On February 29, Young Africa Botswana, an NGO based in Gaborone city , hosted an urban art festival for the youth to showcase and also sell their crafted products to the public. The colourful festival was free, and it was packed with all sorts of vibrant knick-knacks, fine art, apparel, crafted artifacts, poetry and music.
This festival was part of an initiative that is funded by the US embassy called America on
the move (AOM) and was hosted at the Lady Olebile Masire Youth centre in Botswana.
The programme has been running for two years and has been deemed the first programme of this kind in Africa. The programme works on an open door policy which means everyone is welcome to come into
Lady Olebile Masire Youth Centre to help create and shape the festival.
Vincent Moleki the Head of Young Africa Botswana, stated they have been very fortunate to be in
a position of being able to actively assist young artists. Through their workshops they are able to
build a community of you “artpreneurs” who learn how to turn their talent into a lucrative income. “We actually have published 16 comic books from Botswana because of this program. The United States give us Marvel comics, we are now able to give the world something from Africa as well.” says Vincent.
In addition to incubating young artist ,Vincent also added that they also house and incubate
business that is not in the art industry. “We don’t find money for you in this program we do
however source out the right people for you specific field in art or business. We do this to give
our youth the opportunity to openly sell their aesthetics openly and expressively.” he said.
“In a nutshell we initiated this program to give everyone who has skills of any kind a platform to
put their talents to work, consequently Young Africa Botswana is contributing towards
eradicating unemployment by encouraging youth to make money from their crafts” concluded Vincent.
Written By Precious Mncube : Bostwana
