NKATA: Dots of Thoughts

This episode takes you on an auditory pilgrimage with the Berlin-based, musician, Batila,  weaving the essence of his Congolese and Angolan heritage into a rich narrative that dances between the notes of his latest album, "Tatamana." As Batila unpacks his life's journey from Germany to the cultural depths of his upbringing, we discover how a childhood migration shaped not only his reality but also the very music that he breathes into existence.Batila's convictions resonate as he insists on music as a vessel for storytelling, a self-acclaimed Griot channelling his energy of crossroads between time and space that underscores his outlook in life. We explore his philosophy that songs must be born from significance, enveloped in the authenticity and depth of his artistry. His first album, a celebration of Black love and unity, stands as a testament to his craft, every carefully composed piece reflecting his dedication to delivering not just sound, but an experience. The high-resolution audio of "Tatamana" invites listeners to not just hear but feel the music, as we discuss how Batila's meticulous attention to detail crafts not only songs but a movement.Join us for an inspiring session that transcends melody and tinkers with the realms of spirituality and healing. Batila shares his vision for his upcoming album "Mpeve," aiming to connect listeners in a collective trance of togetherness. We close with "Resurrection," a track symbolizing hope and peace, capturing the essence of our discussion. It's a fitting end to our journey with Batila, where each note is a step towards understanding the unbreakable bond between sound, identity, ideology and the eternal quest for inner peace.Host: Emeka Okereke Guest: BatilaProduction: Atelier E.K OkerekeCover Photo: Natasha MorokhovaSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

During a three-week residency in Tangier, Morocco, my friend and colleague, anthropologist Mathangi Krishnamurthy, and I, Emeka Okereke, had the privilege of meeting Abdelmajid Hannoum, whose book "Living Tangier" served as a springboard for our research and thought processes during our residency in the city, organized and supported by The Minority Globe.In this episode of Dots of Thoughts, Professor Hannoum shares his intellectual and creative process of translating fieldwork experiences into academic work. We dive deeper into the realities of migration and its impact on the city of Tangier. Hannoum, drawing from his personal experiences growing up around some of the Moroccan children he researched, enriches our understanding of Tangier's intricate history and changing demographics.Furthermore, Hannoum elaborates on the phenomenon of death concerning the migrant body. This subject stems from his personal experience during his years of research for the book. But our narrative doesn't end there. We also delve into the realm of global cities, exploring how their manicured images often mask the disparities within them. Our observations led us to question the place of Tangier in this global context, discussing its complex identity and evolving narrative.Join us as we peer through the curtains of this multifaceted city, exploring its various aspects and discussing its complex identity and evolving narrative. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

This episode was inspired by my participation in the exhibition "Prussian Palaces. Colonial Histories", taking place at the Schloss Charlottenburg Berlin.   My guest, Carolin Alff, one of the exhibition's curators, guides us through the thoughts that inform the exhibition's making. We discuss the mystery of two statues, their damaged state, a testament to the inaccessible vignette shrouding Germany's deplorable colonial past.  The statue in question was the subject of my audiovisual intervention called "Tracing Presence(s)... of Place, Body, Time."It is important to note that the relevance of this exhibition is not only in its attempt to reminisce about the past but also in how it asks pertinent questions about how the country and its people come to terms with the extent to which their past continues to inform their present where it has to do with white privilege and Western hegemony. We delve into the curatorial process and the complex decisions made behind the scenes of this exhibition. According to the organisers,  the aim was not only to showcase artefacts but to create a safe space for dialogue where history can be reimagined and considered from new perspectives.  Yet I ask: to what extent does the need to create a "safe space" come in the way of creating a space of new knowledge that offers an occasion for genuine self-reflection rather than a "glossing over" or latent gloating? With Carolin, we traverse the tricky territory of sensitive terminologies and challenging historical contexts, recognising the need for a transparent conversation that respects the histories of injustices and violence attached to these relics. Join us as we grapple with the past, confront uncomfortable truths, and underscore the importance of understanding history to shape a better present and future. This episode should inspire you to visit the exhibition from the 4th of July to the 31st of October, 2023. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

