The Ten Guiding Principles

[ilanzo]

You could be forgiven for thinking that AfrikaBurn is just a party … a fantastical amazing mind-blowing party. It is a whole lot more than that. The Burning Man festival grew out of a loose grouping of individuals and organisations who questioned (and continue to question) mainstream, highly commercialised society and what it does to the notion and workings of community.

Burning Man’s mission statement states:

“Our intention is to generate a society that connects each individual to his or her creative powers, to participation in community, to the larger realm of civic life, and to the even greater world of nature that exists beyond society”.

As an official Burning Man regional event, AfrikaBurn embraces and aims to embody the principles that have guided Burning Man and the community and ethos that have grown around it. Please read these principles and keep them in mind when planning your participation in the event.

COMMUNAL EFFORT

Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

PARTICIPATION

Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

We value civil society. Community members who organise events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with national and local laws.

IMMEDIACY

Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience.

DECOMMODIFICATION

In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorships, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

GIFTING

We are devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

LEAVING NO TRACE

Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

RADICAL INCLUSION

Anyone may be a part of AfrikaBurn. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community. This means that anyone can partake.

RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE

AfrikaBurn encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources.

RADICAL SELF-EXPRESSION

Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.


NOTE:

Well done. You read through them all. Please ask your friends or family, if they intend coming to AfrikaBurn, to do the same. Print them out. Maybe read them on your journey, but please absorb them, as they will guide and enhance your experience, and that of others.

[Ranger Bob]

COMMUNAL EFFORT, PARTICIPATION, CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY, IMMEDIACY, DECOMMODIFICATION, GIFTING, LEAVING NO TRACE, RADICAL INCLUSION, RADICAL SELF-RELIANCE, RADICAL SELF-EXPRESSION

make them more than a tag line