Author: Oratile Mashazi

Mashayabhuqe, the Modern Maskandi intersects tradition and the avant-garde to capture the millennial mood

Mashaya shows up to Father Coffee just a few minutes late for our interview and he quickly allows me into the landscape of his life these days. He is fresh from AfroPunk in Paris and we fall into step chatting about his experiences in Paris.

He is refreshed and ready to work on more music, now on the other side of Amancamnce mixtape, released last year with a host of cosigns from the upper echeleons of the creative industries along with a feature from his friend uMalume KoolKati and a sampling of the original Urban Zulu Busi Mhlongo.

The Black Excellence Show first released in 2013 introduced Mashayabhuqe KaMamba as someone to watch, and be enthralled by, it presented him and his unique blend of the traditional and Zulu with the digital and urban. He has even been successful enough to have a few copycats, but he’s already onto the next concept, and scheming on greener pastures.

Mashaya occupies a niche space in South Africa’s music scene, his influences and style collide the past and the future, and his perspective is about walking in creative purpose and pushing the boundaries of what performance and urban music mean within this space. An individual steeped in his tradition and culture, with a mind opened to the global possibilities of his craft.

‘Why are you here? Am I here to make things that are acceptable to the community or am I here to challenge people’s minds?’

With that said this alchemist of modernity and Maskandi is doing it like it hasn’t been done in a minute, and he has worked with some of South Africa’s legends. I mean real legends; KingTha For The Babies, was a groundbreaking challenge for emerging artists to win a free feature from Le Grande Artiste herself, Thandiswa Mazwai. Mashayabuqhe won it. Now, they have a song, ‘Izayoni’ together. We both geek hard for a second. Then he says, ‘She’s amazing. I listen to the song and pinch myself all the time, her music moulded uMashaya, noBusi Mhlongo, no James Blake and Bon Iver…’

For a moment I consider Mashaya’s forebears and then him as the next bearer of the legacy both Busi Mhlongo and Thandiswa have built upon. That pioneering perspective that broke new ground and resonated with the culture of coming to Johannesburg to follow a dream and grappling with urbanity and modernity, dealing with the anonymity and isolation of the city while using it to propel yourself to new heights. It is not a new story, but it presents us with a new face, a new hero every so often; some of them shed their skin and make a whole new persona, eschewing their roots for a brighter future. Mashaya revels in his culture and eschews expectations and definitions, consistently curating his own style, always looking to do what the industry is too afraid to; break musical ground, bring the truth of South Africa to the fore using its culture and its current permutation as an outpost of western culture, to tell the story that we can relate to and be inspired by.

His energy, wonder and sincerity are on a hundred this crisp Jozi morning; he lets me in on how he grew up in a village eNkandla and how most of his English was studied from the television and music he was exposed to at his family’s home. Then he wound up working in television in Jozi with his most faithful friend uMatsoso who has supported Mashaya’s career from its infancy and continues to call him to this day to inform him of the latest copycat to appropriate Mashaya’s sound. These simple things, these pieces of his history give context to the person I see before me now, that understands and reconstructs the relations between art, technology and tradition and refuses to be pigeonholed or defined by anybody but himself. And he’s already onto the next one.

‘I just dropped Sun City flow, and there’s a lot of attachments to it, it could be the jail, or the casino, or any city in Africa because there’s always sun. This song is about sharing my experiences with the kids; letting them know that if you’re a raw talent, they will try to chain you.’

Mashayabhuque chooses substance and creativity when it comes to his art, thus staying true to the source to leave awe and imitators in his wake while the world waits and watches to see just how far he takes it.

