Women teaching the art of henna and kukuna nazi (grating a coconut) are among the ways Wimbi la Sanaa Festival is bringing coastal traditions to a new generation.
The annual five-day arts and culture festival to be held in Mombasa on October 6 to 10 brings together theatre, dance, food, street parades, music, film, poetry, visual art, installations, workshops, creative convergences, and other creative expressions, while creating space for traditional and contemporary art forms.
It also includes workshops and panels facilitated by experts from Kenya and beyond.
Caroline Ngorobi, founder of Jukwaa Arts and curator of the Wimbi la Sanaa Festival, says that preserving these practices is an important part of the festival. It holds Kukuna Nazi and Henna Arts competitions and brings experts to speak on them.
“We also want them to experience coastal cultures. We work with local women who learned practices from their foremothers and impart them to the next generation.
The festival was founded as a platform for emerging and women artists to showcase their work, connect with other creatives and reach new audiences. It grew out of Bahari Huru Festival, which focused on Mombasa artists and marine conservation.
After four years of running the Bahari Huru Festival, they realised that there are not enough places for artists to showcase their work. Jukwaa Arts hosts a weekly open mic, but Ngorobi saw that they are not seen beyond these places, and she wanted to showcase emerging artists.
The inaugural Wimbi La Sanaa Festival was held last year and featured 114 artists in five days. The interest has grown with this year’s edition, with more applications from local artists and interest from people seeking to collaborate with the festival.
It draws together artists from Mombasa, Nairobi, Kisumu, Siaya and Nyeri, as well as Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. She says that bringing artists from different backgrounds together enables them to learn from one another and explore how culture and art interact across different spaces.
“We don’t lock out any genres of art. We ensure there is representation of both old and new. We learn from each other. It sparks creativity and makes artists push beyond their norm,” she says.
An artist from Siaya, for example, can interact with an artist from Kilifi, while an artist from Nyeri can be introduced to new audiences in Mombasa.
The festival has a particular focus on early-career artists, with Ngorobi saying about 70 per cent of the artists are emerging, while 30 per cent are established. Last year, it helped artists build portfolios and gain exposure, which she hopes will support their professional advancement.
The festival also gives prominence to women artists, and this is influenced by her personal bias and the fact that Jukwaa Arts is a woman-led organisation, and they are also influenced by the need to create opportunities for women.
“I want younger women artists to interact with and learn from the older women artists and to see that it can be done,” she says.
This year, the festival will take place across the Little Theatre Club (LTC), Alliance Française in Nyali and Wild Waters. Previous editions have also included historical spaces such as Fort Jesus, while Swahili music and other coastal cultural practices form part of the festival programme.
The festival also uses art to engage the community with social issues. This year’s works explore themes of identity, history, peace and justice, marine conservation and love.
It plans to work with local communities to plant mangroves at Mikindani Creek, alongside exhibitions and performances focused on conservation.
Ngorobi hopes that the festival will eventually create a marketplace for the arts where artists, audiences and communities can meet.
“I want young people to see themselves as contributors within the creative community so that we don’t see the arts as a hobby but as a career and vehicle for social change,” she says.