Episode: Ep21: Kim Karabo Makin - Satellite Activism

A 3 part sound collage & audio-visual broadcast for Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee Duration: 25 minutes Production by Thabiso Keaikitse This broadcast marks the end of the residency of artist Kim Karabo Makin, who lives in Botswana and is one of four artists selected for a Ja Ja Ja Nee Nee Nee radio residency during 2022. Artist statement by Kim Karabo Makin: An intertextual audio essay which endeavours to explore the transnational space that Medu Art Ensemble has occupied historically ‘in another South Africa’, with a focus on the route that connects Gaborone, Botswana and Amsterdam, the Netherlands (via Chicago). Satellite Activism notably traces the life and legacy of Medu Art Ensemble in contemporaneity, with a particular look at themes that connect the Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium, 5 – 7 July 1982 in Gaborone, to the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, December 1987 in Amsterdam. Additionally, with particular reference to the Art Institute of Chicago publication The People Shall Govern! Medu Art Ensemble and the Anti-Apartheid Poster 1979-1985, the project extends off of my exploration of ‘the living archive’ – a live sounding of the archive as expressed through lived experiences and shared storytelling, where my practice considers the DJ as an archivist. *Use headphones for optimum listening experience. I do not, nor do I claim to own some of the selected clips, sound/video archives. These are all available online by their respective owners for free and fair use. This collage is for research and educational purposes only. Please contact for full reference list. Part 1: out of site, out of mind 2022 duration: 6 mins The voice of former poet laureate of South Africa (2018) and founding member of Medu Art Ensemble, Mongane Wally Serote opens with an analogy that explains how committed cultural workers collectively formed Medu’s ethos around 1978. Picture Hugh Masekela and Jonas Gwangwa playing their trumpet and trombone respectively ‘underground’ – what might it sound like as you walked underground towards the jazz hall, and eventually ‘opened the doors of culture’. What does art in the underground look and sound like? And in what ways might this have left an imprint on the site associated with Medu’s powerful red, black and off-white poster, Unity is Power. 2935, Pudulogo Crescent, Gaborone – across from the University of Botswana (established in 1982 as the first institution of higher education in Botswana), and adjacent to the Alliance Française (a cultural centre and hub for language, arts and culture locally, notably also engaging in cinema festivals and symposiums that include both European and local film). I am interested in unpacking and sounding this specific site as holding a particular cultural significance internationally, for it’s ties to Medu, despite not having been monumentalised in our local memory. In addition, out of site, out of mind is particularly concerned with exploring methods of recording the spatial and temporal dimensions of this site, with respect to my positionality in engaging this history, as well as themes surrounding exile. Part 2: open culture 2022 duration: 13 mins Open culture closely documents and contrasts the Culture and Resistance Festival and Symposium, 5 – 7 July 1982, in Gaborone, with the Culture in Another South Africa Conference, December 1987, in Amsterdam. In fact, my research highlighted that there was another conference that took place in Amsterdam from 13 – 18 December 1982, entitled The Cultural Voice of Resistance, South African and Dutch Artists against Apa...