About ASWALK Festival
Authenticity is our authority.
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WHO WE ARE
WHO WE ARE
What is ASWALK Festival?
What is ASWALK Festival?
ASWALK Festival is Africa’s first travelling cultural platform dedicated to authentic appearance — spaces where people are not hidden, corrected, or pitied, but seen, respected, and centred on their own terms.
Convened by The Appearance Positive (TAP), ASWALK brings together culture, dialogue, movement, and ethical public visibility to challenge harmful norms and build a new social imagination around appearance.
ASWALK is not charity.
It is not a medical outreach.
It is not inspiration theatre.
It is a cultural intervention.
WHY ASWALK EXISTS
WHY ASWALK EXISTS
Why Appearance Matters
Why Appearance Matters
Across Africa, appearance-based stigma shapes access to education, healthcare, work, relationships, and safety. Skin conditions and visible differences are often met with silence, shame, superstition, or forced correction.
ASWALK exists to:
Disrupt stigma at a cultural level
Centre lived experience as authority
Reclaim visibility as dignity, not spectacle
Build collective psychosocial well-being
PROGRAM PILLARS
PROGRAM PILLARS
Our Program Pillars
Our Program Pillars
ASWALK operates through four interconnected pillars:
Culture & Visibility
Art, fashion, performance, and public presence that affirm dignity.
Dialogue & Ethics
Community-led conversations grounded in lived experience.
Movement & Participation
Walks, games, creative sports, and embodied activities that build solidarity.
Policy & Systems Change
Research-informed advocacy through the Africa Appearance Summit (AAS).
SAFEGUARDING & ETHICS STATEMENT
SAFEGUARDING & ETHICS STATEMENT
ASWALK Festival is governed by a strict Code of Dignity prioritising consent, psychological safety, and ethical representation.
Participation requires respect for:
Lived experience leadership
Non-exploitative storytelling
Child safeguarding protocols
The right to visibility or privacy
→ Read our full Terms of Participation
WHO CONVENES ASWALK
WHO CONVENES ASWALK
ASWALK Festival is convened by The Appearance Positive (TAP)
and supported by ethical frameworks developed with the
Appearance Positive Institute (APi).
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