Life in eSwatini: PART ONE

Kingdom of eSwatini flag

Travel is more than a hobby or a luxury for me, it is a fully emotional and sensory experience that brings me a lot of peace and joy. The thought of going to a new destination, whether it is by foot, road, train or plane to observe and take part in the life there excites me and the tiny adult living inside in me lights up if some of these travels are professional trips. Earlier this year, I had the privilege of getting one such a gig in the beautiful Kingdom of eSwatini, or for the uncultured, the country formerly known as Swaziland. For three and a half months I got to work at the best festival on the continent, MTN Bushfire as an Artist Liaison Assistant HOD for the 13th edition of the festival. Thinking about that time makes me feel delirious and proud. It was the most rewarding, stressful, enjoyable, challenging, and exciting period of my adult life so far. I got to work with some really inspiring, smart, lively and colorful group of people and together we made MTN Bushfire 2019 another success.

My original intention was to just paint a broad picture of the trip and give a colorful summary of the whole experience. There is so much I could talk about from that time which I learned about myself, life, work, and relationships. After two days of trying to compress all of that into one post, I finally realized to express them in three succinct but vivid anecdotes. This is the first and the upcoming titles include Lessons from eSwatini: PART TWO and Leaving eSwatini: PART THREE which will be about the ten things I learned from the trip and how I dealt with coming back home after being on my own for the first time which I will share in the next few weeks.

I spent a quiet and lit New Year in our capital city Lilongwe with my best friend and as we headed back to Blantyre; I pondered how the year would go. Lets face it, 2018 was a rough year, even a most basic Internet or social media search would show that was the one thing most people seemed to agree on. Personally, last year was terrible because of how emotionally and professionally turbulent it was. I had an emotional breakdown before overworking and stressing myself into exhaustion. I even started going to therapy because I found myself unable to cope. Naturally, I was optimistic about 2019, and the only resolution I made was to take better care of myself and listen to God more. By February, I had made small strides in my healing and during this time is when I also realized that because of this need I have to make other people happy and take care of them; it disconnected my voice. All I could see were these caricatures of what other people expected me to be covering my true identity. I was resolute to do anything or go anywhere to find my voice again and that's when the opportunity came.
A friend, inspiration and later boss who works for the festival encouraged me to apply when they put out the call for volunteers and after a good phone interview, they asked me if I could travel to eSwatini by or on 1st March and I eventually agreed. I struggled with some guilt about going because it meant I was placing my needs above the work and responsibilities I had in Blantyre and that was a feeling I was not used to. After a lot of prayers, promises, poor packing and mental preparation, I left Blantyre on 1st March and headed down south.

Photographic summary of my first weekend at the Marula Festival

Malawi and eSwatini are similar in a lot of cultural, social and physical ways. We are both small, landlocked countries with small populations when compared to other African nations, though obviously Malawi's 18.6 million is significantly higher than eSwatini's 1.3 million.  Both cultures are woven evidence of rich, intricate, and mysterious histories and traditions. Both countries are gorgeous with vast and verdant landscapes and mountains that are pleasing to the eye and soul. Our people love their rest and food. How people live in their day-to-day lives and work ethic is alike though I can commend the Swazis for having more cultural pride than Malawians. Similar to Malawi, the Kingdom has only recently seen the value of the arts through the efforts of MTN Bushfire and its "Bring Your Fire" initiatives that have positively changed the local community and the country. My favorite is the Schools' Festival, which happens one week before the main festival. They created it in response to the lack of a formal arts curriculum in eSwatini's public schools. Hundreds of young students from across the country get to take part in a week of interactive arts with social responsibility themes at the same site where the popular festival takes place.

Many people would say that I disappeared in those months, I was barely active on social media and only kept up with a few loved ones who also complained about how infrequent our chats were. The fun welcoming weekend ended and the real work came in on Monday and I had to dive right in and. Get. Stuff. Done. When there are 33,000 guests in attendance, communication, speed, passion, quick thinking, hard work, and teamwork have to be a part of everything you do. I think creatives, naturally, have their own corporate culture which has its own unique systems and navigating such a dynamic force is not a skill for the faint of heart. My mum had attempted to teach me about creating spreadsheets for four years and at this new job I had to learn everything from spreadsheets to contracts in four minutes, four hours or four days while still taking care of all my other responsibilities.

An Artist Liaison serves as the point of communication and contact between the festival and the artist. As a wise woman once told me, "Your Job is to troubleshoot." And when I looked up the definition for confirmation, I immediately felt eustress. It means to "solve serious problems for a company or other organization" and yeah there is always something to solve where there are artists involved. There were about 55 bands that performed at the festival and I was responsible for communications between these bands and the relevant departments in the festival while my colleague/secondary boss managed logistics.  Be prepared for anything and adapt when anything happens when planning a festival. Though I enjoy being both sides, experiencing an event as a performer differs completely from working behind the scenes, the latter is more unpredictable and requires community and control which makes it more interactive and satisfying.

By the time we got to May I was running on coffee (shout out Underfire team!), late nights, jokes, random nights of fun and a determination to keep learning and doing my best. I was no stranger to that panicky jittery happy feeling that comes with an impending event, seeing the days inch closer and closer to the reality of the thing you have been working on for so long. I am one of the co-founders of WAFE that has been happening since 2015 and we are familiar with those emotions. The major difference was that there was a lot more at stake being in eSwatini because I had come a long way and it was not my project so I had to treat it with a different respect.

I don't remember everything because I only slept 6 hours over the three days of the festival. However, I have vivid recollections of unforgettable moments like this one:

When Malawians meet! Street performers Kufewa Acrobatics also performed at the festival!

I got to hear, watch, meet, and interact with some of the best artists Africa and the world has to offer. I had to deal with some interesting scenarios quickly and delicately because "the show must go on." I got to see people from all over the world of different ages, sex and races just enjoy the experience we had created for them. I got to do what I love with people I had grown to love.
This video, taken when my awesome boss took me to see Black Motion perform, perfectly surmises how those three and a half months felt building up to the biggest three nights of music, art, and culture the continent has to offer. It was overwhelming joy and anxiety all at once, and I was happy with my decision to come and have this experience. I knew in that moment that my life would never be the same and change for the better.