Something profound is stirring in Namibia’s cultural landscape.
From 24 to 29 November, Windhoek will transform into a space of exchange and awakening as KIFA Week 2025, the Kalahari International Festival of the Arts, unfolds across the Franco-Namibian Cultural Centre (FNCC), the College of the Arts Theatre School (COTA), and the National Library of Namibia.
Presented by Born A Star Academy in collaboration with the Peace String Network, KIFA Week 2025 is not simply a festival. It is a working model of cultural evolution, where art becomes infrastructure, dialogue becomes design, and imagination becomes a renewable resource for development.
Now in its 10th edition, the festival returns under the theme ‘Imagine Namibia’, extending an open horizon to thinkers, artists, and innovators who see creativity as both a right and a responsibility, a way to rebuild communities, reimagine economies, and reconnect across borders.
A New Kind of Cultural Platform
KIFA Week 2025 is intentionally intimate, featuring 24 artists, 15 institutional collaborators, and a curated audience, who will engage in layered exchanges designed to foster reflection, connection, and invention. Rather than a conventional showcase, the programme is structured around three interactive platforms that turn artistic processes into systems of value creation:
These elements are tied together by a shared commitment: to make creativity measurable, meaningful, and inclusive. The goal is not simply financial; it is to build frameworks that can generate long-term opportunities, with projected outcomes in industry collaborations, funding circulation, and livelihoods impacted,” said Veronique Kuchekana-Chirau, KIFA Week Executive Producer.
“We are building value chains, not just stages. KIFA Week treats imagination as infrastructure, something that sustains a nation, not just entertains it.”
Each day of KIFA Week is a conversation in motion. At the College of the Arts Theatre School, the Namib Story Train explores themes of friendship, bullying, honesty, discipline, and greed. At the same time, at the National Library, the Guardians of Knowledge Dialogue reframes heritage as a living economy.
At FNCC, the CURA Africa Keynote Panel will explore pathways for regional co-production, industrial design, and digital transformation, aligning with long-term development programs such as Cura Hardap (2026), Cura SADC Residency (2028), and the Cura Africa Initiative (2026–2035).
KIFA Week 2025 is more than a local celebration; it’s part of a broader cultural continuum that extends into upcoming regional initiatives: “These projects, collectively, represent a decade-long commitment to cultural innovation and social transformation — KIFA Week is the first movement in that symphony. Through continued collaboration with artists, educators, and social investors, the festival seeks to sustain a rhythm that carries beyond its six days into classrooms, studios, boardrooms, and public life. As the desert winds rise and Windhoek prepares its stages, the Kalahari stands ready to speak again, not through commerce or
applause, but through collaboration, continuity, and care,” she concluded.
For ongoing updates and reflections, visit www.fncc.org.na or follow @KIFAWeek across all platforms.