In an increasingly interconnected world, cultural exchange programs have emerged as one of the most powerful tools for fostering understanding, collaboration, and innovation across borders. According to UNESCO, cultural and creative industries generate annual revenues of over $2.25 trillion and employ nearly 30 million people worldwide.These programs allow people from diverse backgrounds to share their heritage, learn from one another, and create lasting bonds.
For Africa, a continent rich in cultural wealth yet often misrepresented on the global stage, cultural exchange programs offer a unique opportunity to reshape narratives, amplify voices, and drive mutual growth. Cultural exchange is more than a celebration of diversity; it is an essential vehicle for societal and economic progress. These programs play a crucial role in building mutual understanding, inspiring creativity, enhancing professional growth, and strengthening global solidarity.
At Arts Connect Africa, one of our focus areas for the year 2025 is cultural exchange projects. We believe that cultural exchange can provide enormous benefits for the creative industry in Africa. And that is why this week our focus will be on the MTN Bushfire Festival happening in Eswatini Southern Africa from 30th of May to the 1st of June 2025.
Globally infused, authentically African and proudly Eswatini, MTN Bushfire is one of Africa’s largest multicultural gatherings, illuminating the transformational power of the arts through our call to action for positive social and environmental change, #BRINGYOURFIRE. A diverse, inclusive and family-friendly music and arts festival set in a fantasy-scape of the imagination, MTN Bushfire takes place in the beautiful farmland and mountains of the peaceful Malkerns Valley in Eswatini. Every year, The festival welcomes Fire Starters from over 60 countries in Africa and beyond, to celebrate Africa Month for an energizing and uplifting weekend, with an eclectic program featuring some of the finest musical and artistic talents from across Africa and around the globe. Five-time Grammy Award-winning a cappella ensemble Ladysmith Black Mambazo will headline the festival this year.
A conscious celebration of unity in diversity and an inspiring emblem of social inclusion, MTN Bushfire Festival represents the kind of world we stand for at Arts Connect Africa, a community of change-makers, thought leaders, and creative problem solvers who unite in a celebration of the arts and in the spirit of taking action against discrimination, environmental degradation and poverty in Africa.
The MTN Bushfire Festival since its first edition in 2007 has always been focused on opening doors to new markets, audiences, and networks for cultural practitioners in Eswatini and Africa as whole. For example one of the headline acts that will participate in the festival this year will be Grupo MAVICHI, the winners of the 2024 Festival de Músicas del Pacífico in Colombia. Grupo MAVICHI is a Colombian group made up of 11 musicians who share a family legacy and a strong passion for reinforcing the historical and cultural ties between the Colombian Pacific and Africa. The MTN Bushfire festival is also part of a network of music festivals called IGODA. IGODA represents a unique collaboration that brings together the finest music festivals in Southern Africa. it has become one of the first touring circuits on the African continent.
However to founders Jiggs and Sholto Thorne, the festival is not just an avenue for fun and celebration, it is also a vehicle for creative activism. A regular feature of the MTN Bushfire Festival is the Collabonation an annual arts development project supported by MTN and produced by Bushfire Records. In which music artistes from different countries collaborate and put out a call to action for positive social and environmental change through music.
Arts Connect Africa (ACA) recognizes the crucial role of cultural exchange projects in enhancing the advancement and globalization of African music, arts and culture. Our mission is to continue to endorse and support similar noteworthy events across the continent that facilitate significant connections that empower African artists and their international peers.
Apart from MTN who is the title sponsor for the event, Bushfire Festival is also supported by multinational agencies and brands such as SABC, Corona, the European Union, United Nations (Eswatini), Coca Cola, Eswatini Air and several other brands and agencies.
We celebrate the co-founder of the MTN Bushfire Festival, Jiggs Thorne, our member from Eswatini who, even beyond the festival, has been at the forefront of leading meaningful cultural exchange projects that elevates African arts and culture. We support the MTN Bushfire festival for the cross-border collaborations, and knowledge-sharing platforms opportunities for African artists to engage with global audiences that it has created for nearly two decades.
For the festival schedule, news and preparations, visit the official MTN Bushfire website
