Zuhura Seng’enge, writer, volunteer, CDEA.

Zuhura Seng’enge is a graduate from the University of Dar es salaam currently volunteering with Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA). She has been very inspired by literature (especially poetry) since her childhood. She wrote her first poem in primary school at age 12, and since then poetry has always been her way of expressing herself and inspiring others .  As a poet Zuhura has participated in events such as; The Woman Scream International Poetry Festival (2014 and 2015), The Swahili Carnival (2014), One Biliion Rising (2015),  the first Dar Poetry Festival (2015), and also got the chance to attend the 3^rd Editorial and Publishing Training Programme (2015) in Kampala.

She is involved with groups such as: La Poetista- Poetry Tanzania and Waka Poetry Consortium Tanzania, where she participates in various projects that promote social cohesion and inspire change. Her dream is to inspire young people to use Art as a tool for change and development in their lives.

Kemi Kalikawe, MD, Naledi Fashion House

Kemi Kalikawe is   Tanzanian Fashion and Interior Designer, Art Director & creative entrepreneur by profession.

She established Naledi Fashion House in 2008. She has had the opportunity to merge her two passions  of fashion and design to work as an art director in film and TV. Naledi which means “star” in Setswana is now an independent design company based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Angela Kilusungu, Audio-visual Programme Officer CDEA

Angela Herman Kilusungu holds a BA in Mass Communication from St. Augustine University of Tanzania majoring in Broadcasting.  Angela is currently works for Culture and Development East Africa (CDEA), a creative think tank based in Dar es Salaam, as the Audio-visual Incubator Programme Officer. Through this role, Angela provides programmatic, strategic, administrative support to incubatees who are emerging filmmakers and conscious musicians. This incubator aims to enhance the creative expression through online and off-line platforms such as CDEA’s film lab, Midundo Online Radio and the East African Vibes Concert (EAVC). She also hosts the Binti Longa Programme, on Midundo Online Radio that focuses on women’s empowerment. Angela’s interest in promoting creative expression online, has drawn her interest to the area of internet freedom legal frameworks, privacy, safety and security online.

Grace Matata, Musician/Business Development Manager, CDEA

Grace has five  years’ experience in the creative industry as an entrepreneur and an artist. She has a Bachelor Degree in Tax Management and four years background in sales, customer relations and operations in shipping and logistics sector. With a passion for culture and music, she has been involved in organizing and coordinating events in and around Dar Es Salaam with a vision of  eventually starting a music festival. She also owns and manages a live band with its home base in Dar Ea Salaam. Grace is a creative, energetic and passionate individual who understands the value of art and the great role it can play in influencing social change. Her goal is to one day create sustainable programs that will see formal music education provided in public schools in Tanzania.

Clare Musila, Founder and Creative Director, Ruka Jewellery

Ugandan-born Financier turned jewellery designer, Clare Musila, was born & raised in Uganda & Kenya. Growing up, she was always drawn to the rawness  of the environment and what it had to offer. An ardent lover of nature and  art, she often grabbed the nearest blank canvas and doodled as much as she

saw fit; which was usually until there was no more blank left on the canvas.

At the age of nine, she made her first pair of open sandals with some card-board, string and super glue. They crumbled after a few steps, but she was hooked – she had just created her first piece. Musila went

on to make her first anklet, using a packet of seed beads and some string that her Aunt had bought for her at the local crafts shop in Nairobi, Kenya. This started her love for all things jewellery design.

Years later, Musila embraced her passion for both jewellery and design by starting her own jewellery design house. She started the design house to create custom bohemian jewelry for the quintessential self-expressionist – me, you, her and him. Musila recognizes that jewellery is one of the best channels

of self-expression, and hence, communication. Each of us is unique, and the opportunity to express ourselves using nature’s material is a formidable feat.

Ruka stems from the Swahili word, ‘Kuruka’, meaning jump. The best way to spread your wings and rise is to stand out. Attesting to the brand, Musila proudly presents Ruka Jewellery, a jewellery design house, embracing, emulating and merging the best of the Pearl of Africa and the rest of the world, with bold and intrepid designs and emblems.

Lydia Nyachiro Kasese, writer, Advisory Board Member CDEA

Nyachiro Lydia Kasese is a Tanzanian writer, poet and media specialist among other things. Her first collection of poetry Paper Dolls was published in 2016 by the African Poetry Book Fund in their chapbook collection. Her poem Things That Were Lost In Our Vaginas was shortlisted by the BNPA poetry prize in 2014 and her short story Inside Outside was long listed by Writivism in the same year.