Editorial image credits

Photography: Hanro Havenga

Styling: Jamal Nxedlana

Image 1:

Mashayabhuqe wears a suit by Diego Ranieri, beret by Crystal Birch and a neckpiece by Pichulik. (Accessories stylist own)

Image 2:

Mashayabhuqe wears trousers by Diego Ranieri, beret by Crystal Birch. (Accessories stylist own)

Image 3:

Mashayabhuqe wears a shirt by Studio W, trousers by Diego Ranieri, beret by Crystal Birch. (Accessories stylist own)

27 July 2016
Live from Berlin: FAKA performing Bottoms Revenge and writing love letters to black men

2016 has been the year of FAKA. The creative duo of Desire Marea and Fela Gucci have outdone themselves and broken cultural ground with every drop and every performance this year. On the 21st of April 2016 they gave an exhilarating live performance that set the Stevenson SEX exhibit alight. While a new video for ISIFUNDO SOKUQALA – sensual with a touch of the supernatural – has them sketching an imprint on the local cultural scene. For queer culture, for trans culture, for bottoms, for women – for everyone who believes we should be able to be ourselves without fearing for our safety in our so called civilised society. Their performances enlighten and expose ignorance and their space within the current conversation around sex and gender is pioneering and so sexy. In consistently immaculate styling and composed, powerful performances they walk the line between provocation and seduction – posing challenges to the heteronormative hegemony and offering healing and inspiration to those brutalised by it. Currently at the Berlin Bienalle performing their highly anticipated piece titled ‘Bottom’s Revenge’. Their humour, vision and power transcend social censorship and reveal that seduction is a feeling, and sex is something society perverts and polices to serve patriarchy and its princes and princesses.

They took time out of their Bienalle schedules to answer a few questions for us. Read and weep.

When did you realize your creativity and identity could impact your environment?

We realised this when we realised that our own lives were actually conceptual, they were a well executed creative idea that came quite effortlessly from our need to cope with and transcend the social displacement that comes with being black and queer. Our growth as people made us realise that there are more effective ways to navigate the aesthetics, the artefacts, and all the movements that form our identities in ways that might threaten or influence the structural environment we are juxtaposed with on the daily. Seeing how this affects our everyday experience of the world opened us up to very intimate truths about our world and a lot of that informs our practice. We see art as an equally intimate way to communicate (not so) new truths, and it’s the best way to plant new ideas in the minds of people who consume it. Art has the power to influence culture and for us culture is the highest governing power

What does the future hold for FAKA in SA and beyond?

We are releasing our EP Bottoms Revenge very soon. Beyond that our focus will be to create tangible structures that can reflect our ideology as artists, structures that will hopefully be able to support the upcoming legendary children. We have been fortunate to receive multiple platforms and our voice is strengthened by that. Every young black queer artist deserves that but it is not the case and we don’t want them to go as far as we have gone to be heard.

What message do you have for other men trying to find ways to be loving and sexual outside the pervasive S.African toxic and violent masculinities?

Insert Fumbatha May’s “A love letter to the Black Man”.

This performance comes at a critical time for marginalized people’s internationally, do these events inform your work at all?

Yes, and they always will because we exist there too.

In a country terrorised by violence against the female, the queer, the trans and whoever else doesn’t fit into the missionary mould of god fearing christian or suited up capitalist, FAKA have come to remind us that the human body is for fun, for sex and we should all have the freedom to enjoy it without shame or fear. FAKA!

25 July 2016
For lessons in liberation from late nights in Camden, see Robert Lang’s Filthy and Gorgeous

Youth, drink and beauty are the currency of late nights the world over. But with all this some people still seem to be having more fun than everyone else. In his first solo show SA born Robert Lang offers a visual legacy into Camden in the early to mid noughties; in the time of beautiful, doomed Amy and wild, messy Pete. Frequenting a local pub called the Hawley Arms before it was commercial and documenting the exploits of his muses and friends, Lang candidly created a context for Camden post millennium.

Robert Lang born in Durban, South Africa, moved to Camden as a teenager, ‘to see the world’ and he encountered some colourful, creative people there. Filthy, Gorgeous in Camden Town is an ode to that time and space of youthful discovery and revelry contained and coloured by the themes of ‘Indie, Rock, Punk and Vintage’. It is an exploration of hedonism and vivacity just after the world had been meant to end.

