Regeneration Festival
The Regeneration Festival is a cultural and ecological gathering that reawakens the traditional spirit of the Village barazas. For generations, barazas were places where communities shared stories, strengthened social bonds, and passed down traditional knowledge. Today, the festival revives these spaces as inclusive, intergenerational platforms where elders, youth, women, and community leaders come together to reflect, learn, and celebrate.
The festival highlights the deep connection between culture, nature, water, and climate change, showing how traditional knowledge can guide community-led regeneration. Through our Regeneration Project, we developed a Framework for Regeneration Festival & Village Barazas, capturing how barazas worked in the past and how they can now promote equity, shared voices, and ecological restoration.
Overall, the festival aims to strengthen Samia cultural identity, rebuild intergenerational relationships, and empower youth to lead in climate action, cultural preservation, and community regeneration.
Our long-term vision is to establish the Regeneration Festival as an annual cultural and ecological movement for the Samia community.
2026 Edition - Launch Year
Our Pioneer Regeneration Festival took place on 21 March 2026 at the Bumbe Cultural Centre in Busia County, bringing together youth, elders, and community members for dialogue, reflection, and regeneration.
Our first edition brought the community together for storytelling, intergenerational conversations and interactive climate dialogue. Youth, Women and elders came together not just to listen, but to question and share perspectives. At one point, Women asked why they are not allowed into granaries. Elders explained the tradition, but the youth challenged it opening honest discussion around fairness and respect.
During the event, we launched our Book: The Reparations of Wisdom, Stories from the Samia Cultural Revival and gifted several copies to the participants.
What became clear is that the community wants more spaces like this. We committed to continue these conversations and strengthen practical actions to many challenges that face our community.
This does not end here!