Kilombu is a dream

A multicultural space free of an oppressor is a romantic notion.

Kilombu takes patience and time to understand because it's not something we have experienced before.

There's a lot of misunderstandings, misgivings, and incompatible values in our multicultural world, and blending lives across many cultures and races can be challenging for any country. To occupy the cultural spaces of both the oppressor and the oppressed can be confusing, contradictory, and demoralizing at the best of times. I disliked knowing this truth and so, my childhood was road maps and foreign languages. I only dreamed about an escape. Kilombu grew to be a place in my head where all my dreams happened. I wanted to exist in a place that didn't reject my existence as insufficient. I wanted to experience multiculturalism that wasn't based in colonialism. I wanted a place where I could experience everything that made me happy; and that was Kilombu. But what is that?

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As an adult, every activity I pursue, every passage I write, it's in the attempt to make Kilombu ever more real with each passing year. Every character I paint, every scene I create, lives on the timeline of Kilombu's history. It represents a world that unlocks a complex peace that humanity hasn’t quite figured out yet.

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So much of our cultures have been altered through the pains of globalization and if we choose to expand on traditional storytelling we could accumulate lessons and experiences that could link similar communities across borders.

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As humans we have always tended to separate ourselves from others. At least, it has always seemed this way. We seem to be unaware of the similarities that come from our climate zones and don't quite realize how these have built into our cultural values. As a species, we aren't quite self-aware enough to know that we have always had the option to make peace or to fight over our attributes. We see the other as either valuable or threatening. Colonialism helped to deepen the shadows, as things were assimilated, amalgamated, abandoned, or abolished. There's no way to totally know everything that we used to be, and thats part of the journey of humanity. For the good and the bad. It's something we all have to accept.

But we now live in an age where we can learn directly from each other's cultural strengths, symbols and strategies to better thrive in this world, like never before. There are many connections to be made between our diverse cultures as seen in our shared flora, fauna, frustrations, and fantasies. And there's also plenty to unlearn from each other. Such as our dependence on over-consumption, ego, vanity, and out ever-widening gap from our environment.

Kilombu is place that feels like pieces of so many others. A collage of blended and shared experiences among Global South citizens coming from nations like Brazil, Senegal, Thailand, Egypt, India, Paraguay, Jamaica, China, Kenya, Mexico, Ghana, Vietnam, or Nigeria, among many many others.

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For many of us with roots and ties to these nations, we know all to well the legacy of colonialism that has brought about collective trauma and cultural confusion. But we also hold on to the importance of heritage in the stories we tell, and in the cultural knowledge that we carry. We know the Global South carries within it a wealth of joy, resilience, and cultural wisdom that is often overlooked or undervalued by the west. We can engage in a mutual exchange of knowledge, drawing parallels between our histories and futures. There are new ways that we can to define the experience of humanity and it starts and ends with sharing.

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Let's teach and learn each other our languages and the lessons from your gods. Let's show each other the paradise we've each found on earth and protect it together. Let's show and learn how our crops are grown and harvested. Let's show each other how we express ourselves and show the stories we have hidden in our symbols. 

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Kilombu is a story where we can build a new sense of communal pride. It's a place where the next generation of leaders, thinkers, and creators can draw inspiration not only from their local contexts but from the shared story of the Global South. It's a space to take a fictional version of humanity and make it a reality.