Robert Lang fashion photography Filthy Gorgeous zine

The images reflect partying and fun as it is- when it’s good; messy, raucous and liberating. Lang’s photos are all of women and their exploits within this scene, a nod to the enchanting, capturing beauty of the female form and the wild streak of a young women entering adulthood, and revelling in independence and urban life. The exhibition holds a mirror to Lang’s life in Camden, to the streets and spaces he and his friends enjoyed in his years in the North London neighbourhood. Since then he has moved to Los Angeles and the women documented have also moved on and grown up and out of Camden.

Robert Lang fashion photography Filthy Gorgeous zine

In filthy,gorgeous Camden, art is life and creating comes as easy as a night out with friends. And the camera gets an intimate pass because it is being held by a friend and not some overzealous party phothog. Every scene, every establishment has that moment of making itself and attracting interesting people and experiences, but it never lasts. Eventually it explodes and gets too commercial so all the sensitive people stop going and move on. But these images tell the story of a vibrant time in Camden town, when everyone wanted a good time and nothing was contrived or self conscious. It is a beautiful story of youth and young womanhood accessorized with beer and bad behaviour. Sooo lit, sooo liberating.

Have a look at Fitlhy, Gorgeous Camden Town by Robert Lang; the exhibition is on at the Doomed Gallery in Dalston until July 17th.

Robert Lang fashion photography Filthy Gorgeous zine

Robert Lang fashion photography Filthy Gorgeous zine

Robert Lang fashion photography Filthy Gorgeous zine

12 July 2016
Premiere: Swishy Delta drops ‘Bronwynne’, exlcusively with Bubblegum Club

Today we drop an exclusive to settle you into the crisp, cold months ahead. Coming out of one of the coolest label in Cape Town, Swishy Delta has all the right co-signs from Damascus to Yes in French… but let the music speak for itself.

The 21st century is the age of multi-hyphenates and slashies, creatives have unbounded themselves from genres, titles and mediums to infiltrate the attention spans of the online audience. Swishy Delta aka Daniel Mark Nel, painter/beatmaker has hitherto expressed himself through atmospheric paintings and graphics and is now releasing his first solo musical effort, Bronwynne; a 4 track EP released via Quit Safari. The sounds are fresh and emotive, with smatterings of urban sounds and new-age-y murmurs.

Quit Safari is headed up by Bas Van Oudenhove and Sebastian Zenasi. The Cape Town based label is releasing some interesting sounds, and this first effort from Swishy Delta is a welcome reminder of all the edge and emotion that can come out of the Mother City, the meeting of the natural order with urban elements spills out of the sounds and offers something to sway and maybe have sex to this winter.

Just listen, it is so lush.

3 June 2016
Rharha Nembhard; NoirWave’s visual powerhouse

The Drone Goddess is on a mission to live her truth, using her gifts to obliterate boundaries and silence stereotypes. The curator of NoirWave, one RhaRha Nembhard, is home in South Africa on a break from her Masters degree in museums, galleries and contemporary culture. But to her a break includes so much work and travel that it reveals her drive and passion to be a working artist and contribute to the world with a progressive and powerful message. I had the opportunity to talk to her about everything from her inspirations to her upcoming projects but the crux of it is clear; her work engenders transformation and changes perceptions within institutions, art and culture to represent Africa and Africans as we are and have been. She formed NoirWave with her partner Yannick Illunga a.k.a Petite Noir and their message is finally being embraced in SA, with a SAMA nod for Yannick and both of them featured on the cover of Sunday Times Lifestyle, NoirWave is finally growing roots on homeground.

NoirWave is telling the story of black glory through art. The hermetic principles and traditional themes referenced in the imagery of the movement are balanced by the perspective that the world is comprised of billions of people and we influence one another through travel and now the internet. ‘We are all hybrids of some shape or form’, Rharha says in reference to her broad perspective on identity and culture. Rharha was born in Jamaica, raised in SA and did her undergraduate degree in Bangkok. Having lived in Africa, Asia and Europe, she has come into contact with the world’s major civillisations and is able to draw touches of them into what she does. Pulling seemingly disparate pieces together to tell a new story about the millenial age and represent blackness within the context of futurism, high art and global connectivity.

