Friday, 24 November
7pm
Tune in at panafricanspacestation.org.za
About Chimurenga
Author Archive | Chimurenga
A LIVE BROADCAST WITH DAMOLA OLOWADE
HOPHUIS: A SITE OF DANCE AND SOLIDARITY
Thursday, 09 November 2023
from 6pm.
Chimurenga Factory
LAUNCHING MINE MINE MINE
Chimurenga Factory
Thu, 12 Oct 2023 from 6pm
LIBERATION RADIO: MEDU ARTS ENSEMBLE
The music unit of Medu Arts Ensemble consisted of two bands, Shakawe and Kalahari
LIBERATION RADIO: BOKANI DYER’S RADIO SECHABA
Chimurenga Factory
30 September
7pm
LATEST CHIMURENGANYANA OUT NOW!
THE GARDEN LETTERS OF YVONNE VERA by Tadiwa Madenga
EPISTROPHIES
Saturday, 16 September 2023 from 6pm
Chimurenga Factory (157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock)
Melodious Thunk
Everyone in the neighbourhood knew him. Walking to the shops, kids called out, Hey, Monk, howya doin? Where ya bin, Monk? and he mumbled something back, stopping to shake hands or just sway back and forth on the sidewalk.
CHIMURENGANYANA: MUSIC NOTEBOOK OUT NOW!
MUSIC NOTEBOOK by Ari Sitas
CLASS STRUGGLE IN MUSIC
Chimurenga Factory – 157 Victoria Rd, Woodstock
Thursday, 17 August 2023 from 6pm
Notes for an Oratorio on small things that fall
Aditi Hunma reviews the launch of Notes for an Oratorio on Small Things That Fall, the latest offering from Ari Sitas
You Ain’t Gonna Know Me ‘Cos You Think You Know Me
a gathering ‘n broadcast for our dearly departed brother Malesela Joey Modiba (1986-2023)
AZANIA EP LISTENING SESSION
Chimurenga Factory – Fri, 07 July 2023 from 6pm
CHIMURENGA PRESENTS SOCIAL BREATH
a collective improvisation
16 June 2023
LATEST IN STORE: WHEN THREE SEVENS CLASH
A collection of writing and images on Zimbabwe, edited by Percy Zvomuya
Costa Diagne et Les Hommes de la danse
par Gabrielle Chomentowski
LATEST IN STORE: CHANTS, DREAMS AND OTHER GRAMMARS OF LOVE
a gedenkschrift for Harry Garuba
CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET SOYINKA PLAGIARIST
A letter from Ibadan by Harry Garuba
REVIEW: AND THE BOOKS LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER
Harry Garuba reviews reissues of Amos Tutuola’s writings
CHIMURENGANYANA: LA DISCOTHEQUE DE SARAH MALDOROR
This entry in our Chimurenganyana series takes the form of a mixtape […]
La Discothèque de Sarah Maldoror (tracklisting)
decomposed, an-arranged, and reproduced by Ntone Edjabe
FIELD RECORDINGS WITH SHABAKA HUTCHINGS
FIELD RECORDINGS
WED, 22 FEB 2023 from 6PM
A RADIO PROGRAMME ON THE LIFE AND WORK OF THE MYSTIC REVELATION OF RASTAFARI
Live on PASS – 14 February 2023, from 6pm
GROUNATION – a tribute to the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari
“Grounation Day” marks the landing of Emperor Selassie I in Jamaica on April 21, 1966.
Chimurenga presents GROUNATION
a tribute to the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari
LIBERATION RADIO: TUMI MOGOROSI’S GROUP THEORY:BLACK MUSIC
The latest episode in the Stories About Music in Africa series
MYSTIC REVELATION OF RASTAFARI
We shall open this new cycle of programming with a month-long tribute to the almighty Mystic Revelation of Rastafari.
CHIMURENGA@20: IN PRAISE OF INDIGENOUS AFRICAN WORDFORM
Have African literary forms been lost in a morass of European culture? For more than half a century Taban Lo Liyong has lamented thus.
THE WRITINGS OF BINYAVANGA WAINAINA
Launching a new collection of writings by the late, great Binyavanga Wainaina
LIBERATION RADIO
an ongoing query on knowledge production via African sound worlds, and long-term research on broadcasting and cultural initiatives by liberation movements across the continent
I’M NOT WHO YOU THINK I’M NOT
Serubiri Moses reflects on Binyavanga Wainaina’s refusal to fit neatly into neat identities.
