From 17 to 22 March 2026, the Festival of Art, Music and Culture for Peace, Non-Violence and Food Sovereignty will take place in Arusha, Tanzania.
The initiative is promoted as part of the activities of the World Humanist Forum’s thematic table on Music, Art and Culture and will feature the participation of numerous humanist artists from East and Southern Africa.
In addition to live music, the programme includes artistic performances, visual arts and creative expression, discussions on food sovereignty, dialogues for peace and non-violence, and a rich cultural exchange, essential for fostering understanding and solidarity among peoples.
It promises to be five inspiring days of creativity, unity, and deep communication, where artists, musicians, poets and community voices come together to celebrate peace, non-violence, culture, and food sovereignty.
The organisers emphasise the powerful qualities of art and dialogue in promoting the values of human dignity, care for the environment, and the right of communities to healthy, locally produced food.
The event will be hosted by the organisations Four Rivers of Blessings and MTO Wa Baraka.
The invitation, open to all, is to celebrate the power of art, culture, and community to build a peaceful and sustainable future.
The African Mount Meru
Near Arusha, within the national park of the same name, lies Mount Meru, an ancient volcano which, in an allegorical sense (and probably bearing no relation to this physical location), plays a central role in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain mythology as the spiritual centre of the universe, the site of creation and the abode of the gods. In these traditions, Mount Meru – whose literal meaning in Sanskrit is ‘high’ – connects heaven and earth, occupying a primordial space similar to the axis mundi in various cultures.
There is, however, also an African mythology linked to the Meru people, a Bantu ethnic group that arrived at the foothills of this mountain some 800 years ago, coming from Mount Kenya, a district where they also live today. A striking connection is the fact that this group of people ascended towards that territory in Kenya by following the River Tana from the ocean, on whose banks humanist activists now plan to establish a Park of Study and Reflection, similar to those existing on five continents, inspired by the teachings of Silo, thinker and spiritual guide of New Humanism.
According to the oral tradition of the Meru (Wameru in Swahili), humans spent their earliest days in a paradisiacal place called Mbwa (or Mbwaa), where they did not need to farm or wear clothes. Murungu (also known as Ngai or Mwene Nyaga in neighbouring Kenyan cultures) is the supreme creator deity in Meru cosmology.
This way, taking advantage of the proximity to Mount Meru in Africa, the aim is to spend the next five days of March connecting with the best of humanity from Arusha, Tanzania, and other locations, through a culture of peace and non-violence, creativity, and humanism.