Traditional broadcast and mass media misrepresent the black experience. But the 21st century has brought us black superheroes, a black American President and rap in African accents. The Winds of Change are blowing and the anachronisms around Africa are being swept away. Rharha travels the continent extensively and her work references all the beauty and richness she comes into contact with. Yet, the messages proliferated about living here are often pervaded by negative sentiment, and while much of Africa’s reality is informed by conflict and the effects of imperialism this is also a vibrant, abundant place and our role within the global space is not that which is defined by the West but rather as the founders of civillisation and forebearers of modern science, astronomy, literature and religion.Colonialism obliterated African history and impressed falsehoods upon Africa of barbarism and ignorance. As movements like NoirWave gain traction, new stories about Africans by Africans gain prominence; we are travellers and artists and activists and curators and writers and scientists, our brilliance is beginning to be liberated from the imperial gaze as we come to understand all that our continent and people contribute to the world. Africa’s resources have been used to build so many major cities; London and Paris were nothing before brutally snatching Africa’s wealth and America would be a wasteland without the stolen labour of slavery. These are facts, and we are here to rewrite the story about this continent and its children.

The substance of NoirWave; the looks, the visual story is the vision of Rharha; her construction of imagery translates cultural knowledge into a modern landscape. Her collaboration with Lina Viktor and Petite Noir produced the striking imagery for La Vie est Belle and her art direction is behind the stunning videos for the album as well. Their shared objective of representing and bringing reverence and regalia to African experiences has produced stunning, emotionally stirring art. The imagery the produced for La Vie Est Belle projects the power and poetry in blackness and the abundant beauty of Africa.

Rharha, the mother of all that is NoirWave, curates the movement with a cohesive and consistent message; Black is beautiful, deal with it.

1 June 2016
The rise and rise of Moonchild Sanelly

My first meeting with Moonchild was in Cape Town, she performed at the legendary Cold Turkey and won me over with her energy and openness. Her performance was electrifying and I’ve watched her grow from strength to strength in every facet of her creative output. Now some four years later I sit opposite a SAMA nominated artist, an established fashion designer and the person responsible for the proliferation of coloured woollen hairstyles. The opportunity to connect with someone at such an critical moment in their career is beautiful, Moonchild’s energy and love for her work is palpable, her ambition supported by a steel will and drive to make people dance and sing and celebrate. She’s on the road at the moment, about to perform at Zafiko festival in Durban and Primavera Sound festival in Barcelona.

Moonchild is on a roll; The New York Times featured her in a photo diary by Chris Saunders that revealed her perspective and hustle in GoliWood, she’s going on a national tour with Red Bull soon and she is currently nominated for one of the nation’s highest musical honours. The SAMA nomination is a nod from people within the music industry, people who run record companies and make it their business to invest in new talent and artistry. “The nomination has opened a lot of doors for me, people actually respond to me emails now ” she says with the sweetest smile. ” I don’t know if it’s hit me yet, and I’ll be travelling when the ceremony is on but I do hope I win “. Her competition is stiff but anything is possible, so we await June 4th with bated breath. This nomination reflects the establishment taking note of alternative and independent artists, the people who run the streets and contribute to urban culture are finally being recognized in the upper echelons of the creative industries.

Creativity is a beautiful gift and meeting it with professionalism and productivity makes it powerful. This is the power Moonchild exudes, ‘I want to be exhausted, I’m just tired now’ she says in reference to her touring schedule for the coming months. Her dreams are big and her passion spills out in the conversation about recording and singing. And after 7 years in this city, these accolades and opportunities are well deserved, it really is inspiring to see things come together for such a talented, ambitious human, I tell her this, she smiles that same sweet smile and says, ‘I want a lot, I’m on my way to getting it’.

