Hope Azeda

Founder & Artistic Director/Festival Curator, Mashirika Performing Arts & Media Company/Ubumuntu arts organisation

Hope Azeda is the founder and artistic director of Mashirika Performing Arts, a leading theatre company in Kigali Rwanda. Under her direction, the group collaboratively created Africa's hope, which was performed in Kigali at the 10th anniversary commemoration of the genocide, and also at the G8 World Summit in Edinburgh in 2005. Mashirika's mission statement is that the arts are not only for entertainment but also a tool for social transformation and a source of employment. Hope's work as a writer, performer and teacher has taken her to many theaters and universities around the world. She has also been an artist-in-residence at the Institute for the Arts and Civic Dialogue in Cambridge-Massachusetts, an alumni of Brown University International advanced research institute in 2013, and a member of the Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab ,.In addition to her theatre work, she served as a casting director for the films Sometimes in April, Shake Hands with the Devil, Beyond the gates, white light and Africa United. She is currently the president of ARTEJ/ASSITEJ Rwanda (International Association of Theaters for Children and Young People) vice president of IRIZA CART(The Rwandan association for cineastes Hope Azeda's vision for the arts is to develop a home grown global methodology, create a professional institution to elevate the arts and culture in the region with the aim of blending in the global trend of creative industries based on the values of humanity. Hope is also a graduate of Makerere University, Kampala-Uganda in Music, Dance and Drama, with professional specialization in Theatre Education. Hope Azeda is married to George Katureebe and is a mother of two daughters. Hope is a fellow of the fourth class of the Africa Leadership Initiative in East Africa and a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network.