Kinsmen - Afr(indi)an fiction

"Postcolonial perspectives emerge from the colonial testimony of Third World countries and the discourses of ‘minorities’ within the geopolitical divisions of East and West, North and South.
They intervene in those ideological discourses of modernity that attempt to give hegemonic ‘normality’ to the uneven development and the differential, often disadvantaged, histories of nations, races, communities, peoples.

They formulate their critical revisions around issues of cultural difference, social authority and political discrimination in order to reveal the antagonistic and ambivalent moments within the ‘rationalisations’ of modernity."

(Bhabha 1994: 171).

Bhabha, H., 1994. The location of culture. Routledge.

Afr(indi)an fiction* is a south-south sonic dialogue that seeks to open new territories for discourse, culture and meaning in an imaginary place where borders do not exist and the medium for discourse is sonic.

The collaboration brings together SAMA nominated South African indo-jazz trio Kinsmen (Dhruv Sodha – Sitar, Shailesh Pillay – Tabla, Muhammad Dawjee – Saxophones) and the prolific Zimbabwean ethnomusicologist, percussionist and instrument builder Othnell Mangoma Moyo to probe at the intersection of Indian / African / X identities and creative practices by exploring the limits of the fictional and the radical.

Initiated as a response to the rapid shutting of national borders during the COVID-19 pandemic and global cries for returns to ‘normalcy’, Kinsmen creatively asserts here that indeed we as a people have never been or known any form of ‘normal’ and we need desperately to reckon with our belonging on this continent.

Through a series of action/research exchange dialogues that transact digitally across space, place and time – we ask:

What if this picture, becomes a story, a moment, was a place, a sound, a journey and song?
What are the territories of our shared landscapes and how do we share?
What stories do have to tell each other?
How are things at home?

By deprioritising live synchronous performance as an output we celebrate the asynchronous as a form of hyper-delayed call-and-response not bound to a single moment but working across time and geography.

[call-and-response as traditionally experienced in real-time dialectical sonic exchanges in the South African Marabi Jazz tradition; and in Jugalbandi in the Indian classical traditions. Each exchange is allotted a fortnight which includes developing the brief, nominating someone to put out the first sonic statement (the call) and allowing each of the respondents a chance to listen and make contributions in the form of their response (which also became a subsequent call for the next respondent). The process is fairly linear in format, yet still allowed a complex interplay of ideas - each version of the call & response exchange was instigated by a different conceptual brief and followed a unique sequence of contributors.]

Communication took place over Whatsapp, Zoom & Bandlab

Project description: Muhammad Dawjee – Kinsmen

Afr(indi)an fiction* was supported by a 2020 ANT Adaptation Fund grant from Pro Helvetia Johannesburg financed by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC).

#afrindianfiction #kinsmensa #othnellmangoma #prohelvetia_johannesburg