NuMundo - Musafir

About.

Musafir means traveller. It is a word that can be found in many languages, like Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Kiswahili and Urdu. In Romanian and Turkish it translates into ´guest´.

The Musafir dhow aims to create a platform for the message of peace, freedom and unity. It's a project where people who connect with this message can come together and share an experience. Setting sail with the Musafir and being part of its journey symbolises absolute freedom of movement, freedom from limitations and freedom of thought. It serves as a creative space that allows all those aboard to explore, to embrace random encounters and test personal limits, to mature, to inspire and feel inspired, to share, to create and ultimately to learn about the world.

Musafir is more than just a boat, it’s a way of life. All Musafiri, the members of the crew, share the vision of the journey as a life path. Our journey is not simply a movement in space, but also an adventure of the spirit.

To sail and be guided by the winds, to travel and explore is more important than reaching a specific destination.

WHY A DHOW?

A dhow is a traditional wooden sailing boat with lateen sail used in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean. Traditionally dhows were used for trading goods and fishing activities in East Africa and India, as well as pearl diving in the Middle East. Even today dhows are still used in many countries around the world, mostly between the Persian Gulf and East Africa.

The building of dhows is considered an art handed down from generation to generation. With the introduction of more modern boat building techniques and designs, we are losing the practice of dhow building. It is becoming more and more a lost art.

The Musafir, a 70-foot dhow still under construction in Kenya today, honours the traditional boat building skills of this region, while creating a tool that gives the Musafiri community an opportunity to continue travelling and be at the service of others at the same time.

SETTING SAIL

In keeping with traditional practices, the Musafir wants to make use of the seasonal winds which have characterized the development of sea navigation on the East African coastline and the Indian ocean throughout the centuries. We strive to be in harmony with the elements and go wherever the wind may take us!

Providing space on board for 20 Musafiri crew members, the crew sailing with the Musafir will be in constant rotation. Our mission is to reach small coastal settlements and to exchange knowledge, skills and consciousness with the people we meet on our path. By creating small volunteer based projects we hope to empower through integrated experiences. The specific types of projects Musafir undertakes will depend upon the opportunities we encounter and the skills we have on board.

MUSAFIRI PROJECTS

We want to promote a sustainable, simple way of living, in harmony with our surroundings, allowing room for beauty and positivity. We envision a large variety of initiatives, going from creative projects incorporating dance, music and any other type of artistic expression, as well as other educational or technical ventures to facilitate exchanges with the communities that we meet along the way.

So far Musafir has undertaken a range of small projects, such as creative school workshops, tree planting initiatives, upcycling used items and more!

By sharing our time, energy and abilities we hope to gain perspective and insight both on a personal and communal level. The Musafir strives to be an example of how to live in harmony with our consciousness, reducing to a minimum the presence of structures and social hierarchies and putting into practice universal values such as sharing, respect and cooperation on a daily basis.