Meet Multi-Disciplinary Artist Blanche Neige Moongo

There are some kinds of art that are very interesting to look at or consume. Not because they are particularly beautiful or easy to digest but sometimes just because they are so honest, so raw and so true to what is happening inside the mind and soul of a creative, you just cannot ignore them.

Throughout history, there have been artists who have created works that have caused you to stop and look a second time. There are creatives who can pour out parts of themselves so eloquently, so accurately and so unapologetically that when you hold it up to the light to see if it is authentic, your suspicions are proven true – this art is real.

This is the feeling you get encountering Blanche Neige Moongo. She is the daughter of refugees and her name means Snow White in French. She is a curious mix of Namibian, Congolese, Swedish and Portuguese ancestry, referring to herself as a born-free, someone who finds refuge in herself.

She is a writer, a film-maker, an activist and many more things all at once.

Just 23 years old, the young artist, who has been creating for most of her life, says that to her, being able to express herself is important.

“Life and creation are art. Being able to create art is my way of healing from my traumas,” Moongo said.

She feels that the world is full of trauma and it is her desire to use her skills to contribute to and provoke social change.

Moongo got her start in the creative world by starring in a play, ‘Oliver Twist’, during her childhood. This sparked a lifelong passion for performance inside her. For eight years, from the time she was eight years old, she was the voice of Uitani Radio, an on-air youth programme created by Lifeline/Childline and supported by Unicef.

Romeo Jansen, who worked with Moongo from 2008 as a presenter on Uitani Radio, says there was never a dull moment with her around.

“She always advocated for children’s rights and for young people to have a voice in society. Neige taught me to not take life so serious and to have fun.”

Jansen currently works as a digital content developer at Namport at Walvis Bay and has always envisioned big things for his former colleague.

She also hosted the NBC children’s programme ‘Holiday Specials’ and starred in a few other theatre productions.

Since then, Moongo has branched out into other forms of expression and displays of her work, both written and visual.

She sharpened her skills further by attending the international exchange programme at the Filmakademie in Baden-Württemberg, Germany, one of the leading film schools in the world, an intensive course where she learnt many facets of the film industry.

In the work she creates, it is clear that she likes to operate without a filter. This is true too in her activism.

As a gender-based violence survivor, Moongo wants to use her work to provoke conversation and inspire change, she says.

As a film-maker, she is just as bold. Her short, animated documentary ‘The Unseen’, a harsh look at the realities of menstruation, is “a conversation about topics which everyone can relate to and give their perspective on, but rarely feel open enough or have the opportunity to talk about,” according to Moongo.

It has been screened at the Flicks Film Festival in The Netherlands, The Feminist Border Arts Film Festival in New Mexico, and the Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, Germany, and was part of the Global Lift Off Sessions, in collaboration with Pinewood Studios in the UK and Vimeo-On-Demand.

The five-minute film written, directed and animated by Moongo is available on filmfreeway.com, a site that promotes film festivals around the world.

“’The Unseen’ is an experimental animated documentary series,” says the director.

In it, participants speak English, Afrikaans, Swedish, French and other languages in a melting pot of stories and experiences.

She has made two other films too. They were part of the KinoNamia film project that encourages film-makers, writers, directors and actors to come together and create a masterpiece in just 48 hours. The films are then screened to the public during a festival in Windhoek and aired on local TV.

‘Little Namibia: Our Tears On the Streets’ was her 2017 entry. It is a mini-documentary following the lives of young Namibians living on the street.

It follows a 10-year-old boy named Moses who highlights the struggles of life as a beggar. He talks about the money he has collected for the day, his desire to go back to school and his current struggle with quitting his cigarette habit.

The documentary also speaks to other homeless children; one of them is a teenager from Mariental who dropped out of Grade 9 but still dreams of being a designer. Beyond the despair highlighted in the documentary, there is a ray of hope in the children’s words. The story is told beautifully.

At just nine minutes long, ‘Get Milk’ is Moongo’s 2018 film about a man on a mission. Starring Sylvester Goagoseb, it touches on the what ifs and the different possibilities life is capable of giving you.

At a recent screening at Parliament Gardens in Windhoek, ‘The Unseen’ and ‘Little Namibia’ were showcased as part of The Journey, a humanitarian campaign initiated by Margaret Mensah-Williams, chairperson of the National Council of Namibia.

Moongo got the opportunity to speak about her work and touch on her mission to make the world a more tolerant and equal place.

The gifted visual artist tries to create parallels with the real world. Looking at her art, you see so much depth and feel so many emotions at the same time.

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