Culture as a source of knowledge, agency and invention.
Operation Cultural Engineering is a Zambia-based think tank and cultural innovation organisation established to promote social and economic development through culture, research, creativity and indigenous knowledge.
Our purpose
OCE begins from a clear conviction: Africa’s cultural infrastructure is not peripheral to development. It can contribute to education, creativity, identity, innovation, social cohesion and livelihoods when communities retain meaningful authority over their knowledge and younger generations can encounter that knowledge in contemporary forms.
Mission
To research, safeguard and ethically activate African indigenous knowledge and cultural resources for education, creative innovation, youth agency, public policy and sustainable development.
Vision
A confident and creative Africa in which living knowledge is valued, governed fairly and mobilised to shape humane and sustainable futures.
Think tank. Cultural laboratory. Public ideas platform.
OCE combines research and advocacy with community engagement, education and multimedia work.
Generating knowledge and translating evidence into public debate and policy ideas.
Working with knowledge holders and communities around culture, memory and stewardship.
Using contemporary media and artistic forms to connect living knowledge with new audiences.
Meet the founding team.
OCE was established by a multidisciplinary group spanning education, cultural studies, research, media and youth engagement.