If you've ever found yourself lost in the labyrinth of existence or pondering the multiverse and the many layers of our identity, my recent chat with the talented filmmaker and fashion model You Kim is sure to resonate with you. We venture into a reflective analysis of the film, Everything Everywhere All At Once - a cinematic marvel that masterfully addresses the complexities of subjectivity, truth, and the human tendency to deconstruct our world. It's a film that bears a striking relevance to the contemporary times we live in, and You Kim's insights into the narrative's artful playfulness and cliches are eye-opening.We don't just stop at analyzing the film's narrative structure. Our conversation delves, in earnest, into the symbolic aspects of the film. From its portrayal of double consciousness and paradoxes and how it paints human connection to its depiction of a younger generation grappling with the absence of collective values and religion. It's a lens through which to view the existential crises that this younger generation, born into a neoliberal world, faces. And the evolution of the mother's character in the film sparks a rich discussion on sublime love and the power of individual agency in a world full of existential uncertainties. As we close, our discussion turns reflective - the necessity of fostering a society that acknowledges the intricacies of love and relationships while nurturing the future of humanity. You Kim shares her experiences as an Asian filmmaker and how she connects with the film's depiction of the Asian diaspora. This is not just a film review but a journey of recognizing the power of stories to broaden our worldview. If you're seeking a thought-provoking conversation that challenges your perspective, join us for this riveting discussion.Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In this episode of Dots of Thoughts, I am in conversation with Diana Mora. She is a ballet dancer. Her inclination to dance started from as early as the age of six, when she first watched Swan Lake. Supported by her mother, she studied and completed ballet dancing at the National Academy in her home country Bolivia. Dance became the incentive for her movement and consequent self-unravelling from then on. Finally, she moved to France to pursue her dreams as a ballet dancer. In the podcast, she takes us through the nature of the conflict she fought through in relation to her body."In France, I realised that Dance was not just ballet for me."Diana Mora's is not an archetypal ballet-dance body. In France, she was shocked to realise that ballet has less to do with Dance and more with the objectification and stratification of bodies. The technicalities required to conform one's body into a form fit for ballet dancing is stretched to the point where the body is a tool with no soul. And as with every tool, value is ensured by separating the efficient from inefficient, with little room for acknowledging and valorising difference.Since then, it has been a hard-fought journey towards reconciling the pulsating resolve to dance with the disparity of her atypical body type. This journey is also one of many border-crossings whereby, for every delimitation, self-unravelling paradoxes ensue.Diana lives and works in Berlin today. In her first Instagram post of the year, she put forward a succinct recapitulation of her relationship with her body. It read like a manifesto for taking back one's body from the clutches of colonialism and refocusing it on the necessary work of making a home we carry with us.- Emeka OkerekeHost: Emeka Okereke Guest: Diana Mora Cover Photo: Haze Kware (HKVisuals)Production: Nkata Podcast Station/Atelier E.K OkerekeSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In 2006, I remember photographing, in Paris, the protest against killings that then took place in Isreal and Palestine. In the photo, a father is clutching his little daughter on one hand, while with the other hand, waves a placard that reads “Le meme age que ma fille” (same age as my daughter). I remember feeling deeply struck by this double emphasis aimed at reiterating what should be so obvious: the trail and ensuing threads of human violence – like mitochondria – run and connect to us all. In this podcast conversation, I caught up with a longtime friend and fellow artist Bahaa Abudaya to discuss the most recent eruption of violence which took place in May 2021. Bahaa left Gaza when he was two years old. Since then, he has roamed the earth. Yet he claims: no matter where I go, I always consider myself a Palestinian even though I do not know, from lived experience, what Palestine is as a place. He goes on to explain that this deeply inward, yet unforced identification with Palestine is constitutive of his disposition as one who is in a state of permanent temporality. “I am never clear where I should be. I have developed a kind of personality through this kind of exile”. Here, we are presented with the paradox often a fixture of border-bodies: on one hand, a solace accompanies the feeling of never being beholden to a place. On the other hand, there is something about transience that denies one a sense of continuity. Rightfully so, Bahaa concludes that his life is floating somewhere in between these unresolvable polarities. His Palestine is one he anchors to a memory of displacement. He recalls an anecdotal event that took place when he was ten years old. His grandmother took him to the site where her home once stood before the occupation. The most indelible moment of the visit was witnessing his grandmother shed tears profusely. As a child, he could not understand why absence meant so much for her. Her tears became symbolic of an incomprehensible, ungraspable loss that he would carry with him as a placeholder for what it means to be Palestinian. “Every Palestinian makes his or her own Palestine for themselves”, he said in the podcast. They make their Palestine out of ruins and loss. That is why the picture of young Palestinian kids throwing pebbles at Israeli armoured tanks should be read beyond its photogenic attributes. The Israeli army, complete with its intelligence apparatus, is one of the most powerful in the world. For that reason alone, this conflict, on the part of the Palestinians, will always be one of bringing a fist to a gunfight. But that fist is clenched tight – always ready to provoke violence as intrinsic to its resistance. As Bahaa concludes, both sides are complicit in the incitement of violence, albeit at disparate scales. Is there ever going to be an end to this regurgitation of violence? I asked. No, not when violence is the first resort. Violence will sell more guns and take more lives – that’s about it. What becomes obvious is that the method and approach to the formation of the Israeli nation-state is one forged in the crucibles of 19th-century colonialism. It is necropolitics, that is, the entitlement of a nation-state to legal power – shored up by capital and powerful alliances – to inflict death with impunity. This colonial disposition is carried over to our time, thereby sabotaging hopes of the 21st century being one of healing and reparation. No one is genuinely committed to a decolonial future who shouSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

