UK – and who all live in Kigali. It was a pleasure to create a platform for such artists.” Some of the featured artistes that made sure this was a unique day of music, art and culture were; Urban Boyz, Abdoul Makanyaga, Moutcho Band, Makumbi Sound, Amizero Dance Kompagnie, Eric OneKey, Deo Munyakazi, and Andy Bumuntu. The festival further aimed to demonstrate how a mix of cultures contributes to making Kigali a vibrant and inclusive city. For one full day, guests enjoyed music, art, dance performances, and food in the festival area at Rwanda Revenue Authority’s parking area in Kimihurura. Because of the success of the event, organizers revealed that they would be staging a string of ‘I am Kigali’ pop-up events at different venues in the city. On Monday February 13th, the first such pop-up event was held at the Impact Hub in Kiyovu and it featured such acts like Deo Munyakazi playing inanga(traditional harp), Eric 1Key, Kaya Free, Strong Voice Band, Nganji and the Kinga Blues band, Sam Kwizera, and a team of poets from Transpoesis. Catherine Northing, the IOM chief of mission in Rwanda. “The ‘I am Kigali’ campaign was created out of a partnership between IOM Rwanda and Impact Hub Kigali. IOM works worldwide and is committed to the principle that humane and orderly migration benefits migrants and society. We want to showcase the diversity of the city and engage Rwandans and others living in Kigali on the key subjects of migration, of identity, cosmopolitanism, diversity, inclusion, and social cohesion,” Northing said. “We launched the “I am Kigali” campaign and festival as a platform for artists and residents of Kigali to imagine and re-imagine the city’s identity and to celebrate its rich diversity,” explained Jonathan Stever, the Managing Director of Impact Hub Kigali and coordinator of ‘I am Kigali’. “Immigration is an important part of Rwanda’s history, and will be an important part of Rwanda’s future development through conferences, investments, and technology transfer.” Like the festival in December, the pop-up event was free of charge, as indeed all other subsequent events will be. “Our space exists to collide people and ideas. That is where innovation comes from. Yes, we provide space to artists, but we also host entrepreneurs and students and engineers and policymakers and researchers and everyone else too. The rationale of making our events free is that we believe all people have value and ideas to offer, and we never want to exclude people based on ability to pay. Often community innovation spaces and creative spaces like ours can become exclusive or elitist. We want to ensure that our community is defined by character traits like inclusiveness, and willingness to share, empathize and explore new ideas, rather than pocketbooks and other superficial things,” Stever added. DJ Eric Soul, the music curator for I am Kigali explained that the idea for the pop-up shows was arrived at during the December festival, when a handful of artists that had been lined up could not perform because of rain. Hence this first pop-up event was dedicated to that cause. Soul further revealed that the next I am Kigali Festival will happen in June this year. Several revellers attended the event. “We hope it will become an annual event – a free festival for the residents of Kigali, celebrating the diversity of Kigali. We want to showcase the amazing creative talent that is in this city and contribute to the growing diversity of creative events; it would be great if the Festival becomes a key event in the annual life of Kigali,” noted Northing from IOM. editorial@newtimes.co.rw

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‘I am Kigali’ festival getting bigger, better