OWELA (previously known as Kaleni Kollectiv) was founded in 2014 by four young Namibian theatre makers and performance artists as a response to the domination of disciplinary conventions in Namibian theatre training and practice. We wanted to develop a space for artistic experimentation and working across disciplines, forms and differences. This meant exploring alternatives that make art critically discursive and socially responsive. We began to play with practices that are globally historicized as interdisciplinary and transgressive. This includes live art, public art, devised theatre and performance art through laboratories, festivals and seminars. In the Namibian context, these practices did not begin with our collective, they are rooted in Namibia’s long traditions of resistance arts and indigenous performance cultures.

After almost a decade of collective-led initiatives both locally and internationally, OWELA was officially registered in June 2023 and acquired its new status as a Trust with artists and cultural workers in Namibia as its primary beneficiaries.