Moonchild’s latest single Fox With That, produced by her long time collaborator Maramza is available on iTunes and currently rising up local charts. Follow her @Moonchild_SA and watch out for her performing somewhere near you, soon.

Words by Oratile Mashazi @Oracle254

27 May 2016
Watch Daniel Haaksman featuring Spoek Mathambo in Akabongi, an inner city intersection of art, internet and hustle

Art and technology have this shared power to transcend their original context, creating new contexts, and new worlds within which they can be used and understood. These elements meet in interesting ways in Daniel Haaksman and Spoek Mathambo’s new video. Shot in Johannesburg, it reflects the city’s hustle and innovations, its creativity and its unique landscape.

‘Akabongi’ samples the legendary Soul Brothers and this video vivifies the sometime thankless, sometime thrilling grind of hustling and working in the CBD. The grind is the reason people break through and push passion; humans always find innovative ways to connect and create in unconventional spaces. The video references the CUSS Group’s work in the fusion of art and technology and CUSS’ use of urban spaces as outposts for exhibiting art, highlighting the ‘artistic value of hybrid cultural production’ and revealing that art can be anywhere, and enjoyed by anyone, even if it’s streaming out of a PC screen in the bustle of downtown Jozi. Perhaps especially then, as the digital age continues to reveal and unravel what art means, where it can be found and what it can do.

While the CBD may appear a gritty clog in the machine, it is buzzing with creativity and possibility in its various corners, The Scorpion’s pantsula dancing is far from out of place on the streets of the city, it’s another hustle here. People get incredibly creative, using culture and creativity as instruments of expression and economic survival. And pantsula is an art form so particular to Southern Africa’s culture and circumstance.

Sampling the Soul Brother’s and Mada ‘the Scorpion’ dancing pantsula all contribute to a colourful cultural expression of southern african urbanity. The video was directed by Chris Kets and it’s crew is a roll call of urban brilliance; TakeZito produced the video and Jody Brand played Creative Director, her incredible images from the shoot offer a background into the scenes and faces that give this city its originality and humanity.

The fusion of 90’s Kevin Smith tropes meeting a work day in inner city Jozi is such fun especially when Spoek Mathambo and Mada are the homies hustling at the internet cafe. Enjoy Akabongi below, its brilliant and so refreshing.

18 May 2016
LootLove is a true original! She talks to us about the super power in being yourself

Luthando Shosha, is consistently immaculate, while it is part of her profession to look good, she does this while always looking like herself. Keeping it street, or G. always. Everytime I see her there’s a new item for me to covet, a new shoe Nike has blessed her with, a leotard with her name on it. Rings and accessories put together to present her as she is, beautiful, brave and boughetto fabulous.

Luthando’s story is one as old as the golden city itself, so many of Johannesburg’s inhabitants come from the country to make it big in the city, yet it is a lucky few who make it and even fewer who are recognizable as themselves once they do. A self proclaimed alien in the concrete jungle this tomboy from the Eastern Cape stays true to herself at every stage of her stellar career. I ask what drives her to succeed. She is coy at first, telling me she does it for the money. But I know better, and I tell her I think she’s lying to which she responds.

‘I do this to prove a positive point, that doing you actually works. Its harder than conforming but being yourself is what will feed your passion and drive the pure energy that keeps motivating you to keep going back and try harder after the rejection and the disappointment’

Her journey begins in her hometown of Port Elizabeth where she hosted a radio show on Kingfisher FM, fast forward to 2012 when she wins a competition (on her second attempt) to be the newest host of LiveAmp,

‘Live was the best deep end I was ever thrown into but I treated every Friday like a new audition to payback the people that voted for me, and prove to myself and the industry that I deserved this opportunity’

I recall going to see her shoot her final episode of LiveAmp. After the show wrapped there was palpable emotion and tension in the air, and Luthando, luminous in a pale periwinkle pantsuit, graciously stepped off that stage and into a new phase of her ever expanding career. Now she hosts the Urban Music Experience, SABC 1’s latest entertainment offering that is innovating how the nation consumes its musical content, shifting the focus from parties to artistry and the global trends within the music industry.