I am a homosexual, Mum
A lost chapter from One Day I Will Write About This Place
CHIMURENGA@20: Midway Between Silence and Speech
The art and incarnation of Justine Gaga.
LIBERATION RADIO: MASELLO MOTANA’S VOCAL MUSEUM
The latest episode in the Stories About Music in Africa series, now available
MALCOLM JIYANE’S TREE-O
Live at Chimurenga Factory – Fri, 28 October 2022
TUMI MOGOROSI’S GROUP THEORY:BLACK MUSIC
Live at Chimurenga Factory – Sat, 22 Oct 2022
The Music Mind of Greg Tate: Sonic Syllabus for a Patternmaster
A 5-hour music selection in memory of Greg Tate on his arrival day, October 14 – live on the Pan African Space Station from 6pm SA time
LIBERATION MUSIC AT THE CHIMURENGA FACTORY – OCTOBER 2022
Tumi Mogorosi’s Group Theory:Black Music and Malcolm Jiyane’s Tree-O
CHIMURENGA@20: MURIMI MUNHU
Panashe Chigumadzi travels to the rural Zimbabwe of her ancestors, onto land stolen and cash-cropped by a privileged minority under racist white rule.
CHIMURENGA@20: GENRES OF HUMAN
In his book, The Sound of Culture: Diaspora and Black Technopoetics, Louis Chude-Sokei samples freely from history, music, literature and science, conjuring new meanings from dead texts, to build an echo chamber where the discourses of race and technology collide
Euredice Zaituna Kala’s JE SUIS L’ARCHIVE / I, THE ARCHIVE
Live on PASS – 13 Sep 2022 from 6pm
LIBERATION RADIO
We’re proud to present a new edition of “Liberation Radio”
CHIMURENGA@20: AZANIA SALUTES TOSH
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the death of Bantu Steve Biko, a stunned and outraged Azania heard that the Vampire had martyred Peter Tosh.
CHIMURENGA@20: ONCE THERE WERE HUMANS
In the hills above Kingston, Jamaica Annie Paul unpacks some baggage in a rare interview with Peter Abrahams, the South African-born writer and ardent Pan-Africanist.
SOUNDGARDEN
a live reading for Bessie Head’s 85th
13 July 2022 from 6pm
MASELLO MOTANA’S VOCAL MUSEUM
Live at the Chimurenga Factory
CHIMURENGA@20: STICKFIGHTING DAYS
Everyone knows I’m a two-stick man. But, I’m not ready to go up against Markham again just yet. Or any of the other top stickfighters. I’ve been trying some new moves. I feel close to a breakthrough in terms of technique. But it’s not quite there
IN MEMORIAM: OMOSEYE BOLAJI (1964-2022)
We remember Nigerian-born writer, Omoseye Bolaji (1964-2022), and his immense contribution to the growth of African literature in South Africa, and particularly in the Free State, where he lived.
In conversation with Omoseye Bolaji
In the Free State, the most important and pivotal figure in local black literature has been OMOSEYE BOLAJI. Pule Lechesa spoke with him about his awards, general grassroots writing in the Free State, and Black Writing in general.
CHIMURENGA@20: WHEN YOU KILL US, WE RULE!
In 1996, Keziah Jones visited Kalakuta Republic every day for a week to interview Fela Anikulapo Kuti. On the fifth day, after waiting six hours, Keziah got to speak with Fela, who he remarked kept you in “constant and direct eye contact” and spoke “in short bursts of baritone.”
CHIMURENGA@20: MONDAY BLUES FOR SANDILE DIKENI
The most recent episode of Stories About Music in Africa is Monday Blues for Sandile Dikeni
LIBERATION RADIO: PEOPLE WHO THINK TOGETHER, DANCE TOGETHER #7
Conversations with Christian Nyampeta, featuring Hannah Black, Sasha Bonét, Natacha Nsabimana, Olu Oguibe and Emmanuel Olunkwa.
Live on PASS – 24-26 May 2022 – from 6pm
LIBERATION RADIO: PUNGWE 1
Selected and mixed by Robert Machiri
CHIMURENGA@20: THE WARM-UP
The xenophobic violence that swept through many communities in South Africa in 2008 was not a sudden phenomenon. Victims and an alleged instigator date the origins of this wave to a township in Pretoria, writes Kwanele Sosibo.
