The Big Question. What’s through the prism? What if it ran on kindness instead of capital? Are we missing the point? Will you dance, sing or act? What if the veil was never placed between us and the truth? What the actual fuck? What are you carrying, and what are you ready to let the current take? What new patterns become possible when we remember that we are held in relation to one another? What if every encounter matters? Do you know who I am? What ancient wisdom, forgotten dreams and deeper connections come back into focus? What brings us together? What does love taste like? What if this theme asks more of us? Are we there yet? What would you do if you had the whole time of your life – unchained? What realities become possible when conventional limits are suspended? What if the stranger you share a drink with changes your life? Now that we are together, what do we do? Yes, and? What if Tankwa Town became a place where we explored depth, flow, reflection, the space between the surface and what lies beneath? When did you stop singing? What sparks transformation? What has to come undone? What the fuck is AfrikaBurn? Will you work hard to finish off the last problems? What does love look like? What lies in the Great Beyond? Is there a masterpiece in your mind to be created? What if the veil is part of the truth? What lives in the space between us? Did you notice anything? How do we relate to such liminal threshold spaces? What if one wrong turn in the dust leads you to your new best friend? What does love feel like? And what new worlds can emerge when we become catalysts for one another? What if a small act of kindness creates a ripple that reaches people you’ll never meet? Who would you be if no story explained you? Who is missing from this world and why? What thread will you bring? When did you stop dancing? Yes, but did you die? What’s next? Is our past – and our present – already part of the future? What does love sound like? Once we have seen through the prism, what truths do we recognise? What is the world where there is no need to work? Are you fucking kidding me? Will you transform your life into an everyday party? What if made space for the strange, the sacred, and the stubbornly human? How does an “I” become a “we”? When did you stop being enchanted by stories? What does love smell like? Are we alone? What if the dream is real? What does a future shaped by radical inclusion, decommodification, and civic imagination actually look like? Is this the beginning of the end or the end for a new beginning? Why Alchemy? What are we weaving together as an interdependent system? Don’t we all need transformation, healing, and regeneration in our lives? What needs to be repaired? Whose future are we actually building? Has anyone heard the rumours? What if this theme asks more of us? But what if we were wondering wrong? How do we connect? Now that you know who you are, who do you want to become? And what do creatures do, once they have transformed? Now what lies at the end of the rainbow? What happens when we become catalysts for one another? Where do those scattered fragments land? Do we have an agenda? What healing, creative, incredible potential does the energy created in this one week at the Burn have on the world as all those strands go back out into the default world again? If reality is subjective and possibility is endless, what kind of world can we create? Are we the theme? What is our place in existence? What does community mean to you? What changed over the past few years? What’s on the other side?
AfrikaBurn. April 26 – May 2 2027, Tankwa Karoo, South Africa.
This year’s theme was put together by: Thulani Vincent Mvandaba, Sarah, Lucie Krahulcova, Lynray Barends, Colleen Murray, Aruna Singh, GJ de Beer, Marcos Andrade, Melissa Andrews, Frank, Alexa Tucker, Monique Human, Henry, Heather, Liz Wilford-Smith, Ali Hannah, Tertius Fogwill, Lee O’Connor, Claire Allen, Lee-Ann Watson, Patricia Baptiste, Rene Maree, Shayna Eigen, Marius Snyman, Antonia Roth, Kerry-Ann, Darren Sheer, Colleen Goko, Aryna Edwards, Reza, Sabelo, Yuliya, Jolene, Tremaine Seekoei, Hennie, Zonja Terblanche, Rameez Hanslo, Mark Humphry, Aris Molfetas, Kaya Searll, Ernesto, Ebeline Anderson, Janina Masojada, Shayna, Peter de Jong, Jess, Noludwe (Nala) Tom, Leonie, Claudi Uffhaus, Dane Marais, Bianca Sassow, Liz Hofmeyr, Mikhail, Reabetswe Makhambeni, Tim Eberhardt, Lauren Combrink, Storm, John, Lorenzo, Flag, De Abreu, Raya, Jan-Willem Kruijt, Jessica Lauren Robertson, Nick Paul, James Bisset, Natalie-Anne Latheron, Michael, Ingrid af Sandeberg, Ilan Scher, Chantell, Pieter Holtzhausen, Odile Momberg, Maudie, Ray de Villiers, Christopher McGuire, Oksana Lukina, Fabian Ortiz, Judy Hall, Adam Barry, Alick Ross, Henk Badenhorst, Nadia Oshry, Tim Alex, Gavin Bodill (T1000), Stefan Olaru, Gemma, Richard Starkey, Herman vd Westhuizen, Somilangaye Mtiki, Silvio Cianciullo, Callum Stout, Vanessa Gafoor, Andrew Batchelor, Madalina Buciuman, Floris Ariens, Rens Rezelman, Piet, Tatiana, Lexy, Kerry Anne, Aimee, Jessica, Megan, Maya, Nelson, Remi, Loz, Tim, Brain, Kelly, Brad.
We had almost 100 theme submissions this year, ranging from ancient alchemy to collective murmuration, and, as we read through them all, we began to notice one thing all the suggested themes had in common – almost all of them were asking questions in one form or another. Some questions were about AfrikaBurn itself, others about what it means to be a burner, big questions, small questions, even silly questions, but all of them asking what this next step in our evolution looks like.
Upon discovering this thread, we also sat and started to listen to the questions flying all around us … at volunteer gatherings, at meetings, at the kitchen sink. We heard even more questions being asked, looking at the world around us and trying to make sense of it all.
For this year’s theme, we invite you to be curious and ask all the questions you want to, all the questions you need to, and all the questions you were afraid to ask before. We don’t want any answers, we want you to be bold, be brave and question everything.
