AfrikaBurn 2019
Mon Apr 29, 08:00 - Sun May 5, 17:00
Tankwa Town
ABOUT
The theme for AfrikaBurn 2019 is 'Ephemeropolis', which means 'an ephemeral city': Tankwa Town.
And even thus our city of a year
Must pass like those the shafted sunsets build,
Fleeting as all fair things and, fleeting, dear
A rainbow fallen and an anthem stilled.
A rainbow fallen- but within the soul
Its deep indubitable iris burns;
An anthem stilled yet for its ghostly goal
The incommunicable music yearns.
– George Sterling
Rising like a mirage out of the Tankwa dust is a city that many call home. A manifestation of our collective imagination, the culmination of our collective efforts. It comes and goes, and ebbs and flows. It’s transient, temporary and transitory. It’s neither here, nor there. It is real in its unrealness. It's an ephemeropolis.
In 2019, we once again gather to participate, collaborate and create - because the whole of Tankwa Town is created through our collective imagination and effort. What shape will it take? Who will you be, in this fantasy city where anything is possible, and where we have the opportunity to create everything, from nothing? The blank canvas awaits - all you need to do is dream, and build it, to make it happen.
Recommended reading:
- Join a project or find a camp
- Read more about the theme here.
VIDEO
GUIDING PRINCIPLES
cook or clean for you - or pay someone to set up & run your camp. It's a community of creators and doers, who all participate in creating Tankwa Town together - and whole experiment
is informed by a set of 11 principles (which are Burning Man's 10, with an addition).
These principles aren’t commandments, and they’re not rules – they’re ideals that offer guidelines to how we as a community can reinvent the world, and ourselves.
RADICAL INCLUSION
Everyone should be able to be a part of AfrikaBurn. As an intentional community, committed to inventing the world anew, we
actively pursue mechanisms to address imbalances and overcome barriers to participation, especially in light of past, current
and systemic injustice.
We welcome and respect the stranger. Anyone can belong.
GIFTING
We are devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.
DECOMMODIFICATION
In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.
RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE
AfrikaBurn encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.
RADICAL SELF-EXPRESSION
Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.
COMMUNAL EFFORT
Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.
CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY
We value civil society. Community members who organise events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with national and local laws.
LEAVING NO TRACE
Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.
PARTICIPATION
Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.
IMMEDIACY
Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.
EACH ONE TEACH ONE
As a self-reliant community, we believe the responsibility of spreading our culture lies with each and every one of us. All of us are custodians of our culture – when the opportunity presents itself, we pass knowledge on.