What is Tumaini Festival?

About Tumaini Festival:

• Founded in 2014, the Tumaini Festival is a cultural event held annually within the Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Malawi. 
• It is the only festival of its kind in the world that is held within a refugee camp.
• The festival is organized and managed by refugees, creating a platform for displaced people that fosters community, solidarity, and cultural exchange.
• The Tumaini Festival attracts thousands of attendees every year and features performances by acts from all around the world.
• The festival showcases a diverse array of artistic expressions, including music, dance, theatre and visual arts.
• It received a Cultures of Resistance Award (CoR Award) in 2024.

Key Facts about Malawi:

• It is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa.
• It shares borders with Tanzania, Mozambique, and Zambia.
• Capital: Lilongwe
• Major languages: English and Chichewa (both official)
• Currency: Malawi kwacha (MWK)
• Endowed with spectacular highlands and extensive lakes, it occupies a narrow, curving strip of land along the East African Rift Valley.
• Lake Nyasa (one of the deepest lakes in the world), known in Malawi as Lake Malawi, accounts for more than one-fifth of the country’s total area.
• Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world. The economy is heavily dependent on agriculture, which employs over 80% of the population.

About Dzaleka Refugee Camp:

• It is the only permanent refugee camp in Malawi.
• It was established in 1994 in response to a surge of forcibly displaced people fleeing genocide, violence, and wars in Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). 
• For the past 30 years, the camp has received refugees and asylum seekers from Somalia, Ethiopia, and other countries.