Composed, arranged and performed by Neo Muyanga, this audio cd supplement was part of the Chimurenga Chronicle (October 2011) , a speculative newspaper which is issue 16 of Chimurenga.
Tracklist:
a) 1+1= (a re-composition of a 5000-year-old offering to Lord Ganesha, the Hindu deity, an opener of sorts)
b) 4:7 (heaven’s on the ocean is a proportional refrain on reaching nirvana, the 7th grade, via the mundane material world)
c) 3sin= rθ (sino projection technology theme)
d) 3(x)n (illegal border crossing and migration theme. composed for dancers)
e) e=mcx \rightarrow \infty (a true story about an explosive riot day with SADF soldiers who attacked Soweto on June 16th, 1985. Composed for those who got hurt)
f) ƒ:X→Y (horizon heart aflame. Composed for a lover)
g) (a summing of random themes theme)
h) 4x+2 (the 2 or 4 step theme)
i) y~ 6/8 (a travelling theme in 6 parts over eight. Composed for puppets)
j) y\ge \!\, 6/8 (a running theme in 6 parts over 8 )
k) 1/4° (a kota bread theme. Composed for skolies and thieves)
l) (a perpetual circle. Composed for an apartheid-era multi-racial soccer club)
Blood Skin Bones is a poetry collection that covers diverse sub themes, from nostalgia to world politics to the admiration of the natural world to deep self-introspection. But the dominant packaging theme of this collection is mortality. Mortality of the body, the mind and the soul.
It interrogates the perennial wrestling between a human entity and mortality. It dissects the conversation between the two entities. It embraces the reality that each day our bodies are accumulating limits and shortcomings. This work does not only look at mortality as error or tragedy. It acknowledges and embraces the fact that mortality is a necessary engineering of nature that cannot be evaded.
This connection does not only limit itself within the realm of abstract and philosophical interrogation. It does not only lock its lens onto the inner world of the author. It also flips its lens outward towards societal ills and global politics. This is where it pokes at the tragedies of Gaza/Palestine. The toothlessness and deterioration of the United Nations as it fails to intervene and apply its resolve to deal with the warmongering leaders of certain countries.
This body of work also expresses the challenges and concerns of the author himself as he is going through a difficult time with health challenges.