NAMIBIALIVE!
OVERVIEW | HISTORY
From a Bus-Ride to an International Audience
NamibiAlive! was the brainchild of two Peace Corps Education Volunteers (PCVs)
working in northern Namibia who, in 2006, persuaded fourteen of the country’s most
popular musicians to donate songs and messages for the compilation. PCVs Amy Taylor and Dan Cwirka brainstormed the idea for the CD during a ride on a combi (Namibian mini-bus) one day. Since then, the rest is history.
Throughout 2006, Taylor and Cwirka worked with Namibian recording artists to create the first annual CD which was distributed free to 5,000 combis that transport Namibians from town to town.
"NamibiAlive! is important to me because the people of Namibia are important to me," Taylor said in an e-mail message. It hurts to know that, statistically, if something drastic doesn't happen to change the course of AIDS, these people that I love so much will not live past 45."
One in five Namibians is infected with HIV or AIDS, and the life expectancy for residents has dropped from 60 to 45 years in the last 20 years.
Fourteen of the country's biggest recording artists signed on in 2006 -- musicians with names like African Boy, Angels, Axue, Formula Band and Jerico -- which ensured the project's success in its first year.
"The musicians are great," said Taylor. "We were already on the same page. Many of them had already released HIV/AIDS-related songs or been involved in AIDS awareness efforts. Everybody in Namibia, myself included, is desperate to do something to curtail the epidemic. You just can't imagine what it's like to wake up to a funeral gun (people in the villages shoot off guns to alert their neighbors of a death in the house), and know that someone close to you has fallen victim to HIV/AIDS. There are funerals all the time."
However, the initial CD would have become a one-time offering had it not been for the continued work by PCVs Beth Phillips and Will Garneau, who were responsible for the NamibAlive! Volume II production in 2007. The 2007 album featured songs by Formula Band, D-Naff, Stella, Kamasutra, Jerico, Gal Level, Axue, Jossy Joss, Sunny Boy, Jackson Kaujeua, Jewelz, and Stanley.
In 2008, two new PCVs, Cedar Wolf and Mark Kampert, have taken the helm of NamibiAlive. Promote Africa will supplement their efforts through musician solicitation, promotion and fundraising via online album sales to international audiences.
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