New creative hub to help artists
MBABANE - Kubukisa!
This is the newly developed phenomenon hub set to grace the growing entertainment industry in the country.
Kubukisa is to be thought of as the telephone directory where one can find all the local creators. This is a newly developed, up and running creative hub for artist in the country.
A creative hub is a place, either physical or virtual, which brings creative people together. It is a convenor, providing space and support for networking, business development and community engagement within the creative, cultural and tech sectors.
The brains behind this concept is Thuba Mamba: The founder of Kubukisa, a Software Engineer and Technology Consultant based in Johannesburg.
When elaborating on his ‘Kubukisa’, he said the inspiration came from a strong belief that Eswatini had some of the best creators, however, systemically.
Alienated
He said emaSwati were alienated and disadvantaged in opportunities outside and inside the country. One of the reasons such happens according to Mamba, was because often than not, there were limitations in knowing the kind of work these talented creators work on.
“Putting your work out there on the internet is one of the greatest assets and strategies any creator can employ in advancing their careers. Kubukisa seeks to solve this by allowing creators to showcase their work, get brand partnerships, bookings and monetise their brands, both locally and internationally,” he said.
In addition, he said the platform seeks to cater to a wide range of creators, from content creators, photographers, videographers, tech people, beauty influencers to writers, among others. “I have built it in such a way that everyone who seeks to advance their personal brands can showcase their work,” he said.
When asked on who could join or sign up for Kubukisa, Mamba said literally, anyone could join by visiting and signing up from the website.
“My plea is for creators to complete their profile upon signing up, which will make it easy for brands and everyone else to approach them based on their work. Be sure to upload a visual representation of your work and update your details such as your bio, awards, social media links,” he added.
Worth noting is that creative hubs are fast becoming a worldwide phenomenon. In the last 10 years, hundreds of innovative spaces where people can design, test, scale and launch enterprising new ideas have popped up around the world.
In the neighbouring country South Africa (SA), creative hubs have helped organise their creative economy, enabled innovation and development, and have allowed the entertainment sector to capitalise on technological advancements which facilitate greater audience reach and help transform people from consumers to creators.
When attesting to this, Mamba said countries with the most hip and hype creative scenes have invested in their creators and that he believed Kubukisa was an investment to the local creators in a bid to create a sustainable creative scene.
Entities
“This is something that can be done collectively and with this understanding, we are open for partnerships with brands and entities that seek to achieve the same vision as us: creating a sustainable creative industry and economy in Eswatini,” he said.
Mamba said his dream with Kubukisa was to see local and international brands partner with local creators for campaigns; for local DJs and producers to be exposed to international booking agents and venues; for local artists to be exposed to exhibitionist in as far Europe through Kubukisa. “All this is possible if we empower our people, he said”
In conclusion, Mamba said everything begins with creators. He once again pleaded with all local artist to sign up for their free accounts and take a step forward in building their personal brands.
When reacting to this new development in the entertainment scene, one of Eswatini’s iconic rappers, Size Killa, said this was a good investment for the artists in the country. He said this meant bigger exposure for them as artists.
“Many cultural and creative organisations react negatively to the world of business, yet we need sufficient financial resources to carry out the present and future activities as entertainers. The advantage is that this concept is also more of a big business model that focuses on creating, delivering and capturing value of an artist,” he said.
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