Launching NOTES FOR AN ORATORIO ON SMALL THINGS THAT FALL
Wednesday, 13 April 2022
Chimurenga Factory
6pm
DIALECTIC SOUL
Friday, 08 April 2022 – 7pm
@ Chimurenga Factory
iPhupho L’ka Biko – live at the Chimurenga Factory
Thursday, 31 March 2022
7pm
CHIMURENGA@20: A Silent Way – Routes of South African Jazz, 1946-1978
Where to begin? Which silences? There are many.
Liberation Radio: Cape Town – 15-18 March 2022
Live on PASS: 15th-18th March 2022, 3-6pm
CHIMURENGA@20: Talkin’ ‘bout Survival – The Repatriation of Reggae
Where Apartheid and broadcasters divided South Africans culturally, here comes bongo natty dread to motivate U-N-I-T-Y.
The Africans, A Radio Play in Three Acts
Worldwide premiere live on PASS – 09-11 February 2022
You Look Illegal by Paula Ihozo Akugizibwe
The latest addition to the Chimurenganyana series available now
Ready, Willing & Able
Lolade Adewuyi profiles one of the continent’s most successful football coaches – the Big Boss, as he is widely referred to – and considers the arguments for more faith, more respect and more investment in the abilities of home-grown trainers.
CHIMURENGANYANA: THE FEAR AND LOATHING OUT OF HARARE BY DAMBUDZO MARECHERA (DEC 2021)
by Dambudzo Marechera
Available now at our online store.
MEDITATIONS ON JIMI HENDRIX
by Greg Tate
All roads lead to Jimi Hendrix.
THE BROTHER MOVES ON RETURNS
Chimurenga Factory
Saturday, 06 November 2021
Ground / Overground / Underground
By MOWOSO (translated by Dominique Malaquais)
Anti-Teleology: Re-Mapping the Imag(in)ed City
By Dominique Malaquais
Pieces of Dominique
The writings, translations and ideas of our dearly departed friend, comrade and co-conspirator Dominique Malaquais (1964-2021), in Chimurenga
Koltan Kills Kids
By Tsuba Ka 23 (Dominique Malaquais, Mowoso, Kongo Astronauts)
ALL I CAN SAY FOR NOW
By Jean-Christophe Lanquetin (translated by Dominique Malaquais)
Out of Sight
A short story by Yambo Ouologuem adapted from the French by Dominique Malaquais and Ntone Edjabe.
Festac at 45: Idia Tales – Three Takes and a Mask*
By Dominique Malaquais and Cedric Vincent
That Thing We Dreamed
By Dominique Malaquais
Rumblin’
By Dominique Malaquais
JOKER’S WILD (SLIGHT RETURN)
By Dominique Malaquais
ON THE BRIDGE
By Koffi Kwahulé (translated by Dominique Malaquais)
FRANTZ – A STORY OF BONES
By Dominique Malaquais
SEXING AFRICA, AGAIN – POP AS POLITICS: WATCH IT TONIGHT ON HBO
By Dominique Malaquais
Blood Money – A Douala Chronicle
By Dominique Malaquais
LINDELA (The Winnie Suite)
By Dominique Malaquais
The Franc-maçonnerie Suite
by Henri Kala-Lobe and Dominique Malaquais
PAINT THE WHITE HOUSE BLACK – A CALL TO ARMS
By Dominique Malaquais
NEW STORIES ABOUT MUSIC IN AFRICA
PASS presents: Salim Washington, Dalisu Ndlazi, Asher Gamedze in conversation
READING FRED HO
Gwen Ansell and Salim Washington celebrate the revolutionary life, language and hard-ass leadership of an unconventional saxophonist, composer and generous collaborator.
HOME IS WHERE THE MUSIC IS
The latest addition to the Chimurenganyana series
WHO WILL SAVE THE SAVIOURS?
