In a world increasingly marked by division, WOMAD South Africa is using music and cultural exchange to create something more than performances: opportunities for connection, hope and a wider view of what is possible.
For Dan Chiorboli, WOMAD South Africa Festival Director, that idea is rooted in the festival’s original vision of bringing cultures together through music, arts and dance. WOMAD was founded in 1982 by Peter Gabriel and has since become an international platform for cultural exchange.
But in Cape Town, that vision is taking on an especially human dimension.
Through community outreach programmes, international artists are engaging with young people in communities where violence, trauma and limited resources can narrow their view of the world.
For Chiorboli, the power of culture lies in its ability to create connections where words sometimes fail.
“Music, art, and sports are common denominators to bring this together.”
He points to the Springboks as an example of how a shared experience can unite South Africans, arguing that artists and cultural practitioners can similarly create connections across borders.
“What we do as artists, as cultural activists, is probably more important than what the politicians can achieve,” he says.
A window to another world
One of WOMAD’s community partners is Yellowwood Primary School in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, whose choir has been selected to perform at the festival’s United 4 Humanity Peace Concert.
For Donovan Senosi, principal of Yellowwood Primary, the significance of music begins with the reality his learners experience every day.
Children in the community can be exposed to violence so frequently that its psychological impact can become almost invisible.
“They grow up traumatised, and in some terms they don’t even know it,” Senosi says.
Against this backdrop, he sees music as a form of emotional relief, as an alternative environment where children can experience something beyond the circumstances surrounding them.
“It brings relief to children.”
That impact is visible in the learners’ commitment to the school choir. Senosi describes seeing children return to school after dismissal simply to rehearse.
“When I go home at about 16:00, I’ll see them walking to school. Without fear.”
For him, music becomes more than entertainment.
“It’s a huge encouragement, and it’s a huge unifier. It gives them confidence… that it’s a little different world out there.”
Connecting cultures, connecting people
That “different world” is exactly what WOMAD is bringing into the lives of young people.
During a cultural exchange with Māori artists from New Zealand, Yellowwood learners were introduced to Māori traditions, language and the haka. The experience created an unexpected sense of familiarity and connection between cultures.
For Senosi, encounters like these can challenge young people’s understanding of what is different and reveal what people share.
“What WOMAD does beautifully is to open the eyes of the youth to things we regard as different, but it’s actually unifying indigenous cultures.”
For children whose access to the wider world may be restricted by economic circumstances, such encounters can become a window.
“By having this type of interaction, a window gets opened in their souls,” he says.
His hope is that once that window opens, young people begin to see their lives and their futures differently.
Love and unity
For Chiorboli, the change he hopes WOMAD leaves behind in Cape Town can be expressed simply: Love and unity.
“Let’s talk to each other. Let’s be kind. Let’s be nice to each other. Because we all deserve it.”
He believes South Africa sometimes underestimates what makes it unique; a country that has experienced enormous historical challenges while continuing to search for ways to come together.
And he believes the arts can play a role in that journey.
“What we’ve done as a Springbok team, a united Springbok team, we can do that with arts and culture.”
For Senosi, that transformation starts with giving children the opportunity to encounter something beyond their immediate surroundings.
For WOMAD, it means creating bridges between cultures.
And for the young people standing at the centre of that exchange, it may be as simple and as profound as discovering that the world is bigger than the circumstances they were born into.
