What do a festival guest in Skanderborg and a barista in Lagos have in common? More than you might think. Same Sun is an initiative that creates mutual encounters between Danes and Africans – where shared passions and interests are the meeting point – music, coffee, yoga, food, fashion – through physical meetings, virtual portals, and digital conversations.
The goal is to promote curiosity, understanding, and a sense of belonging across continents – and to create new relationships between Danes and their like-minded peers in Africa.
Why Same Sun?
Many Danes never encounter stories from the African continent – and those who do often only see stories of crisis and catastrophe. This provides a one-sided and incomplete picture of the continent, which overshadows what we have in common and stands in the way of collaboration.
To be able to solve global challenges together, we first need to know and understand each other. Same Sun gives us the opportunity to meet as human beings – not as statistics. It’s about listening to each other’s stories, sharing experiences, and discovering how much we actually have in common.
Same Sun is part of a new direction in Danish foreign and development cooperation, where equal and interest-based partnerships are brought into focus – not least in the engagement with African countries. As stated in the Danish Africa Strategy “Africa’s Century”:
“The African countries expect a mutual, respectful handshake. We do not always see the world the same way, but we must become better at listening and understanding each other’s standpoint.”
Same Sun makes it possible for Danes to take part in a conversation with people from the neighbouring continent. And vice versa – it gives people from African nations a chance to have a conversation with the Danes.
Collaboration requires reciprocity. And so does true neighbourliness.
So let’s meet through what we share, under the same sun.
What is Same Sun about?
In the pilot year 2025, Same Sun will test three different meeting formats:
Physical encounters
Such as workshops and folk high school weekends in Denmark, where local communities meet like-minded people from Africa in person.
Portals
Live conversations in specially designed container portals, where a music lover in Skanderborg can talk and jam with someone in Johannesburg – as if they were in the same room.
Digital conversations
Various digital formats that share the meetings with a wider audience via social media, and also create new digital stories that connect people with shared passions – no matter where in the world they are.
All meetings are based on what we have in common – not what separates us.
Who is behind SameSun?
Same Sun is developed by the Museum for the United Nations – UN Live – and Democracy X, with support from the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In the pilot year 2025, a number of development organisations – including CARE, Danmission, Caritas and PlanBørnefonden – are partners in the project.
The project is currently planned to run from 2025 to 2028.