A close gaze at the collective apathy that killed Dr. Sebi
From Seven Modes for Hood Science
The black spirit is universally sick with dissimulation and at the same time triumphant in its incessantly performed healing, having turned suffering into a kind of spectacular wellness
THIRD TRANSITION
Shoks Mzolo and Bongani Kona trace the path of South Africa’s transformation from a criminal apartheid state to a criminal neoliberal state
Labour Tenants South Western Transvaal
“There’s no real vocabulary for the non-photographed of apartheid‟ – Santu Mofokeng
The poetics of Futbol
The Touch It would have to be a bird, stilled on a […]
OF WOUNDS, OF HANDS – live on PASS – 08 July 2021
a word/sound documentary by the Insurrections Ensemble, with an introduction by Ari Sitas
Between the Lines of an Unpatriotic Presidential Pre-Recorded Address
FOURTH REPUBLIC 19 conducts a post-mortem on not-so-presidential minutes in recorded Nigerian history.
SALIM WASHINGTON, DALISU NDLAZI, ASHER GAMEDZE… IN CONVERSATION
Thursday, 24 June 2021 – 6pm
EVEN WHEN MY SOUP-CURLERS SLUR BY GEORGIA ANNE MULDROW – OUT NOW!
A limited Chimurenganyana edition of Even When My Soup-Curlers Slur, I Still Keep the Take by Georgia Anne Muldrow is now available.
RADIO MAC ON PASS – 14-21 June
Chimurenga and Hangar (Lisbon) present Radio MAC live on PASS 14-21 June 2021, 6pm.
The Enemy in Her Imagination: A Fable
Rahel first met the young, 11-year old boy, on December 21, 2006. That was the day after the war in Somalia was declared.
BLACK SUNLIGHT – A broadcast for Dambudzo Marechera on his 69th
Imagi-nation nwar – a PASS session in Paris
From 5-9 May 2021, Chimurenga’s Pan African Space Station (PASS) will land at Lavoir Moderne Parisien in Goutte d’or, Paris, to imagine, re-examine and re-circulate sonic archives of black radicalism in the francophone world.
THE SUMMER OF ’69
Writer Pierre Crépon selects recordings illustrating his essay on the American avant-garde jazz in Paris in 1969.
Remember Glissant
Moses März writes of Édouard Glissant, Martinican, poet and compatriot of the more celebrated Aimé Césaire and Frantz Fanon
CHIMURENGA CHRONIC – IMAGI-NATION NWAR – OUT NOW!
A new issue of Chimurenga’s Chronic – out now. imagi-nation nwar – […]
PASS in Oslo (17 – 20 February 2021)
On Wednesday 17 February through to Saturday 20 February, Pan African Space Station […]
PANAFEST, hosted by Chimurenga
A web documentary, audio-video archive and online cartography, that chronicles continuities and breaks, samples and cuts that link four key moments of Pan-African encounter: Dakar ’66, Algiers ’69, Kinshasa ’74 and Lagos ’77.
On the Digital Application of Ancestral Work
African spirituality as practiced digitally was amplified by COVID-19.
POVERTY IS OLDER THAN OPULENCE
Diego Maradona is the man who exploded the shame of the entire world in June 1986, in an historic dribble during a match between Argentina and England.
“The Oppressor Remains What He Is”
Why does it seem that the genocide deniers have perked up? What […]
QAMATA PULA, an ancestral invocation
iPhupho L’ka Biko and Pan African Space Station present QAMATA PULA, an ancestral invocation collapsing past, present and future, over three days at the Chimurenga Factory
Creative Urban Momentum: Witnessing the Black Unity Trio
In anticipation of the release of Black Unity Trios’ legendary album, Al Fatihah, Hasan Abdur-Razzaq recalls witnessing their rehearsals in the late 1960s.
FESTAC 77 T-SHIRT – AVAILABLE NOW!
A limited edition of the iconic FESTAC 77 t-shirt now available.
BECOMING KWAME TURE – OUT NOW!
Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture) was viewed by many during the civil rights […]
CHIMURENGA@20: THE BARD OF BLOEMFONTEIN
Achal Prabhala goes to the heart of the Free State literary renaissance with the “deliberately mysterious and prodigiously talented” Omoseye Bolaji.
THIRD CLASS CITY
South Africa thinks that India owes it one for putting Gandhi through revolution school; India thinks South Africa owes it for sending him over to show the natives how it’s done.
Ibadan, Soutin and the Puzzle of Bower’s Tower
The jingle would survive the event, as the poetry of a battle-cry outlives a war, but that eventuality belonged in the future.
Where Terror Lies
The rhetoric of ‘radical’ and ‘fundamentalist’ Islam, of ‘global jihad’ and ‘terror’ is, ironically, historical and recoverable from the irrational.
