{"id":2859,"date":"2023-05-24T13:55:30","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T12:55:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/?page_id=2859"},"modified":"2024-05-01T10:16:24","modified_gmt":"2024-05-01T09:16:24","slug":"banji-chona-june-2023","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/banji-chona-june-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Banji Chona, June 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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What I am Reading Now\u2026
Banji Chona<\/strong>
June 2023<\/p>


To find myself fluttering and floating betwixt pages tinged brown from graceful aging or stained terracotta from remnants of ochre resting in the swirls of my fingertips. To find resonance in voices of the present and the past. To heed echoes of understanding and questions posed yet unanswered. To chart the journey of ancestral foundations and map the future of seeds yet to push through the tilth and turn towards the sun.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

To be drawn in and kept warm by a literary blanket woven together using the fibres of Radical Reimagination. Zambian histories and Zambian pasts told through the unwavering words (or hums) of a six legged omniscient narrator. [1]<\/strong><\/a> To learn that \u201cfreedom is no fear\u201d in a mere minute of raw vulnerability. [6]<\/strong><\/a> To be coddled by the demystification of our ancestors and to unlearn the cold rationality and \u2018order\u2019 of occidental education. To hear the affirmation of the existence of foremothers and fathers as \u201cbenevolent, guiding spirits that we are and can constantly be in touch with\u201d [7]<\/strong><\/a> To know my great grandfather, through speech and text and not touch, to be a man of great wisdom and courage. A man who gave his life to the people he was sworn to lead. Flesh serrated by canines and carnassials. [2]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

To hear trumpets and whistles mimicking the sounds of a \u2018train that comes from Zambia and Zimbabwe.. from Angola and Mozambique\u2026from Lesotho, from Botswana, from Swaziland.. from all the hinterlands of Southern and Central Africa. A train that carries young and old, African men who are conscripted to work on contract in the gold and mineral mines of Johannesburg and its surrounding metropolis, sixteen hours or more a day for almost no pay\u2019. [10]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>

To feel prickles surge through my spine, ushered in and upwards by the sound of Revolution contained in dusty basements and immortalised on chlorine and ethylene. To see a rise and fall, bleak and electric in its composition. A generation grounding and transcending alike, in the blend of the homegrown and the imported. [9]<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>

Inquisition and curiosity often guide the material I choose to mull over but instinct is really what draws me towards the books, the videos, the music, the people, the feelings. Many of the books on the reading list, sounds and clips on the watching and listening list, I came across by what I believe to be divine guidance. We cannot seek that we do not already know.\u00a0<\/p>

As someone in (re)search of keys to a door of understanding myself and the collective, there\u2019s a thirst to learn through the retracing of steps and revival of existences that came before mine (yours, ours). This being said, I\u2019ve come to find myself circling around the vortex-like gap in stories for us, by us. [11]<\/strong><\/a> Power structures embedded within asymmetrical systems of oppression have meant our narratives and histories have been bludgeoned and blurred by those who shaped and decided the trajectory of the archive. I see this beginning to slow and fizzle.\u00a0<\/p>

There is and always has been a swirl of movements of thought and action across the African continent in which there is a burning desire for the purposeful reclamation of the self and the collective. A future in which Black Consciousness, as written by Bantu Steve Biko, is the liberation of the minds of Black People through an inward looking process which seeks to regain and rebuild the pride stripped off our backs by the oppressive whip. It is the reconstitution of rectification of our histories and our pasts. The rewiring of the engine of a vehicle bound for a future in which Black People, in the realest sense, do not consider themselves appendages or products of white society but rather custodians of our own realities.[5]<\/strong><\/a> I find grounding in that.\u00a0<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Banji Chona<\/strong><\/a> is a storage facility, storyteller, and alchemist. At the core of her practice is the exploration of and dialogue between Ancestral Zambezian** Earth, Present-day and Projected Future(s). Banji\u2019s bodies of work aim to weave into practice the deconstruction and reconstruction of orthodox archetypes, normative ideologies and asymmetrical historical projections through the hybridisation of archival heritage material, technology and dynamic multidisciplinary art. A practice rooted in the active quest towards healing of the self and the collective.<\/p>

The intersections of Banji\u2019s work are conceived in a ways that tap into the visceral need to bring to life spaces and bodies of work dedicated to fostering nuanced artistic and cultural dialogue that directly challenge oppressive occidental systems through the repositioning of the Indigenous Zambezian person\/community as a researcher (of immense value and a wealth of knowledge) and not merely a research subject under and behind lenses of inquisition\/violence.<\/p>

banjichona.space<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Reading

[1] The Old Drift<\/em>, Namwali Serpell (Penguin Random House UK, 2019)<\/a><\/div>
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[2] History of The Tonga Chiefs and Their People in the Monze District of Zambia<\/em>, Santosh C. Saha (Peter Lang Publishing, Inc., New York 1994)<\/a><\/div>
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[3] Bemba-Speaking Women of Zambia in a Century of Religious Change 1982-1992<\/em>, Hugo F. Hinfelaar (EJ Brill, Leiden 1994)<\/a><\/div>
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[4] Black Government: A Discussion Between Kenneth Kaunda and Colin Morris<\/em>\u00a0(Rhodesian Printers Ltd., Ndola 1960)<\/a><\/div>
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[5a] Black Consciousness and The Quest for True Humanity<\/em>, Steve Biko (SASO Newsletter, 1969)<\/a><\/div>
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[5b] Biko: The Quest for a True Humanity<\/em>, exhibition catalogue, (Apartheid Museum, 2007)<\/a><\/div>
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Watching<\/div>
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[6] Nina Simone Interview, excerpt from, Nina: A Historical Perspective<\/em>, Dir. Peter Rodis, 1970 (YouTube)<\/a><\/div>
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[7] Toni Morrison Interview excerpt, Mavis on Four, 1988 (ThamesTv, YouTube)<\/a><\/div>
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[8] Miriam Makeba Interview excerpt, 1969 (South African History Online, YouTube)<\/a><\/div>
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Listening<\/div>
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[9] Welcome to Zamrock! How Zambia\u2019s Liberation Led To a Rock Revolution, Vol.1 (1972-1977)<\/em> (Now-Again Records, 2017)<\/a><\/div>
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[10] Stimela (The Coal Train)<\/em>, Hugh Masekela (Blue Thumb Records, 1974)\u00a0<\/a><\/div>
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[11] F.U.B.U<\/em>, Solange, Live at Sydney Opera House, 2018 (Sydney Opera House, YouTube)<\/a><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Please note the views published in <\/span>What I am Reading Now…<\/i> are personal reflections of the contributors.
These may not necessarily represent the views of the University of Dundee.
<\/span>\u2014\u2014\u2014<\/span><\/p>\n

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about projects What I am Reading Now\u2026Banji ChonaJune 2023 To find myself fluttering and floating betwixt pages tinged brown from graceful aging or stained terracotta from remnants of ochre resting in the swirls of my fingertips. To find resonance in voices of the present and the past. To heed echoes of understanding and questions posed …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":271,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2859","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/271"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2859"}],"version-history":[{"count":39,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2859\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3884,"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2859\/revisions\/3884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.dundee.ac.uk\/cooper-gallery-inbetween\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}