Her love for the art she engages with is obvious, she consistently refers to the importance of the musical craft and in her interviews she asks the questions a creative wants to know, delving into the mind and processes of the artist. I get the sense that it is stirring for her to be on the other side of an interview, but she is a perceptive and sweet subject. Our interview goes down in the middle of a photo shoot, she’s being made up and styled and her phone is always going off yet she is easy and focused, ready to regale me with her story.

Watching LootLove shoot is capturing, her physique is the stuff of dreams, long limbs and doe shaped eyes peppered with that famous pout come together to create this image of the graceful city slicker. The urban princess in search of solitude and understanding in the cold city.

This millennial A-lister has built a career on representing herself authentically. In refusing to stoop to mainstream ideals of beauty and success Luthando has created a persona of tangible cool, grace and humility, always open to talking to her fans and friends, yet cautious about the spotlight. She has the persona of the mysterious rock star, a rebel on a quest to maintain herself and sanity in the frivolity of show business. Millions of viewers would agree; it is a most enchanting experience watching her do it.

Editorial image credits

Photography: Chris Saunders

Styling: Jamal Nxedlana & Anita Makgetla

Make-up: Ayanda Shabangu

Image 1:

LootLove wears Nike Air Presto Ultra Flyknit trainers, Pleated polo neck by Marianne Fassler, Training bra by Nike and Wide leg trousers by Superella.

Image 2:

LootLove wears Nike Air Presto Ultra Flyknit trainers, Bomber jacket by GoldstreetLA and Pleated dress by Marianne Fassler.

Image 3:

LootLove wears Nike Air Presto Ultra Flyknit trainers, Coat by Black Coffee, T-shirt by Nike, and Pleated trousers by Marianne Fassler.

4 May 2016
For the love of Hip Hop; recapping 2016’s Back to the City Festival

Back to the city is a Johannesburg institution, a hip hop festival celebrating urban music and street culture in one of the world’s most notorious cities. The humble beginnings of back to the city, run parallel to the story of hip hop in SA, and intersect with the revival of the inner city. The festival began as an educational summit for artists offering knowledge exchange and workshops from established artists within the industry. The first year had approximately 3500 attendees.

This Freedom Day, Back To the City saw some 25000 attendees and celebrated a decade in the game of pioneering inner city festivals and putting hip hop at centre stage regardless of the reservations or obstacles experienced. This year saw AKA and Riky Rick drop out of the show and there were instances where the sound on the main stage was plagued by problems with microphones and such but the show went on and the crowd was in the presence of the nation’s most loved lyricists including Kwesta whose Ngud’ had thousands and thousands of people with their hands up and bodies gyrating. While Reason’s Yipikayay remix was a stellar collaboration with a gang of rappers going in on PH’s bombastic, playful beat and Reason himself reflecting on his own journey with Back to the City, having performed at the festival each year since it’s inception.

The main stage was surprised by a performance from Nasty C. The teenager has the game in frenzy, and his performance was composed and crisp highlighting his wordplay and execution, revealing a talent beyond his 19 years. The festival itself offered so much entertainment for hip hop fans and likers of music; the Sprite stage and the Powerplay stage hosted band and dance battles respectively, with performers competing for cash prizes of up 30 stacks. It is beautiful to see the urban performing arts appreciated and rewarded, a sure sign of a growing entertainment industry.

I saw some amazing things at Back To the City, from stumbling upon beautiful vocals and instrumentals from Melo B Jones’ band Regina, to young dancers sharing their talent and passion with youthful vigour and confidence. Not forgetting the wonderful energy backstage; the competitive nature of hip hop sometimes overshadows that the industry is a community of creatives, and in terms of urban music and culture they all descended on Mary Fitzgerald Square to perform on hip hop’s biggest stage and enjoy the 10 years of the continent’s biggest hip hop festival. A momentous and enriching occasion.

