African musicians featured in Archive of Forgetfulness podcast

The podcast features African musicians such as Amino Belyamani (Morocco), Victor Gama (Angola/Portugal) and Eric Ngangare Rwanda), among others. Additionally, the podcast includes curators, researchers and theatre makers across Africa.

In October, Archive of Forgetfulness – in partnership with the Goethe-Institut South Africa – invited African artists, filmmakers, photographers and writers to submit contributions for the project in the form of sound pieces or video performances, short texts, films and photographic essays that respond to the theme. The project was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, which bared the frailty of basic urban infrastructure for the majority on the African continent and elsewhere.

The podcast series features eight episodes which will be released in intervals until January 2021. The first instalment was broadcast on 11 November, and the fifth episode titled How are larger histories of non-alignment, anti-colonial revolt and pan-Africanism inscribed into the landscape? will be aired on 15 December. Featured episodes thus far include The archive is a portal for reimagination, Art in times of crisis, What personal and political histories emerge via infrastructures of mobility? and What remains of the political and cultural ideas that imagined the African continent as the 'utopia of a borderless world'?

“The first two conversations explore, among other themes, art in times of crisis, questions around memory and archival absences, and the possibilities and limitations of translation,” project co-curator Huda Tayob said. “You will hear from artists, curators, researchers and theatre makers in Egypt, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and Sudan. The conversations interrogate ways of narrating movement across borders, suggesting a re-mapping of relations across the continent, north and south, east and west, home and away.

“In the following episodes, we explore ways of thinking about infrastructures of mobility and archival encounters; sift through ‘wreckages of utopia’ and transnational histories of protest and displacement. We go in search of ‘an atlas of a borderless world’ and probe the personal and political histories of air travel. We will bring you these conversations and more from musicians, novelists, filmmakers, architects, artists and theorists from across the African continent.”

Archive of Forgetfulness is still accepting submissions for the project. Participants have until 15 January to submit their works in the form of sound pieces or video performances, short texts, films and photographic essays that respond to the theme. Selected projects that will be exhibited online will receive an honorarium of R5 000 ($300).

You can listen to Conversations with Neighbours here.