Wits School Of Arts AFRICA MONTH 2026 Message from the Head of School, Professor Smith This year’s Africa Day commemoration resonates not only with our Continental goals of Agenda 2063 but also with the global Sustainable Development Goals. It reminds us of life and our interconnectedness as humans in times of instability, precarity and war. In alignment with the 2026 theme, WSOA is choosing collaboration, interdisciplinarity, inclusion and fluidity like the movement and flow of our most precious, essential resource that is water. In so doing we navigate with courage/vulnerability towards that which is shared, making real our School’s values: compassion and collaboration. ~ Prof René Smtih (HOS: WSOA)
Water as Life, Memory, and Infrastructure: Artistic and Intellectual Responses from Africa and the Global South Curatorial Frame This programme gathers artistic and intellectual responses that engage water as a wellspring of memory, movement, infrastructure, and life. Across disciplines, these events trace currents between past and present, body and environment, and the layered imaginaries of Africa—local and global. OPENING WEEK HIGHLIGHTS (5–8 MAY) Resonant Currents: Sound, Memory, and Musical Lineage Sound as a vessel of history, circulation, and collective memory, flowing through African and diasporic worlds 1. WHEN WATERS GATHER (Jazz Big Band Concert) 5 May 2026 | 19h00 – 20h00 | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall | Music Department Resonant Currents: Sound, Memory, and Musical Lineage 2. Echoes of Water: Memory, Rhythm, and Life (African Music Concert) Led by Dr Mbuti Moloi 6 May 2026 | 13:00–13:45 | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall | Music Department Thinking Through Flow: Knowledge, Dialogue, and Critical Exchange 3. Streams for Flow: Growing Global Brands in Music (Keynote Address) By Maya Spector 6 May 2026 | 14:00–14:30 | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall | Music Department Thinking Through Flow: Knowledge, Dialogue, and Critical Exchange 4. Do We Water Dry Land?: South African Jazz, African Music, and Their Rivers (Panel Discussion) 6 May 2026 | 14:45–15:45 | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall | Music Department Surface / Depth: Visual Cultures and Spatial Practices 5. Arts in Conversation: Assemblages of Belonging (Public Talk & Screening) Featuring Craniv Boyd Convened by Dr Bettina Malcomess 6 May 2026 | 16:15–17:15 | Wits School of Arts Building | Fine Arts The Body as Archive: Performance, Memory, and Embodiment Embodied practice as a living archive—history, identity, and transmission inscribed on the body 6. Datamoshing Workshop (Hydro Glitches) (Workshop) 7 May 2026 | 13:15 | Digital Arts Lab Digital Arts 7. GAYisa Workshop: Body Archive & History (Workshop) Led by Yuck Miranda (Mozambique) 8 May 2026 | 14:15–15:45 | eMakhaya Theatre, 19th Floor, Es’kia Mphahlele Building, Jorissen Street, Braamfontein Drama for Life
EXTENDED PROGRAMME (12–15 MAY) The Body as Archive: Performance, Memory, and Embodiment Embodied practice as a living archive of history, identity, and transmission 8. The Struggle for Swazini (Performance & Discussion) Facilitated by Warren Nebe 12 May 2026 | 12:30–14:00 | eMakhaya Theatre, 19th Floor, Es’kia Mphahlele Building, Jorissen Street, Braamfontein Drama for Life 9. Creative Practice on the Outside: 12 May 2026 17:00 – 19:30 | Wits School of Arts, 3rd Floor, Digital Arts department, Jorissen Street Embodied Knowledge: Technique, Practice, and Transmission Movement practices as systems of knowledge, discipline, and the ongoing pulse of cultural continuity 10. Koba Technique Workshop (Workshop) With Vincent Mantsoe 13 May 2026 | 12:30–14:00 | 16th Floor, Es’kia Mphahlele Building, Jorissen Street, Braamfontein Drama for Life Resonant Currents: Sound, Memory, and Musical Lineage Sound as a vessel of history, circulation, and collective memory, flowing through African and diasporic worlds 11. Where Waters Remember: Choral Voices in Flow (Choral Concert) Performed by the Wits Music Department Choir 13 May 2026 | 13:15–14:00 | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall | Music Department 12. Storytelling by Majesty Mnyandu (Performance) Featuring Majesty Mnyandu (Praise Poet & Storyteller) 15 May 2026 | 13h15 - 14h15 | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall Interdisciplinary Arts and Culture Studies (IACS)
