The story
Dzaleka Arts Day in Dzaleka Refugee Camp
Dzaleka Arts Day is associated with Dzaleka Refugee Camp in Dowa District, about 41 kilometres from Lilongwe, home to roughly 52,000 refugees as of 2024, most from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda and Somalia. The camp has a documented history of refugee-led creative activity, including the larger Tumaini Festival covered by the BBC, and an arts day in this context would plausibly connect to that same community arts tradition, though independent confirmation of this specific named event's dates and organisers could not be found.
Dzaleka Refugee Camp was established in Malawi's Dowa District in 1994 by the Malawian government and the UNHCR, and by 2024 was home to an estimated 52,000 people, with women and children making up about 93 percent of residents and new arrivals, largely from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi and Rwanda, continuing to arrive at a rate of hundreds per day in some periods.