Nigeria’s Superstar Men Of God
Who needs the God of the bible with his promises of trials and tribulations, crosses and paths of repentance? Yemisi Aribisala listens to the sermons, counts the money, watches the high-flying life of Nigeria’s mega-preachers and wonders.
Nigeria’s Superstar Men Of God
Who needs the God of the bible with his promises of trials and tribulations, crosses and paths of repentance? Yemisi Aribisala listens to the sermons, counts the money, watches the high-flying life of Nigeria’s mega-preachers and wonders.
The Invention of Zimbabwe (April 2018)
14 November 2017. News breaks of a coup d’état underway in Zimbabwe. Tanks, armoured vehicles and military personnel are seen patrolling the capital, Harare. The images send shock waves through social media, traditional broadcast news networks and diplomatic channels
We Make Our Own Food (April 2017)
In this issue, we put food back on the table: to restore the interdependence between the mouth that eats and the mouth that speaks, and to delve deeper into the subtle tactics of resistance and private practices that make food both a subversive art and a site of pleasure.
The Chronic (August 2013)
Writers in the broadsheet include Jon Soske, Paula Akugizibwe, Yves Mintoogue, Adewale Maja-Pearce, Parsalelo Kantai, Fred Moten & Stefano Harney, Cedric Vincent, Deji Toye, Derin Ajao, Tony Mochama, Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah,Agri Ismaïl, Lindokuhle Nkosi, Bongani Kona, Stacy Hardy, Emmanuel Induma, Ugochukwu-Smooth Nzewi, Lolade Ayewudi, Simon Kuper and many others.
New Cartographies (March 2015)
We understand the role of cartography as a tool of imperialism. However, in this edition of the Chronic, we ask: what if maps were made by Africans for their own use, to understand and make visible their own realities or imaginaries?
The Chronic (December 2013)
This edition of the Chronic, offers forays into interlaced subjects of power, resistance, protest, mobilisation, mobility and belonging. Marked by an urgency to unsettle divides between opportunism and opportunity, life and liberation, here and there, and then and now-now, the newspaper acts as a platform from which to engage the practices, dilemmas and possibilities of different world.
The Chronic (April 2016)
In the fall of 2015, universities across South Africa were engulfed by fires ignited by students’ discontent with the racial discrimination and colonialism that still defines the country’s institutes of higher education.
The Chronic (July 2014)
For the new issue of Chimurenga’s pan African gazette, the Chronic, the focus is on graphic stories; comic journalism. Blending illustrations, photography, written analysis, infographics, interviews, letters and more, visual narratives speak of everyday complexities in the Africa in which we live.
Muzmin (July 2015)
In the minds of many, the Sahara exists as a boundary between the Maghreb and “Black Africa”. History and our lived experience tell a different story. The latest issue of Chimurenga’s pan African gazette, the Chronic,
The Corpse Exhibition [and Other Graphic Stories] (August 2016)
This issue of Chimurenga’s pan-African quarterly gazette, the Chronic, explores ideas around mythscience, science fiction and graphic storytelling. Like previous editions of the Chronic,
The Chronic (April 2013)
A 48-page newspaper and 40-page stand-alone books review magazine featuring writing, art and photography inflected by the workings of innovation, creativity and resistance.
On Circulations and the African Imagination of a Borderless World (October 2018)
What is the African imagination of a borderless world? What are our ideas on territoriality, borders and movement? How to move beyond so-called progressive discourse on “freedom of movement”
African Cities Reader III: Land, Property & Value
The third installment of the Reader explores the unholy trinity of land, property and value – the life force of cities everywhere. In this issue António Andrade Tomás reveals the vice and violence that permeate the act of securing land and home in Luanda;
African Cities Reader II: Mobilities & Fixtures
The second installment of the Reader is centered on the theme ‘Mobilities and Fixtures’. In this issue Sean O’Toole interviews architect David Adjaye about African cityscapes, snapshot photography and failed utopias;
African Cities Reader I: Pan-African Practices
In the launch issue Rustum Kozain muses over the cultural and alternative relations built, negotiations and dealings made as a resident of Cape Town (South Africa); Jean-Christophe Lanquetin’s SAPE Project is captured in a pictorial narrative;
Chimurenga 16 – The Chimurenga Chronicle (October 2011)
A once-off edition of a speculative, future-forward newspaper that travels back in time to re-imagine the present.
