AFRIKABURN

I have no idea how to properly and accurately portray every feeling and memory I am currently filled with, but I want to share it with you.

            Afrikaburn is a regional event of Burning Man, the American desert fire festival. It revolves around the concept of erecting beautiful statues of art and then lighting them on fire. Due to the desert environment, the flames do not catch on anything else, and just tens of thousands of people watch while each log of wood kindles and spreads the heat.

            Just like any festival though, it has of course developed into much more than just that. This week-long event attracts “burners” from all around the world, creating a wild and riveting community in “Tankwa Town” (our temporary city in the desert – Burning Man’s is called “Black Rock City”), five hours outside Cape Town in the African desert. A majority of people stroll the open lands completely nude, focusing their lives on giving. This non-societal society thrives on generosity. Participants walk around giving so much, from free pancakes and coffee to massages and discussions. These adults are escaping their “real” lives and diving into their creativity, creating theme camps and vehicles. For example, the theme camp called “The Human Library” had you create a library card for yourself, utilizing the old school library system of opening the drawer and finding the location of the book. People who “checked you out of the library” or came and found you, could then ask you any question, reading you just like they would read a book. Meanwhile, elaborately decorated vehicles roamed through the desert at all times, offering to take you on a magic carpet ride, which one vehicle was decorated to look like, or to find you a dancing partner like on the Spirit Train.

            The ambience of this community-feel, everyone working to enhance each other’s experience, was incomparable to anything else I have ever experienced. It showed the power of human beings and challenged concepts of why we blindly accept so many societal expectations and norms.

            Throughout my five days at Afrikaburn, I paralleled a lot to Ultra and Reforest Fest, which I just now realized I never blogged about. Ultra was in February, a huge EDM festival organized by the same producers as Ultra in Miami. We bought a tent (since we knew we’d be using it for all these other events as well), camped out all weekend, and celebrated being young. On the contrary, Reforest Fest in March captivated an entirely different mindset. A few hours outside of Cape Town in the Platbos Forest, we dedicated our weekends to planting 8,000 trees, connecting with each other, strangers, and ourselves, but most importantly, connecting with nature. I engaged in myriad thought-provoking discussions and enlightening moments with myself, never feeling more alive and free. With rhythmic indie folk/chill music, it captured much different vibes than Ultra or even Afrikaburn. It focused on being nature, rather than challenging what we as humans can do with nature.

            I feel so fortunate and grateful to have been able to partake in all of these mind-altering events and recognize what a powerful impact they have made on my abroad experience, as well as on my overall life and myself. I know that Afrikaburn was not the end of this journey, but just a few gargantuan steps of it.