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LISTEN: SONGS FOR WINNIE BY A SEMBLANCE
CHIMURENGA LIBRARY
Banished to Brandfort in 1977, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela noted that this act, carried out by the apartheid authorities, was intended “to bury me forever.” However, it was her presence that ultimately repositioned the small rural town in the Free State as a centre for black radicalism.
Lat year we published an edition titled “Brandfort: Liberation Capital (1977-86)”, an oral history of the town in the time of Winnie Mandela, through interviews with townspeople, collaborators and companions, re-examining her operation of a clinic, crèche and library in the context of the Black Consciousness Movement’s community programmes; the network of collaboration that facilitated her political work from the Free State and its impact on the broader liberation struggle; the modes of communication and speech-acts she used during her banishment, and more.
And to welcome this publication we invited A semblance, Asher Gamedze’s free-funk collective, to arrange an hour-long suite inspired by the immense body musical and literary work that honoured Winnie’s years in Brandfort, including Sathima Benjamin’s “Winnie Mandela, Beloved Heroine”, Gwendolyn Brooks’s epic poem “Song for Winnie”, Milton Nascimento’s “Lágrimas Do Sul (para Winnie Mandela)”, June Jordan’s “Every Night, Winnie Mandela”, and many more.
The A semblance ensemble performed the piece at the Chimurenga Factory on 24 April 2025.
We listen to the recording of this performance from 7pm tonight. Live on PASS, tune in!
Thursday, 14 May 2026 from 7pm
Live on the Pan African Space Station
Category: Articles, Liberation Radio, News, Pass Blog, Pass Replay
Tags: A Semblance, Asher Gamedze, winnie madikizela-mandela
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THE CARETAKER
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog
Tags: Ilze Wolff, Keegan Steenkamp, Malik Edjabe, Masello Montana
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LISTEN: “MORE MORE MORE… FUTURE” BY FAUSTIN LINYEKULA AND STUDIO KABAKO
Category: Articles, Liberation Radio, News, Pass Blog, Pass Radio
Tags: Faustin Linyekula, Studio Kabako
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BLACK STUDY – a conversation and performance by Dead Symbols, A Semblance and Operation Khataza
We’re delighted to host a study session in collaboration with three of Cape Town’s leading experimental music units, Dead Symbols, A Semblance and Operation Khataza. The session is conceived as a collective site of listening, reading, and discussion. Drawing on the long tradition of study as a political and artistic practice within Black radical thought, the gathering asks how music can function not only as aesthetic production, but as a method of inquiry, refusal, and world-ending. Saturday, 14 March 2026Chimurenga …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog
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ANNUAL CHIMURENGA PARTY – Bubbles ALL NIGHT! – Fri 20 Feb 2026
Join us for the Annual Chimurenga ‘Ghetto Gala’, with music supplied all night by the heavy DJ Bubbles! Born and raised in Mamelodi, Pretoria, DJ Bubbles is a prominent figure in South African house music history. Active since the mid-2000s, he has produced projects such as Mayibuye and the iconic Flipside House Vol. 2. He is the founder of Urban Touch Recordings, launched in 2012, and continues to spread the gospel as one of the most grooviest DJs in the country. Friday, 20 February 2026 from …
L’ALMAMY SAMORY TOURE – ACT II, DAKAR – 13 DECEMBER 2025
Act II, L’Almamy Samori Touré – An Unmade Film by Ousmane Sembène, decomposed, disarranged and reproduced by Chimurenga, and hosted by RAW Material Company as part of the 14th edition of Partcours. The program today will run as follows Saturday December 13: on theatre, fashion and the arts in the production of history, the case of “l’École de Dakar” (The Dakar School) 3.30 p.m. | African history in theatre, cinema, and fashion — Lamine Seyba Traoré and Oumou SY with Madiaw …
Category: Live Events, News, Pass Blog
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