Tumaini Festival is a music and cultural festival taking place in Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa District, Malawi. It presents a unique opportunity to support an innovative, large-scale cultural event developed and delivered by refugees and Malawians, which promotes peaceful co-existence for the benefit of both communities.
Tumaini” means “hope” in Swahili and for many residents of Dzaleka, the Tumaini festival means exactly that; an opportunity to forget their sufferings.
Dzaleka is the only permanent refugee camp in Malawi, located in Dowa district, 45 km from Lilongwe. It has a population of approximately 30,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda and Burundi, with smaller numbers of people from Somalia, Ethiopia, South Sudan and other countries.
On November 4th 2017 Dzaleka hosted its fourth annual Tumaini Festival. There were five performance areas: two stages (Main Stage and Youth Stage), a Poetry Corner, a Theater Corner, and a Cultural Ground (traditional dance ground). There were also a variety of food stalls and opportunities for vendors from Dzaleka to sell their goods and handcrafted arts. Our Travel Malawi Guide team were present on the ground and put together some highlights from the event. Do not miss 2018 Tumaini Festival. See you there!
