As a company that believes in the transformative power of the arts and aims to use its work as a catalyst for dialogue, the initial weeks of 2020 couldn’t have been at once more exciting and more humbling.

Kaimera was invited by the Collaboratory program at the US State Department, the US Embassy in Mozambique, and the Slave Wrecks Project of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture to explore the possibility of using our SPACES project as a connecting tissue between the artifacts retrieved from the sunken slave ships discovered off the shores of Ilha de Moçambique (the Island of Mozambique), and the past and present real life experiences of those living on the Island, where economic opportunities are scarce. Our team spent time in Maputo, the country’s capital, and in Ilha de Moçambique, where the project will take place. We met inspiring artists, organizations, scholars, local community leaders and community members. These encounters made this exploratory trip as rich and transformative as we anticipated.

We are now reflecting on our experience, exploring ways in which our work can be of service to the needs of the local community, while being fully conscious of the complex context and history, of our ignorance, and of our privilege as outsiders. Yes, this may be the toughest project our team has encountered to date, but we hope to do it justice.