AFROVIBES FRIDAY

Buhle Ngaba is a multi-award winning South African actor, writer and speaker. Her research and performance interests include developing new thought processes around the role of storytelling and creativity in unearthing and amplifying African women’s voices from the archive; to inspire new narratives and push the boundaries of performance. Buhle studied Acting and Contemporary performance at Rhodes University and Processes of Performance at the University of Leeds (UK). She performed in the world premiere of John Kani’s play Missing at the Baxter Theatre (SA) and went on to tour internationally with the production earning her nominations for the “Best Supporting Actress” for the South African Fleur Du Cap Theatre Awards as well as the Naledi Theatre Awards.

Mahutin Awunou – host
As an Inclusive Dialogue Expert, Mahutin specializes in guiding conversations between diverse groups and perspectives. She facilitates safe spaces where people feel heard and seen. With her warm presence, calm energy, and sharp eye, she builds bridges between worlds that do not naturally meet, and creates space for urgent stories that need to be told.

She brings over ten years of experience in the fields of inclusion and equity within the cultural sector and education. As a program maker at Art & Community in the Bijlmer Parktheater (2013) and as a lecturer in Social Work at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, she developed innovative educational trajectories and artistic-social context programs.

For young people, she has developed cultural, artistic, and educational programs such as Theater of the Now at Maaspodium (2021–2024) and Music Matters (2021–2023) in Rotterdam. Themes such as identity, sense of belonging, anti-racism, and decolonization run as a common thread through her work and also return in her role as community builder. She is one of the founding mothers of the SeSi Community Center at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (2018), where inclusive learning environments are fostered through co-creation with students.

Mahutin brings these different roles into her work as a moderator, host, and facilitator. She actively engages with content and form, enriching programs with meaning and quality. Thanks to her broad knowledge, natural leadership, and strong sense of atmosphere, she makes complex themes effortlessly accessible to a wide audience.

Jay Pather is a choreographer, curator and academic. Based in Cape Town, he is a Professor and directs the Institute for Creative Arts at UCT, curates Infecting the City Public Art Festival and the ICA Live Art Festival. He also curates for Afrovibes in the Netherlands and for the Bienalle of Body, Image Movement in Madrid is curatorial adviser for Live Art for Season Africa 2020 in various cities in France. He has co-curated for Spielart in Munich and has been Adjunct Curator for Performance at the Zeitz MOCAA. Recent addresses include for Festival of the Future City (UK), Independent Curators International (New York) and at the Haus der Kunst (Munich). He has recently published a book, Transgressions, Live Art in South Africa with Catherine Boulle, Recent articles appear in Changing Metropolis ll, Rogue Urbanism, Performing Cities and Where Strangers Meet. He chaired the jury for the recent International Award for Public Art, was appointed Fellow at the University of London and was recently made Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) by the French Government.