Culture1 min read
Dzaleka Art Project
Also known as The Dzaleka Art Project
A community-based documentation project about the artists living as refugees in Dzaleka, started by folklorist Lisa Gilman after she attended the 2021 Tumaini Festival.
Overview
The Dzaleka Art Project is a documentation project by and about the artists who live as refugees and asylum seekers in Dzaleka. It gathers profiles of individual artists, images of their work, and writing about the place of the arts in their lives, and publishes them on a public website.
History
Lisa Gilman, a professor of folklore and English at George Mason University, had done research in Malawi since the 1990s but knew little about Dzaleka until she attended the Tumaini Festival in November 2021. The project grew out of that visit. Her account of the work, “A Community-Based Documentation Project in a Malawian Refugee Camp,” was published in the Journal of Folklore and Education.
Purpose
The project describes its aim as giving camp artists more chances to share their work and to be seen, and as countering stereotypes about refugees by showing the range of talent in Dzaleka. It documents the same arts scene associated with the Tumaini Festival and the refugee-led arts groups covered elsewhere in this encyclopedia.
References
Sources
- 1Dzaleka Art Project: Arts in a Refugee Camp in Malawi
George Mason University
- 2The Dzaleka Art Project: A Community-Based Documentation Project in a Malawian Refugee Camp
Journal of Folklore and Education
- 3Dzaleka Art Project (project website)
Dzaleka Art Project
Related entries
Culture
Tumaini Festival
A refugee-led arts and culture festival founded in Dzaleka in 2014, bringing camp residents, Malawian communities, and visiting artists together.
Institution
Tumaini Letu
The refugee-led non-profit founded in 2012 by Trésor Nzengu Mpauni (Menes la Plume) that organises the Tumaini Festival and runs cultural and economic inclusion programmes from within Dzaleka.
People
Menes la Plume
Congolese poet, musician, and cultural organiser who founded Tumaini Letu and the Tumaini Festival in Dzaleka.
Culture
Salama Africa
A refugee-founded dance group and intercultural youth centre in Dzaleka, established in 2014, that has competed in national dance competitions and runs arts and sports activities for young people.
Institution
Refugee-led organisations in Dzaleka
Organisations founded or led by refugees that provide education, advocacy, technology, livelihoods, arts, protection, and mutual support within Dzaleka and beyond.
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