The Current V: Ancestral Ocean
Flotation #1: Listening into Waterways

August 29–September 6, 2026

Nairobi and Lamu

Natasha Ginwala is a curator, researcher, and writer, co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 16, artistic director of Colomboscope since 2019, and was Associate Curator at Large for Gropius Bau, Berlin (2018–2024). She also served as the artistic director of the 13th Gwangju Biennale. Ginwala has been part of the curatorial teams for the 8th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, Contour Biennale 8, documenta 14, and the Taipei Biennale 2012, and has co-curated several international exhibitions. Ginwala is a widely published author with a focus on contemporary art, visual culture, and social justice.

Shiraz Bayjoo is a Mauritian multidisciplinary artist working in film, painting, and installation, based in London. Originally from Mauritius, his research-based practice focuses on personal and public archives addressing cultural memory and postcolonial nationhood in the Indian Ocean region, including the intersection of colonial extraction and ecological erasure within enslaved and plantation landscapes. 
 

Sana Ginwalla is a curator, artist, and archivist, born, raised, and based in Lusaka. With roots in India and Burma, her work explores identity, migration, and belonging. She is the founder of Everyday Lusaka and Zambia Belonging, initiatives that make visible what lies at the margins of memory.

Batila is a Congolese musician, performer, singer, and songwriter based in Berlin. A poet and musician from age ten, he developed a powerful relationship with ancestral rhythms and storytelling. Batila bridges the past with the present, blending Congolese traditions with reggae, jazz, and electronic sounds to create his signature "Bantu Soul". 

Priya Basil is a writer of fiction and non-fiction and a curator based in Berlin. Her work draws on her trans-territorial roots to weave across genres and cultures, from family histories (Be My Guest) to what questions emerge when writers encounter museum collections (Objects Talk Back).

Parisa Vaziri is a scholar of comparative literature and film, based in Ithaca, NY. In her first book project, Racial Blackness and Indian Ocean Slavery: Iran’s Cinematic Archive, she places the understudied history of African enslavement in the Indian Ocean in relation to the history of transatlantic slavery.

Azza Satti, creative producer and cultural strategist, Ground Coordinator of Flotation #1

Anja Bengelstorff, journalist, co-founder and director of the Macondo Literary Festival

Keith Ang'ana, writer, researcher, historian, and the founder of the youth literary collective Qwani

Natasha Muhanji, writer and editor

Mutinda Kilonzo, writer and creative director at Qwani

Cheche Books Bookstore

Syowia Kyambi, interdisciplinary artist, educator, and curator

Ciaran Nash, web developer with a background in socially engaged art

Ogutu Muraya, storyteller, performance artist, and writer

Renée Akitelek Mboya, writer, curator, and filmmaker

Mo Amin Archive, digital and physical collection preserving the life work of Kenyan photojournalist Mohamed "Mo" Amin

Salim Amin, documentary maker, Founder of Camerapix and the Mo Amin Archive

Caleb Ouma, Head of Archives at Mo Amin Archive

Rosie Olang’ Odhiambo, writer, independent artist, curator, and bookmaker

Contemporary And (C&) Nairobi

Santuri East Africa (Amondo Onyango-Obbo)

Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute, a non-profit visual art space dedicated to the growth and preservation of contemporary art in East Africa

Omar Kibulanga, Swahili filmmaker and activist 

Mahmoud Ahmed Abdulkadir (Ustadh Mau), Muslim scholar, poet and imam

Khadija Issa Twahir, librarian and archivist, National Museums of Kenya, Lamu Fort Library

Lamu Youth Alliance, a community-driven organization empowering youth through education, creativity, and sustainability

Lamu Mangrove Nurseries: Safari Swimmers, Kililana Youth Group and Matondoni Tarazak Women Group

Fundi Hamadi, traditional dhow master

Tabu Osusa, East African music producer, author, and mentor. Founder of Ketebul Music and Singing Wells

Ketebul Music, a non-profit in Nairobi preserving, developing and promoting the diverse musical traditions and heritage of East Africa 

Singing Wells, project recording, archiving and sharing the traditional music of East Africa 

Kenge Kenge, a music ensemble from Western Kenya rooted in the cultural heritage of the Luo people of Lake Victoria

Kamene Cultural Practice and Research Space, a collaborative creative hub dedicated to enhancing the quality of African cultural practices

Kaloki Nyamai, artist and founder of the Kamene Cultural Center

Jeanne Onkoba, Kamene Cultural Center Coordinator

The fifth cycle of The Current fellowship program (2026–2028), entitled Ancestral Ocean and led by Natasha Ginwala, traces oceanic kinships, cultural languages, embodied legacies, ancestral memory, and marine historiographies resonant across the Indian Ocean World, with particular emphasis on islands connecting Afrasian pasts, presents, and futures, cultivating site-responsive artistic and scientific practices across island and coastal nodes. Supporting engagements within culturally rooted contexts that encourage slow, conscious mobility and deep listening, The Current V aims to cultivate long-term relationships across the Indian Ocean basin, expanding TBA21’s long-standing commitment to pan-oceanic alliances.

Organized as a curatorial fellowship program, The Current is a pioneering initiative that cultivates transdisciplinary practices and the exchange of ideas around the Ocean and its understanding. It aims to form strong connections to local networks, map the contemporary issues concerning watery worlds, and weave them into an interdisciplinary conversation, embracing the spheres of science, conservation, policy, and education. 

Each cycle of The Current is led by one or more curatorial fellows selected by the Academy, who in turn nominate artists, scientists, environmentalists, and other cultural actors to join a collective research project unfolding over three years. Since its inception in 2015, cycles of the fellowship program have been led by curators Ute Meta Bauer, Cesar Garcia, Chus Martínez, Barbara Casavecchia, and Yina Jiménez Suriel, and the artist group SUPERFLEX.