MAUN INTERNATIONAL ARTS FESTIVAL (MIAF)

The Maun International Arts Festival (MIAF) is an all-inclusive ARTS gala taking place every October/November in Maun, Botswana. The festival brings to the country an assortment of refined artistic expressions from local, national and international participants. A comprehensive festival which has been in existence since 2011, MIAF8 celebrates the arts through performances and displays and also fosters for artist development through a series of workshops and symposiums.

The weeklong MIAF8 features various activities taking place in the town of Maun, spanning across performance, literary, film and the visual arts. One of the main objectives of the MIAF is to promote arts and culture, particularly the arts and culture in Botswana and Africa.

The MIAF has hosted participants from different parts of the world, from various African states as well as from all the four corners of the Botswana presenting in various artists forms such as comedy, theatre, poetry, live music, dance, visual arts, literature, and so forth.

As much as the festival fosters arts creativity and instills a sense of cultural pride, it also seeks to brand the country of Botswana as a first-rate tourist destination area. The festival takes place in the Northwest region, a section of the country which is immensely rich in both culture and wild nature. However, there hasn’t been much effort targeted to underpinning the dense cultural wealth of this region. With a diversity of unique ethnics co-existing in the northwest region, this area is composed of multicultural, polyglot societies stitched in a vibrant quilt that displays a serene and peaceful social milieu.

The festival helps preserve and promote local cultures by showcasing traditional/cultural elements of Botswana, such as dance, song, and cuisine.

It is a fact that the Northwest region is home to the mighty Okavango Delta which has been listed as a world heritage site. With weeklong activities taking place in various platforms around the town, the Maun International Arts Festival seeks to give tourists an opportunity to interact with local cultures, and get to appreciate that apart from the lush greens of the wild, there is, in this country, a pulsing cultural heritage – the heartbeat of the people of Botswana.

The organisers seek to make the Maun International Arts Festival (MIAF) an identity of the Northwest (Ngamiland/Okavango) region. With support from all relevant structures, the MIAF is already becoming the signature event of the Northwest, and indeed, of the entire country of Botswana.