Liberation Radio: Cape Town – 15-18 March 2022

By Chimurenga on March 10, 2022 in Arts & Pedagogy, Books & Oration, Cash & Commerce, Faith & Ideology, Gaming, Healing & bodies, Media & Propaganda, PASS, Systems of Governance

Liberation Radio is a new monthly program on the Pan African Space Station (PASS). It is part of Chimurenga’s ongoing query on knowledge production via African sound worlds. Through this program we explore the possibilities of radio as a research platform and the sonic archives of cultural struggles, and the role of city-studios such as Cairo, Accra, Conakry, Algiers, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and more, as revolutionary capitals which hosted and disseminated liberatory work through their national infrastructure.

This edition, live from our Cape Town studio on the 15th -18th of March from 3pm, will examine the role of South African liberation movements as cultural producers, particularly in the realm of sound and music, both at home and in exile, through initiatives such as ANC’s Amandla Cultural Ensemble (based in Angola) and Medu (Botswana); PAC’s Mafube (Tanzania) and Azanian Singers (UK); BCM’s Dashiki and Malopoets, as well as collaborative projects such as Caiphus Semenya’s Buwa.

The program features sessions with contemporary musicians on struggle songs/chants; an exploration of visual production as it relates to liberation music – for instance the record-sleeve design of artists such as Bidi, Ntukwana, Feni, Tladi and others. As well as a segment examining the methods and challenges of recovering, curating, re-presenting and conserving black collective and fugitive practice.

Participants include: musicians/composers Neo Muyanga, Asher Gamedze, Masello Motana, Steve Dyer and Nhlanhla Ngqaqu (iPhupho L’ka Biko); writers/historians Percy Mabandu, Athi Mongezeli Joja, Gwen Ansell and Ali Hlongwane; artists/workers Rob Machiri and Memory Biwa (Pungwe), Bongiwe Dhlomo- Mautloa and Judy Seidman; archivists/scholars Uhuru Phalafala and Sinazo Mtshemla; producers/organisers Lerato Kuzwayo and Kgomotso Ramushu; and many more.

For further information and updates visit panafricanspacestation.org.za

This edition is produced in collaboration with Akademie der Künste der Welt