19–24 MAY — PERFORMANCE PEAK
21–23 MAY — POLICY, HISTORY & LIBERATION Examining how institutional frameworks and historical narratives shape the circulation of knowledge, identity, and cultural practice Thinking Through Flow: Knowledge, Dialogue, and Critical Exchange Intellectual inquiry as a mode of tracing movement, relation, and cultural transmission 14. Cultural Entrepreneurship – Perspectives from Antwerp and Intersections with Southern Africa (Seminar) Led by Dr Kgomotso Moshugi Visiting Guest: Prof Annick Schramme (Antwerp University, Belgium) 21 May 2026 | 09:30–12:30 | Wits School of Arts (WSOA) Building Cultural Policy & Management Thinking Through Flow: Knowledge, Dialogue, and Critical Exchange 15. Charter of African Cultural Renaissance @20: Policy, Practice, and Futures (Webinar) L4d by Dr Akhona Ndzuta 21 May 2026 | 13:30–15:30 | Online Cultural Policy & Management Reflecting on cultural policy as infrastructure shaping the flow of knowledge and practice Moving Images, Living Archives: Screen and Narrative Practices Film as a medium of memory, documentation, and reimagining African realities 16. Kalushi (Film Screening & Director Discussion) With director Mandlakayise Walter Dube & Jurgen Meekel 23 May 2026 | 15:00 | Wits Film & TV Cinema Film & Television
SHOWS THROUGHOUT MAY — ARCHIVE & DIGITAL FLOW Extending the programme through ongoing practices of archiving, documentation, and digital forms of memory-making. Living Archives: Memory, Documentation, and Jazz Histories Archival practices as spaces of preservation, recovery, and reactivation of cultural memory 17. Sophiatown Jazz Archive (Photography Exhibition) By Phomolo Nzunga 5–31 May 2026 | Foyer, Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall Music Department Digital Currents: Media, Signal, and Contemporary Memory Practices Digital technologies as fluid systems for recording, distorting, and reimagining memory. 18. Liquid Signals (Digital Archive, Workshops & Exhibition) Led by Peta Goldberg 1–31 May 2026 | Digital Arts Building (4th Floor Lab & Foyer) Digital Arts 19. Phone Photography Workshop (Workshop) 14 May 2026 | 13:15 | Digital Arts Lab Digital Arts
31 MAY — CLOSING CONCERT: LEGACY, MEMORY & LINEAGE A culminating tribute engaging voice, inheritance, and the enduring resonance of African musical legacy Resonant Currents: Sound, Memory, and Musical Lineage Sound as a carrier of history, circulation, and collective memory across African and diasporic worlds 20. Mama Africa: Miriam Makeba Tribute (Concert) Featuring Zenzi Makeba Lee & Band (Granddaughter of Miriam Makeba) 31 May 2026 | [Time TBC] | Wits Chris Seabrooke Music Hall Music Department Tickets available via Webtickets
Bringing the programme to a critical performative culmination where history, embodiment, and institutional critique converge The Body as Archive: Performance, Memory, and Embodiment Embodied practice as a living archive of history, identity, and transmission 13. AUSTRALOPITHECUS (Theatre Production) Created and Directed by Dr Kgafela oa Magogodi Theatre & Performance (TAP) | Wits Downstairs Theatre 19 May 2026 | 20:00 (Preview) 20–22 May 2026 | 20:00 (Performances) 24 May 2026 | 16:00 (Matinee)
IMPORTANT INFORMATION Full programme details available via WSOA online platforms Individual event posters to follow All events are free unless otherwise stated