Chimurenga 14 – Everyone Has Their Indian (April 2009)
This issue features words and images on the Third World project and links, real and imagined, between Africa and South Asia.
Chimurenga 15 – The Curriculum Is Everything (June 2010)
Presented in the form of a textbook, Chimurenga 15 simultaneously mimics the structure while gutting it.
Chimurenga 12/13 – Dr Satan’s Echo Chamber (Double-Issue March 2008)
A double-take on sci-fi and speculative writing from the African world, collectively titled “Dr. Satan’s Echo Chamber” after a dub mix by King Tubby.
Chimurenga 5 – Head/Body(&Tools)/Corpses (April 2004)
An issue inspired by the life and work of Bessie Head. Including previously unpublished works by Head, and featuring new writing and art by Jean Claude Fignole,
Chimurenga 6 – Orphans of Fanon (October 2004)
A series of conversations, real and imagined, on the “pitfalls of national consciousness” by Mustapha Benfodil, Achille Mbembe, Charles Mudede,
Chimurenga 7 – Kaapstad! (and Jozi, the night Moses died) (July 2005)
A collection of musings – in words, images and sounds – from beneath the processed skin of Cape Town, by Gabeba Baderoon, Sandile Dikeni, Julian Jonker,
Chimurenga 8 – We’re All Nigerian! (December 2005)
An exploration of a love-hate, admiration-envy, awe-disappointment relationship with “Nigerianess”; Features the “last interview”
Chimurenga 9 – Conversations in Luanda, and Other Graphic Stories (June 2006)
For this one we trawled the globe for ink artists/wordists to give us their perspectives on love, life and the multiverse.
Chimurenga 10 – Futbol, Politricks and Ostentatious Cripples (December 2006)
We scope the stadia, markets, ngandas and banlieues to spotlight narratives of love, hate and the wide and deep spectrum of emotions and affiliations that the game of football generates.
Chimurenga 11 – Conversations with Poets Who Refuse to Speak (July 2007)
This issue is about silence, disappearing oneself as act. Though it’s often one of abdication, could it be defiance, resistance even?
Chimurenga 4 – Black Gays & Mugabes (May 2003)
On desire and its discontents. Featuring a new adaptation of Yambo Ouologuem erotica, and new works by Kopano Ratele, Kalamu ya Salaam, Gael Reagon, Rotimi Fani-Kayode, Zackie Achmat,
Chimurenga 3 – Biko in Parliament (November 2002)
“Mandela was not the only head of state taken in by Koagne. Le king kept snapshots of himself with many a man of power, among them Mobutu Sese Seko and Denis Sassou Nguesso […]
Chimurenga 2 – Dis-Covering Home [run nigga run] (July 2002)
Home, lost and found. Takes by Mahmood Mamdani, Julian Jonker, Henk Rossouw, Binyavanga Wainaina, Gaston Zossou, Haile Gerima,
De l’art de vivre l’art
By Dominique Malaquais
THE POETRY OF ABBEY LINCOLN
Live from 5pm
Friday 21 August 2020
panafricanspacestation.org.za
Abbey Lincoln’s Scream: Poetic Improvisation as a Way of Life
We are standing under a glaring spotlight screaming at the tops of our lungs, from the backs of our throats which we grind together to access black blues unwords, thymus against heart, blue in green meridian, that aquamarine plexus that water and sky correct and regulate in us.
The Meaning of Being Numerous
The man who sets up the bomb is long gone before it goes off.
FESTAC AT 45: FESTAC ’77, a mixtape by Chimurenga
In this mix, we decompose, an-arrange and reproduce the sound-world of FESTAC ’77 to address the planetary scale of event, alongside the personal and artistic encounters it made possible.
TRACKS
MADEYOULOOK collective met with photographer Santu Mofokeng to establish the point of crossroads, where things are in motion and where things remain still
Yellow Fever, Nko?
Skin bleaching is often described as a manifestation of ‘colo-mentality’. However, argues Bibi Bakare-Yusuf, mimesis here is both an affirmation and a contestation of power.
RIP PAPA GEORGE
Exile demands contemplation because it is unavoidably real for those who experience […]
They Won’t Go When I Go
A Manifesto/ Meditation on State of Black Archives in America and throughout the Diaspora by Harmony Holiday
How Third World Students Liberated the West
In a twist to mainstream tropes of radical student movements of the 1960s, and their impact on the history of political thought and action, Pedro Monaville argues that the terrains of the Third World, and particularly the history of student movements in Congo, are vital to explore if we are to makes sense of how that period informs the present.