Checkout some street style snaps from the event below.

3 May 2016
Thesis Lifestyle celebrates a decade in the game!

Thesis is a Johannesburg institution. From fashion and retail to events and socially oriented initiatives the brand has grown from strength to strength in the past decade. Their t-shirts and bucket hats are staples on the streets of the city and they’ve recently opened a new store ko-Kagiso.

The original thesis store is located In the heart of Soweto at 173 Machaba Drive, in Mofolo Village. Their stock of original apparel and accessories are fresh yet uncomplicated and have come to help define youth culture from Soweto. The store itself is home for the brand as well as a creative nexus for Soweto and Johannesburg at large. The Thesis team consists of Wandile Zondo, Business Manager, Wireless G the Creative Director and Co-owner Nkululeko Khumalo.

The brand launched a decade ago, and has been positively impacting their community through cultural initiatives as well as serving as a model for entrepreneurship for other streetwear brands. Thesis is rooted in the street culture of Soweto, and interprets the unique experience of being from there for the world. Their innovative perspective on using the corner store to push culture instead of liquor positively impacts their community while inspiring others to follow suit. Their ten years in the industry has seen them consistently promote creative expression; they hosted the pioneering Thesis Social Jam Sessions which offered a platform to other up and coming creatives including Toll Ass Mo and the Goliath brothers. And now as part of the 4Afrika Initiative Thesis has teamed up with Microsoft to continue to do great things for South African creatives and society.

A happy ten years to Thesis Lifestyle; a landmark for a cultural and social institution, for and from the streets of South Africa.

25 April 2016
Bubblegum Club and British Council collaborate on Connect ZA’s new look, linking the past, present and future
British Council Connect ZA is a cultural programme working across the UK and SA. They are reimaginging their visual identity with BubblegumClub’s help and fresh perspective. The refresh is a culmination of a collaboration between Connect ZA and BubblegumClub, and will reflect the context and connections between the UK and SA, focusing on contemporary art practices and culture amongst the millenial generation.

Bubblegum Club has a history with Connect ZA, our creative director, Jamal Nxedlana has collaborated with them on a number of occasions including Bubblegum Club producing the Innovation ZA digital film work. The new look integrates the local into the global, asserting the artistic and cultural heritage of South Africa and the United Kingdom. This collaboration forms part of the ongoing relationship between the British Council and South African creatives, it speaks to the historic exchanges that have been ocurring between the two nations for centuries but also looks towards creating new, innovative connections within the country.

This new look was a collaborative process, a standard set by the British Council in all their partnerships, a refreshing way to work. Read the press release issued by British Council Connect ZA below:

Fresh start, new look

British Council Connect ZA is looking forward; following a successful three years as part of a SA-UK Seasons 2014 & 2015. The next phase of British Council South Africa’s Arts programme has begun, and we want the refreshed visual identity of the programme to reflect the past, present and future connections between creative practitioners in the United Kingdom and South Africa.

“It is so exciting that we get to continue to work alongside excellent SA and UK partners, participants and engage audiences for the foreseeable future. This is a direct response to the successes and desire for collaborative creative working between the countries. “
- Levinia Jones, British Council South Africa Head of Arts
Our new look works alongside the global British Council ID while asserting the personality of the SA Arts offering Connect ZA.

“What an excellent opportunity to tap into the creative genius of the partners we have worked with these past years, and we reached out to several both in SA and the UK to interpret the vision for the future. We are thrilled with the fresh look and feel. “
- Levinia Jones, British Council South Africa Head of Arts
Joburg-based Bubblegum Club was selected as the agency to create the refreshed identity into the future. Their proposal was successful as it innately understood British Council Connect ZA as both collaborator and audience. Our history with Bubblegum Club precedes its formation: founder Jamal Nxedlana has collaborated in his personal capacity and as a member of CUSS artist collective.

