Moving People [1], an Asia-Africa network created for the occasion of the World Social Forum (WSF) in Nairobi, sponsored an area to facilitate cultural activities. Migration, refugees, exile, and population diasporas were at the center of their agenda. Through the Center for Creative Arts, Moving People, along with Poésie Afrique : Perspectives poétiques sur la migration (African Poetry: Poets’ Perspectives on Migration), offered a series of various styles of poems, from the traditional to the more caustic and political. Presented by poets from southern and eastern Africa -Zimbabwe, Uganda, South Africa, and of course Kenya-, this event revealed the fundamental role that culture plays next to the world’s political and economic problems. People have turned to poetry as a means of expressing and asserting their ideas!
In October of 2006, the Center for Creative Arts, based in a university in Durban, organized a festival to gather together thirty poets from thirty different countries, an innovative project mixing words and rhythm. Not surprising then, to find them again at the WSF for two days dedicated to poetry [2]. Several well-known poets, like Ntuli and Mashile, from South Africa, and Chiwoniso and Chirikuri, from Zimbabwe, participated in the opening and closing ceremonies of the WSF. As Monica Rorvik of the Center for Creative Arts remarked, “The theme of migration often takes the form of questions surrounding identity and culture. When one migrates, one’s identity can often get lost…”

As citizens, poets take an active part in the WSF 

	© Center for Creative Arts / Performances by African poets during the World Social Forum in Nairobi

In total, nearly 3000 artists from around the world participated in the Moving People program.  Set up for the Forum by @culture [1] (a collective of Indian artists and cultural organizations), this event offered a variety of artistic demonstrations, from art expositions to film screenings, all relating to the themes of the Forum: limited land access, neo-imperialism, and xenophobia. The emphasis was put on the commonalities between Africa and Asia, an intercontinental collaborative that is as fruitful as it unusual! In addition, part of Poésie Afrique took place outside the WSF, so that the poetry readings could enter into cultural life in Nairobi and become part of local communities. Demonstrating the strength of relationships between countries of the global south, countless new links emerged and new opportunities presented themselves, like when South African artist, Pitika Ntuli, was invited to open the next Zanzibar Film Festival.

All the poets live off their work 

Moving People, a convergence of art and social themes, covers many different issues, but has one primary aim: to create change through creative activity. The links between artistic works - which have become a force for mobilization - and political activism have grown progressively closer. The poets attending the Forum were thus involved in a conference that examined writing in an era of economic globalization. The objective is to demonstrate culture in action, by giving the Forum a touch of levity as well as by showing that cultural activity has an important role to play in political dialogue.

Notes :

[1]  @culture : site under construction

[2]  19 & 23 January 2007