Ukubona Kabusha
Film
Remembering Nokutela
Is a film about the life of Nokutela Dube, the early African intellectual and composer of songs. Nokutela, who was also the wife of John L Dube, co-founded with her husband Ohlange Industrial School—which was modelled after Booker T Washington’s Tuskegee. The film created by Prof Cherif Keita shows how the apartheid era’s undermining of African histories led to the erasure of an important figure in the development of music, music pedagogy and intellectual culture in general in South Africa.
Keita’s work follows on the highly successful resuscitative work of Prof Ntongela Masilela’s New African Movement website, whose aim was to develop intellectual sketches of influential figures in the era of “New African intellectuals,” a movement inspired by the New Negro movement in the USA.
biography
Why Willie Mae Thornton Matters
Described as an “experimental biography,” Lynnee Denise writes a story about the great blues singer Willie Mae Thornton. Thornton who was gender non-conforming had a 40-year career traveling all over the USA and recording for Peacock Records. She broke boundaries and also paved the way for many black musicians in the industry.
We will be having a conversation with the author of the biography, Denise, who is also a House music DJ. Denise has spent many years researching the connection between the house music cultures of South Africa and the USA. She has in the past performed in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal and undertaken creative work in South Africa and Europe.
Film
Nocturnal Vibrations: An Ode to Bmore
A film by Bashi Rose. The film impressionistically explores the intense beautiful, spiritual, and rhythmic vibrations of Baltimore, USA at night while shedding light on the need for radical thought and the rise of the prison system in the state/province of Maryland. It features the following musicians: Jamal Moore, King Solomon, Ra Elder, Canal Rose, Daniel Carter, and Bashi Rose himself.
Film
Changing Faces
Changing Faces is a video essay by Thokozani Mhlambi, musician and composer. The video essay reflects on Mhlambi’s upbringing in Madadeni (KwaZulu-Natal) and on the evolving nature of the township—a space designated as inferior by the apartheid regime—in the context of a democratic African future.
film
Milisuthando
This film is a personal essay by Milusuthando Bongela. Here Bongela reflects on her upbringing in the homeland of Transkei in the Eastern Cape, during the time of the interregnum—the transition between apartheid and the democratic dispensation. The film takes the form of a personal essay, incorporating aspects of the authors family clan story.