“Reflecting back on our involvement in various Connect ZA initiatives/programs we felt that the most genuine connections happened where there was an intuitive understanding, an ability to relate to, or recognise the other.”
- Jamal Nxedlana, Bubblegum Club
A milestone in the relationship was Bubblegum Club producing the Innovation ZA digital film work, which was specially-commissioned to open the festival in August 2015.

Their approach was grounded in the belief that it is both common experiences and our unique perspectives that connect us.

“We began looking for ways to visually interpret and explore this idea, ways through which to express the idea of seeing something familiar but from a completely different perspective. Exploring different techniques and along the way found that it was the collaging of familiar imagery to create something completely new, which resonated most with people we showed the developmental work to.”
- Jamal Nxedlana, Bubblegum Club
The process has been collaborative. The sort of relationship British Council Connect ZA strives to develop and maintain to while supporting partners.

BACKROUND: British Council Connect ZA is a cultural programme developed between the UK and South Africa.

From 2013, the programme has supported cultural connections between young people aged 18-35 in the UK and South Africa with a range of arts projects and use of digital platforms to build creative networks through art forms including, fashion, music, film design. Between 2014 and 2015 the programme fell under the SA-UK Seasons 2014 & 2015, a project between the British Council and the South African Department of Arts and Culture. This was a multifaceted bilateral collaboration between the two nations, with a particular focus on artistic and creative capacity building and relationship development intended to raise cultural relations between the two countries.

As of April 2016, British Council Connect ZA continues to develop projects, reach new and diverse audiences for the arts and stimulate innovation, while inspiring connections between SA and the UK by enabling innovative creative content, collaborations and skills exchange. We do this through linking creative communities, partners and audiences between the ages of 18 and 35, both online and offline and across discipline.

For more information, please contact:

Serisha.Letchmiah@britishcouncil.org
22 April 2016
Jet Life: Dope St. Jude’s global hustle and contribution to black knowledge production

Monday April 10th saw Dope St. Jude and Kyla Phil, pulling up in Roeland street to scoop me en route to Dope St’s birthday dinner. We sped off towards Cape Town’s suburbs and a sanctified celebration of the life of this artist from Elsies River. Dope St. Jude gracefully glides through identities, wearing concurring crowns of artist and activist whilst embodying such potency it speaks to power and pleasure. An entertainer by nature, but also an educator through the proliferation of a persona that makes people wys about black girl magic and the inequalities of the beautiful and totally bogus racist Mother City.

With the gift of keeping it real while rapping, Dope St. Jude is currently in Finland with Angel-Ho, performing, and contributing to the conversation about alternative platforms and methodologies for knowledge production on a panel at In-between: Art, Education and Politics in the Post-Welfare state, a week long event hosted in conjunction with Chimurenga and The Pan African Space Station at Checkpoint Helsinki. Her new EP is set to drop in the near future and the album artwork is already out. The images reference archetypes of femininity and Africa, and while contributing to the discourse around representations of black women, they also contribute to the refreshing representations of blackness and Africa coming from African artists. Through using our heritage and beautiful brown skin to tell stories these images enter a pantheon of other artworks rewriting the meaning of blackness a la the Noirwavers who set 2015 alight with beautiful artworks featuring blackness and Africa in regal, opulent sometimes even religious regalia.

When you are born with dark skin and/or a vagina, your identity becomes something beyond you, potent in its ability to alienate and antagonise. These stereotypes are laid before us, having been produced and reproduced by misogynist white media and patriarchal white capital for centuries. But we are making a future where the truth about blackness, queerness, gender and Africa have representation in all spheres of experience; music, visuals, text, print, photography and so the list must go on until equality is won. It is this knowledge that artists like Dope Saint Jude propagate, and this is why her work and persona is so important. This reflection of the relationship between art and activism, emphasizes the role of creativity in contributing to changing ignorant and conservative perspectives. This is how artists like Dope St Jude are impacting our world, and it is a most wondrous and welcome change.

17 April 2016