UMONGO MSINDO
uMongo Msindo is a project that aims to take audiences and musicians on a journey through the unique musical heritage of KwaZulu Natal – focusing on spotlighting its indigenous instrument players. This province bears a good supply of historical gems in some of the most rural areas of the region. These men and women trace the history, and our work (as cultural researchers and practitioners) is to tell these stories that may otherwise be forgotten. The spread of these musicians across the province brings forward an impressive additional reading of KZN’s historical micro-narratives on musical instruments, history, and usages.
After a humble start of researching, documenting and successfully staging the project at the Luthuli Museum (Groutville) and the Nelson Mandela Capture Site Museum (Howick). We moved to Johannesburg, to exhibit at the University of Johannesburg and the Voice of the Architect. End of October 2022 we are exhibiting in our home town of Durban at The Chairman. We now aim to grow uMongo Msindo through this digital footprint and nationwide exhibitions across all provinces (one small town per province).
WHY UM?
Umongo Msindo seeks to embed and augment not only the contexts of the sound and instruments themselves but also retell the story of sound itself, its waveform, its resonances, and its dimensions into a medium – all the ingredients to a recipe that the musical instruments share with us. Therefore, the exhibition becomes a portal of topics of dialogue around matters of materials and wastes specific to time contexts and sites – an aspect so pertinent to this time in which we live and exist.
Umongo Msindo
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