Liberation Radio is an ongoing query on knowledge production via African sound worlds, and long-term research on broadcasting and cultural initiatives by liberation movements across the continent. Our research focuses on the city-studios of Cairo, Accra, Conakry, Algiers, Dar es Salaam, Lusaka and more, the so-called revolutionary capitals which hosted and generated this production through their own national broadcasting infrastructure. Through this study we would to map the circulation of ideas through these places, amidst regime changes and the shifty allegiances of the Cold War and Sino-Soviet conflict, as well as the nodes beyond the continent such as Delhi, Havana, East-Berlin, Moscow, and of course, the surveillance centres of the West.

See previous interventions, enquiries and questions below:

PASS landing in Cairo:
In 2017, PASS in Cairo became an improvisational platform for research and deeper explorations into imagined and imaginary borders, featuring live readings, performances and conversations with Chimurenga collaborators in the city. Read more…

Qamata Pula – iPhupho L’ka Biko live at the Chimurenga Factory:
iPhupho L’ka Biko presented QAMATA PULA, an ancestral invocation collapsing past, present and future, over three days at the Chimurenga Factory. Read more…

Radio MAC:
Radio MAC is a reimagining of the radio organ of the Anti Colonialist Movement (MAC) founded by students and revolutionaries in 1957 in Paris, in collaboration with Neto, Cabral and other nationalists in Lisbon. Read more…

Liberation Radio – Cape Town:
A new monthly program on the Pan African Space Station (PASS). This edition, live from our Cape Town studio from 15 – 18 March 2022, examined the role of South African liberation movements as cultural producers, particularly in the realm of sound and music, both at home and in exile. Read more…

La Discothèque de Sarah Maldoror:
Selections by Ntone Edjabe on the role of music in the work of filmmaker Sarah Maldoror. Read more…

iPhupho L’ka Biko live at the Chimurenga Factory:
iPhupho L’ka Biko returned to present their sound which draws on tradition, spiritual sounds, jazz and improvisation, with the politics of the day. Read more…

Dialectic Soul:
Performance by Asher Gamedze led quintet, which blends free-jazz excursions with South African protest music. Read more…

Pungwe 1:
Robert Machiri presents a mix that brings together speech, music and struggle song from various operators of the liberation struggle, across countries and movements. Read more…

People Who Think Together, Dance Together:
People Who Think Together, Dance Together #7, a series of conversations with Christian Nyampeta, recorded for radio (and video) rooted not in discipline, professionalism and scholarship but in friendship, love and affiliation. Read more…

Masello Motana’s Vocal Museum:
A once-off performance of Masello Motana’s Vocal Museum at the Chimurenga Factory. Read more…

Liberation Radio – Dar es Salaam:
After Cairo and Harare, we landed the Pan African Space Station (PASS) in Dar es Salaam to listen on themes such as the radical history of the University of Dar es Salaam – including Rodney-mentored study groups such as USARF and more. Read more…