Africa Is... in all of us

The arts are the beating heart of every culture and country. They’re what give expression to our ancestry and the part inside every person that feels a need to connect with others – and themselves. The embodiment of our spirit as Africans, and the lifeblood of our spaces and experiences.

Embedding the continent’s diverse art forms into all aspects, seen and unseen, yet always felt, is one way we celebrate our pride in being part of this vibrant continent that both honours inheritance and excels at innovation. This pride is embedded and integrated into our spaces and experiences – a way to journey through the natural history, contemporary culture and individual expression of each country.

Some of the oldest examples of art can be found on the African continent – rock paintings made with natural dyes and pigments. Marks, created from some innate human need to document the world around us, which depict the beauty and wonder of a specific moment in time. Inspired by the landscape – rocks, trees, animals, and daily life – they remind us how we are connected still, across ages.

You can see this art at Singita Malilangwe, a land preserved in its natural form and brought to life in celebrations of culture – both past and present. Pamushana and Malilangwe House proudly embody the region’s visual heritage. Every object, tile, pattern and artwork is inspired by both its natural, and cultural landscapes.

Guests who have visited Singita Volcanoes National Park will recall in vivid detail the graceful movements, elegant dress, and soaring voices of traditional Rwandan dance. During this dance, women wear mushananas – draped sashes over one shoulder and a skirt gathered at the hip, typically made from silk or lightweight fabric, that represent beauty, community, and joy. Men are adorned with beads and headdresses.

In Grumeti, too, your time by the fire may have been indelibly marked by moments spent witnessing the various traditional dances of Tanzania – their dress, energy, and spirit echoed by the sunset and flickering flames behind them.

Dance and song can be an expression of joy or sorrow, a call to celebration, a way to mourn, or even an announcement of war. Song is a primal and inherent instinct. We are constantly delving into African music even beyond our regions, across the continent, exploring the sounds of musicians from South Africa to Senegal.

Across all our regions, food is a form of expression and cultural pride, a way to communicate care and generosity, an appreciation of the abundance that comes from the land. In Grumeti, Executive Chef and Guest Experience Lead, Mia Neethling, has embarked on a journey of discovery and expression alongside her chefs, encouraging each to draw inspiration from their heritage and experiences – to share family recipes, removing them from the archives of time, by elevating them into contemporary dishes.

Dishes made by memory, with ingredients unique to the land – there is no greater art form than that which nourishes and sustains. But also, which highlights a true expression of a place. Food here is a gateway into Swahili culture and history.

Our Africa Is… series is another platform through which we help channel our continent’s culture, through collaborating with its creators and giving them space in nature to explore what moves them.

All these mediums of expression, while rooted in tradition, are unquestionably contemporary – a living, breathing evolution of what has come before, that paints a picture of Africa, now. Music, painting, sculpture, design, poetry, fashion; these all live in our spaces in varying degrees, in one form or another.

But it isn’t merely in the overt acts of creation and expression that we celebrate our cultural heritage. It’s also through the people who welcome and guide you during your time with us. Their stories and histories form a large part of the richness of the cultural journey that is Singita.