Monumental Failures
By Dominique Malaquais
Reproducing Festac ’77: A secret among a family of millions
Kwanele Sosibo speaks with Ntone Edjabe about the creation of, and thinking behind, the FESTAC ’77 publication.
Festac at 45: Steal Back the Treasure
In pirating the head of Queen Idia to use it as a logo for Festac 77 , proposes another dissonant route that challenges the very idea of the work of art as unique object.
NEW IN BOOKSHOP
Early in 1977, thousands of artists, writers, musicians, activists and scholars from Africa and the black diaspora assembled in Lagos for FESTAC ’77, the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture.
LEPHEPHE PRINT GATHERINGS 5 – CAPE TOWN
Calling all printmakers and paper-peoples! In collaboration with our comrades at Keleketla! […]
Urbanism Beyond Architecture – African Cities as Infrastructure
Vyjayanthi Rao, in conversation with Filip de Boeck & Abdou Maliq Simone […]
Quel Est L’Endroit Idéal
Les Brasseries du Cameroun is the country’s largest industry and dedicated to guaranteeing a steady flow of liquid amber to the vast proliferation of bars, restaurants, nightclubs and other unidentified nightspots – some still in Maquis-style hiding – that have mushroomed all over the city.
FESTAC 77 BOOK – OUT NOW
Early in 1977, thousands of artists, writers, musicians, activists and scholars from Africa and the black diaspora assembled in Lagos for FESTAC ’77,,, To many, too many, FESTAC sounded like cacophony – we reproduced its music on the page, decomposed and an-arranged.
Senegal & Festac 77
After New York in October 2019, and in the spirit of the trans-continentalism (aka Black World) of the event, we return to Dakar to celebrate the release of Chimurenga’s new publication on FESTAC ’77 – in collaboration with RAW Material Company.
IN THE BOOKSHOP: KINSHASA CHRONIQUES / KINSHASA CHRONICLES
Kinshasa Chronicles is a richly textured encounter featuring seventy artists, most of whom belong to a very young generation, telling tales of one of the world’s most vibrant creative hubs.
Wrestling With A Warlord
Louis Chude-Sokei narrates a story of Nigeria, of splintered identity, of exile, and of the Biafran War and its godfather – his godfather – General Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu
Monday Blues for Sandile Dikeni
Join us in celebrating the life and work of our dearly departed brother and comrade, the poet, journalist and griot of liberation struggles.
RIP Sandile Dikeni
Rest in peace Sandile Dikeni – poet, brother, comrade, a voice of truth and dissent and long time contributor to Chimurenga. We pay respect with this archive of his writing published by Chimurenga.
HOW THE WEST WAS LOST
If one thinks about it the whole thing goes back to amaQheya; the cultural proletariat… a proletariat with a cultural history that has taught it to be careful of an African existence…
Who Kill Kabila – Angola Mix
We tune into radio trottoir, radio one battery, radio 33, boca boca to get the word on the street from Angola.
Listen to “Sankomota: An Ode in One Album”
On 31 May, we hosted the launch of Phehello Mofokeng‘s reflective essay on Lesotho’s greatest band, Sankomota.
FESTAC ’77: PASS Playlist
A Festac 77 Mixtape featuring Randy Weston, Mandla Langa, Carlos Moore, The Blue Notes, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Michael McMillan, Miriam Makeba, Gilberto Gil, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Ray Lema and of course, Fela Kuti (voiced by Kolade Arogundade).
FESTAC ’77 Celebration in New York City – 23 – 25 October 2019
From 23 – 25 October 2019, Chimurenga will install its Pan African Space Station (PASS) at The New School’s Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries, New York City.
FESTAC 77 BOOK – Sample spreads
448 pages, colour illustrations featuring extensive unseen photographic and archival materials, interviews and new commissions.
Stories About Music in Africa
Recorded in the darkness and unpredictability of load shedding, Dumama & Kechou invited Madala ‘Bafo’ Kunene, along with Madosini, for an intimate performance at the Chimurenga Factory.
SALUT GLISSANT
“Nothing is true, everything is alive.”
Moses März, imagines a conversation between Edoaurd Glissant and Patrick Chamoiseau about the Philosophy of Relation.
