Mbabane – Two Eswatini organisations, the Babukisi Foundation and the Eswatini Theatre Club, are among 11 additional organisations awarded grants through the Co-Creation of New Heritage Narratives call under the Africa-Europe Partnerships for Culture: Southern Africa Component.
Each organisation will receive funding of up to €55,000 to co-create innovative and inclusive heritage narratives that celebrate the region’s rich cultural diversity, strengthen community participation and foster meaningful cultural exchange across borders.
To ensure representation across the six project countries, the grant call was reopened, resulting in the selection of organisations from Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, South Africa and Zimbabwe. 
The full list of awarded organisations comprises ASSITEJ South Africa, the Babukisi Foundation, the Eswatini Theatre Club, the GEM Institute of Lesotho, Impact Fund Limited of Botswana, the Poetavango Collective, the Phansi Museum, the Sustaining Theatre and Dance Foundation, The Craft + Design Institute of South Africa, Women and Land Zimbabwe, and Youth Advocates of Zimbabwe.
The programme, funded by the European Union and implemented by the Goethe Institut, extended its appreciation to the jury members for their expertise and dedication throughout the selection process. They are Nobesuthu Rayi, Memory Biwa, Melanie Dlamini, Mamokuena Makhema, Gilmore Qhawe Khumalo and Tshireletso Modikwa.
Among the jurors is Melanie Dlamini, a strategic and values driven nonprofit leader and development practitioner with two decades of cross sector experience spanning cultural programming, youth development, public health, education and architectural and urban planning design in the US and Eswatini.
The other jury members bring wide ranging expertise. Rayi is a South African arts and culture professional who has served as artistic manager at the Port Elizabeth Opera House. Modikwa holds a Masters in Intellectual Property and works at the National Arts Council of Botswana as a Creatives and Cultural Development Manager. Khumalo is an award winning media practitioner, curator, researcher and cultural manager instrumental in nurturing emerging designers across Africa and beyond. Biwa is a historian and artist living between Windhoek and Berlin, whose ongoing research covers anticolonial resistance and genocide histories in Namibia, and she holds a PhD in Historical Studies from the University of the Western Cape. Makhema is the Director and Head Curator at the Morija Museum and Archives in Lesotho, with numerous outputs on television and film as a content creator, writer, director, producer and film lecturer.
