Freedom and unity to take centre stage at Joburg leg of Paris / New York Heritage Fest

The festival is divided into three segments: the Meet and Greet session (3 March), Conversations and Discussions (4 March) and Concerts, Collaborations and Local Market (5 March).

Confirmed musical acts include Simmy (SA), Msaki (SA), The Brother Moves On (SA), Gontse Makhene (SA), Cool Affair (SA), 2lani the Warrior (SA), Shamrock Guitor (SA), Malcolm Jiyane (SA), Bholoja (eSwatini) and students from the Morris Isaacson Centre for Music in Soweto. They will be joined by Raashan Ahmad (US) and DjeuhDjoah & Lieutenant Nicholson (France). All the artists will perform at the Women’s Jail on 5 March.

As part of the programme, the event will feature the Freedom Songs Project, an interactive live collaborative performance directed by Siyabonga Mthembu and Mthunzi Mvubu. The project seeks to honour the South African musical tradition and will feature a performance by the Brother Moves On alongside Msaki, Gontse Makhene, Malcolm Jiyane and Bholoja.

“Having had the struggle of COVID-19 for the past two years, we thought now would be the time for such a project, which champions freedom through song and which creates an outlet for the struggles of the artists, past, present and future,” PNYH founder and director Benjamin Levy told Music In Africa. “This is a unique project related to humanity.”

He said the Johannesburg edition would be dedicated to Africa and seek to retrace culture to its roots. “When I met our PNYH Joburg co-director Nicky B at PNYH Paris in 2019, I talked to her about how it was important that the festival has a leg in Africa because this is where the heritage comes from. What we want from the Joburg edition is for people to be able to come either to party or to hear the talks and to hear the theme. Coming to Joburg was very important for us because the festival’s concept and meaning is to pay homage to the music of the African diaspora from Africa to the US and then from the US to Europe.”

The event, Levy said, would be curated around artistic expressions on the theme of humanity. “Constitution Hill is related to the subject and we wanted to create something bigger and better for people to get them together. We asked Siyabonga Mthembu to put a lot of different artists together through the Freedom Songs Project. Constitution Hill is a place where people have struggled, it’s a bastion of hope and renewal as the South African Constitution was signed there after the apartheid. We like to have a place that already gives a direction to the subject and in this way it is certainly one of the best places to serve that purpose.”

The Conversations and Exchanges segment of the programme will take centre stage at the festival, with Kaya FM presenter Nicky B facilitating the sessions, which will explore the theme of Human[U]nity and feature guest speakers including Levy, Flame Studios director Lance McCormick, percussionist and music therapist Azah, Viva Nation Radio’s Itumeleng Mosadi, DJ and rapper Raashan, trumpeter Mandla Mlangeni and South African Creative Industries Incubator project manager Leote Taylor.

“Alongside the Freedom Songs Project, we also decided to do the talks on Friday with people who have shown initiative for communities that bring people together and bring healing through music,” Levy said.

Topics under discussion will include The Hill Music Development Arc, The Sacred Role and Significance of the Drum in Communities and New Models and Initiatives for the Music Industry, among others.

The public can register for the Conversations and Discussions sessions here.

Tickets to the event can be purchased via Howler. Find more about the Paris / New York Heritage Festival on the official website.