IN MEMORIAM: Binyavanga Wainaina (1971 – 2019)
A friend, a Chimurenga founding father, an award winning writer, author, journalist, chef, lover, a literary revolutionary and an inspiration. We pay tribute.
The Chronic: Who Killed Kabila
On January 16, 2001, in the middle of the day, shots are heard in the Palais de Marbre,the residence of President Laurent-Désiré Kabila.
Colossal KOUROUMA
What could have happened in his head to take literally this type of injunction quite common in lands of Africa? A sense of the word given? The desire to take seriously the hopes of children who usually have little voice? Mystery.
WHO KILLED KABILA: CAST OF CHARACTERS
The cast list of actors and character who make an appearance in the issue includes everyone from Ché Guevara and psychiatrist, political theorist and Frantz Fanon, to Rashidi Muzele, the assassin who pulled the trigger and many more.
No Pass, But Nine Passports
n her 30 years of exile, Miriam Makeba redefined pan Africanism. She was a woman with nine passports and honorary citizenship in 10 countries.
Frantz Fanon’s Uneven Ribs
For me knowledge is very powerful. Any knowledge has claws and teeth. If you don’t see the teeth and the claws then it is useless, then somebody has emasculated it.
Traditional Intellectuals
Izithunywa Zohlanga’s art is the art of combat because it assumes responsibility, and because it is the will to liberty expressed in terms of time and space.
POETS WITH GUNS: A CONVERSATION WITH CHIRIKURE CHIRIKURE
Chirikure Chirikure means “that which is far is very far.” He is […]
Dislocations in the Congolese World of Sound
A few years ago, while researching the political history of Congo/Zaire/Congo via the country’s music archive, particularly through the output of Luambo Makiadi aka Franco, we turned to the legendary record collection of “Jumbo” Donald Vanrenen.
A Comet is Coming: Shabaka Hutchings & The Brother Moves On
This installment of Stories about Music in Africa features Shabaka Hutchings and The Brother Moves On, recorded at the Chimurenga headquarters in Cape Town.
Relaxing
Okello Sam examines the conceptual difference between work and relaxation as differently applied in the so-called First and Third Worlds.
HIKIMA – a letter from Zaria
She eyed me. A thing wet around her eyes, like water from the evening rain. Lateef, she said, an incurable emphasis on both syllables: Lah-teef.
Denderah Rising with Georgia Anne Muldrow + Thandi Ntuli Quartet + The Monkey Nuts
“Sound is defined by vibrations that travel through the air or another medium and can be heard when they reach the ear.
Search Sweet Country
In conversation with Binyavanga Wainaina, Kojo Laing talks to a future Ghana by exposing its present, full of the jargons and certainties of one dimensional nation building.
The Invention of Africa by Franco & T.P.OK Jazz
The output of Luambo Makiadi aka Franco, from the legendary record collection of “Jumbo” Donald Vanrenen
IN THE DEN OF THE ALCHEMIST
Which “they”? Which “one”? What “secrets” are you talking about? Oh! Come on! Cinema taught us long ago that there is always a secret in a laboratory and that evil-minded people are planning to get hold of it.
N’Dombolo: the postulation of the post-Zaïko generation
First and foremost, an artistic secretion (the magical respiration of an entire generation of young Congolese), the Wenge generation’s most emblematic creation, a form of humour and a playful ape-like mimicry. The outpouring of Kinshasa, city of dreams, city of turmoil.
The Agronomist
Stacy Hardy follows the path of JJ Machobane, the social visionary, writer and agronomist from Lesotho, who challenged orthodox colonial thinking about land and land use.
P.A.S.S. HARARE
Whatever Zimbabwe is, and is becoming, already exists in the sound-worlds produced in the region.
“We should take out that word ‘national’ and reconstruct that word ‘theatre’….
Perfect, perfect, you have solved the problem for me, we have deconstructed the idea of National Theatre. We have taken the national and thrown it in the dust bin.
CHE IN THE CONGO, ELECTRIC GUITARS AND THE INVENTION OF AFRICA
Featuring solos by Franco Luambo Makiadi, Pepe Felly Manuaku, Bansimba Baroza, Diblo Dibala, Dally Kimoko, Flamme Kapaya, Sarah Solo, Japonais Maladi and Kimbangu Solo; and commentary by Ray Lema