The project began as a personal inquiry into myths and taboos surrounding women in public space. Through research, reflection, and engagement with communities, It became a series of participatory interventions across Dar es Salaam’s unused, incomplete, abandoned buildings and public spaces locally called “Jumba Bovu”.

Turakella (Tura) Editha Gyindo is an art curator and multidisciplinary artist based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. She is the founder of the art collective, The Creative Tribe, which is dedicated to promoting contemporary art in Tanzania. Tura has curated over 20 exhibitions in Dar es Salaam and Kampala, including the critically acclaimed Portals (2023) and Just Disruptions (2024). She is also a practicing artist, working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, and installation. Tura’s work is inspired by the natural world, and she often uses organic materials in her art. She is passionate about creating spaces for artists to experiment and collaborate, and she is committed to fostering a vibrant and inclusive art scene in East Africa.

“Katandika Butandisi” is inspired by the practices of interpreting and narrating foreign films—from Hollywood, Nollywood and Asian cinema—often using voice-overs or off-screen commentary to provide additional context, insight, and personal interpretation, commonly referred to as VJing (Video Jockeying). The project spotlights the significant influence of Video Jockeys (VJs) on the language and culture of Kampala, seeking to document the journeys of VJs, their unique styles of translation and narration, and to formally recognise the slang terms they have coined, which have since become part of the local lexicon. By juxtaposing translated movies as initial lessons, VJs serve as the first instructors in social politics, interrogating televised media’s role in representing love, power, and identity within the post-colonial nationalism of early 2000s Uganda, extracting insights from American action movies (Ekicomando), Chinese Kung-Fu movies (Ekichayina), and Indian love-action movies (Ekiyindi).
Katandika Butandisi, a street slang phrase loosely translated to “it’s just beginning,” was contrived by VJ Jinjo.

Maria Olivia Nakato is an emerging curator with the Muumba Collective space for experimentation, collaboration, and expression for emerging artists. Maria is currently working on Lydia Mugambi’s retrospective Imparted Impressions as part of the Emerging Curators Program at Xenson Art Space. She is also researching herbal medicines, including through her Kampala Art Festival residency in 2024. Previously, she served as assistant curator for In the Midst at The Capsule Gallery in Nakasero and In Transit Under Another Sky, a moving image exhibition at Afropocene Studio Lab in Kabalagala in August 2024. Maria curated the By’abakaza exhibition at Umoja Art Gallery in celebration of Women’s Month 2024, as well as Dream Catcher at Kardamon and Koffee Café in 2024. Additionally, she participated in the development of the Resilient Spirit Project and the Muumba Collective partnership with The Wall Mural Competition 2023.

“Where Are Those Songs?” is an ongoing project that seeks to attend to the ways that African women’s sonic practices provide pathways towards crafting a curatorial methodology.

Wairimũ Nduba is a Kenyan multidisciplinary creative whose practice is rooted and guided by African sonic principles which hold music to be a site of communal gathering, healing, joy, and beauty. Her work sits at the intersections of sonic-visual archiving and curation. She is the founder of Wer Jokenya, a digital archival platform that celebrates Kenya’s nuanced and layered music history and seeks to make accessible the dynamic social and political interactions that are held within music histories across time and imperial borderlines. Nduba’s 18-year background in the field of ballet, first as a dancer and then as a tutor, also explores the ways in which the body exists as an archive, specifically expressed within the realm of African practices that held and carried forward knowledge through embodied movement and expression.

Ink & Kin is a curatorial exploration of tattoos as a dialect of corpoliteracy—an embodied way of speaking, remembering, and reframing how we see and are seen. Grounded in the relationship between twin artist sisters, Erinah & Mariah, the project reflects on how tattoos embody memory and meaning across time and context, and how bodies become both archive and narrative.

Nicole Remus is an interdisciplinary creative practitioner (self-taught Visual Artist, Curator/Scenographer, Graduate Architect, and Poet) from Jinja, Uganda. Nicole has co-curated over 20 online and physical exhibitions as part of 4/01, The Creative Tribe, Jinja. She has also worked on the scenography for 3 significant exhibitions in Kampala: Sungi Mlengeya’s debut solo Just Disruptions, Portals, the first immersive generative art exhibition in Uganda ft Scarlettmotif, and Send Me, by Borderlands Art. Her curatorial approach focuses on centering on the artists, working closely with them to ensure their intentions are effectively communicated to the audience. With a background in architecture, Nicole delves into conceptual and spatial design, creating cohesive and sensory exhibition experiences. She is passionate about collaborating with emerging and experimental artists, as well as the innovative creators who bring exhibitions to life.

“Missing from the Frame: Kenyan Women and the Photographic Archive” is a curatorial research project that seeks to uncover and celebrate the overlooked contributions of Kenyan women photographers from the post-independence era to the present. This presentation reflects on the project’s evolution during the East Africa Curatorial Mentorship Program, exploring its vision, challenges, and potential for reshaping narratives within Kenya’s visual history.

Sarah Waiswa is a Ugandan-born, Kenya-based award-winning documentary and portrait photographer with an interest in exploring the New African Identity on the continent. With degrees in sociology and psychology, Sarah worked in a corporate position for several years but then decided to pursue photography full-time. Sarah’s work explores social issues in Africa in a contemporary and non-traditional way. Her work has been exhibited around the world, and most recently at the Africa Fashion exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. Her photographs have been published in the Washington Post, Bloomberg, and the New York Times, among other publications and she has worked with brands such as Christian Dior and Chloe. In 2021, she founded African Women in Photography, a non-profit organisation dedicated to elevating and celebrating the work of women and non-binary photographers from Africa. In 2023, her passion for curatorial work led her to curate her first exhibition Sisi Ni Hao at the Goethe Institute in Nairobi funded by the Ford Foundation. The exhibition celebrated the unique perspectives of 12 East African women photographers on womanhood.

The project titled “Building Sustainable Artist Residencies in Africa” explores how to navigate funding structures to launch a residency program at Studio 11 Art Gallery. Its goal is to equip artists with essential soft skills—from proposal writing and marketing to building collector networks—by securing support for both training and programming.

Nafkot Gebeyehu is a documentary photographer and journalist with a passion for storytelling. Through her lens, she seeks to uncover untold stories and share them with the world. One of her notable projects is Vintage Addis Ababa, a photo book exploring the everyday lives of Addis Ababa residents from the 40s to 80s. Nafkot’s work can be found on her Instagram account, @Fuabilich. Beyond her photography, Nafkot is the co-founder of Studio 11, an art gallery dedicated to nurturing emerging artists in Addis Ababa. With a focus on interactive and creative curation, Studio 11 offers a unique space for artists to showcase their work and connect with the local community. The gallery also provides educational programs and workshops to support the growth of young talent.