For the second time, Caravan went to visit the artists' association of Ngecha in a village about thirty kilometres from Nairobi (Kenya). Our first visit in February 1999 prompted the making of a collective work that was published as a poster in issue n°3 of Caravan.

This time, we asked them to illustrate the issue entirely with 'culture of peace' as a theme. And among the profusion of works put together in their gallery, we chose those that appear on the cover pages in order to give a glimpse of their creative genius. King Dodge, one of the founders and co-ordinators of the association, reminds us about the objectives of the group and tells us about their big ambition: to acquire a piece of land and build an artists' home on the outskirts of the village, in a particular style with locally available material and with the help of local villagers.

Impressed by the group's dynamism, its remarkable cohesiveness and capacity to progress in difficult circumstances, Caravan supports this initiative and makes an appeal to all the readers to make it possible for these young Kenyan artists to acquire land and set up their centre "with all their dreams": a gallery, museum, theatre hall, bookshop, a space for art lovers etc. (click here for procedures). Convinced that this project will take shape, we went ahead to meet an elder person of the village who gave us the tree trunk of a huge teak for a very nominal sum. On this majestic wood, sculptors of the group have already started sculpting a totem which will serve as an emblem to the future artists' home of Ngecha...