Eric Gyamfi (1990, Ghana) is a visual artist working with and within photography. This podcast conversation was induced by the inclusion of his work in the book, Africa State of Mind: Contemporary Photography Re-imagines A Continent “by Ekow Eshun. Rightfully so, the conversation build’s on Eshun’s central premise of focusing on photographers/works that fall within the 21st-century timeframe. Eric Gyamfi’s work, although beautifully photogenic, accounts for processes outside and beyond the frame. He considers the photographic medium as a space to be unravelled. Thus when, in the podcast, he says “beyond wanting to represent something, I have been more interested in what a photograph is composed of”, he offers what is invariably an accessible entry point into his fundamental approach to the medium. This assertion cuts through his various bodies of work from, “Just Like Us” (published in “Africa State of Mind”) to his recent work titled “The things that are left hanging, in the air like a rumour”.  If Time is an indispensable component of photography, Gyamfi seems to be preoccupied with how space, materiality, organisms and human interactions collude to give rise to the techno-chemical reaction which becomes the photograph. “How can I organise a place (or space) as if it was a photograph?” is the question underlining his recent body of work. Yet what is unique to space if not an articulation of the crossroads between past, present and the future? What is referenced here is photography’s ability to make an event out of disparate and dispersed information, across time, some of which elude the grasp of known history and “hanging in the air like a rumour”. It is one thing to speak of a life-giving process and another to know how to bring such disposition into one’s artistic practice. When Gyamfi speaks of the intriguing possibility of non-human entities—enzymes, algae, bacteria—participating in his photosynthetic photographic process, my mind wanders off to many tangents of radiant connections between us and our world. I would think, for instance, of how allowing oneself to be preoccupied with such “little things”, as he called it, about the co-habitative nature of our world, helps our grasp of how seriously damaged our world has become. Another example comes to mind: John Akomfrah’s “Vertigo Sea” is a large scale, yet grisly, counterpart of Eric Gyamfi’s thoughts. I can’t help but think of these two references side by side. The former humanising us for a better appraisal of the latter. The podcast conversation has a lot more to offer. Especially where it underscores the much needful conversation between two photographers separated by a decade, which, if weighed against the eventfulness of the century so far, is not a mere one.Towards the end of the podcast, Eric Gyamfi pays homage to artists and photographers—Nii Obudai, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Uche Okpa Iroha, Ibrahim Mahama, and more— without whom we wouldn’t be the sort of artist and thinker he is today. Host: Emeka Okereke (Berlin)Guest: Eric Gyamfi (Accra)Text: Emeka OkerekeProduction: E.O Multimedia/Atelier E.K OkerekeArtwork(s): Eric GyamfiDesign: E.O Multimedia Music: Epidemic SoundsThis Project is supported by the Stiftung Kunstfonds Germany. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In the second episode of Dots of Thoughts Shorts, Emeka shares a few thoughts and impulses about what the inner voice means for him. Duration: 9:19 mins. Join the conversation and leave a comment on your preferred listening platform.Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

This is the debut episode of the bonus series called Dots of Thoughts Shorts (DoTshorts).  Emeka Okereke gives a glimpse of his thoughts regarding the notion of work, and what work has come to signify for him. The episode is  backdropped  by sonic “artefacts” made up of ambient sound and music. Listen in full at https://nkatapodcast.comAlso on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Deezer, Overcast and more. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In the 12th Episode of Dots of Thoughts, Emeka Okereke reflects on the photographic work of Lebohang Kganye. Ke Lefa Laka: Her-story,  was realised in 2013. It explores the relationship between Lebohang Kganye and her mother, who passed on three years earlier. She employs the techniques of double exposure and superimposition to “re-enter” the life of her mother and to seek out a space of communality between the living and the dead, between the past and the present wherein “she is me, I am her and there remains in this commonality so much difference, and so much distance in space and time”. In reflecting on this body of work, Emeka Okereke writes on Instagram: “I find this series enigmatically powerful. I appreciate the artist’s uncomplicated use of the photographic medium in the bridging of the past and present without closing off the space lost to imperceptible, ungraspable emotions – all of which reinforces the intimacy we can only sense but not necessarily understand.I find myself dwelling on the ambiguous duality captured in this work – reminiscent of the spiritual concept of the holy trinity, but in this case, between a daughter and mother. Yet, I am reminded of the concept of duality, of dependability, of invisibility in the worldview of the Igbo people: where one thing stands, something else stands beside it.”This statement became the prompt to reach out to Lebohang and expound on these strands of thoughts, which is this podcast episode. Listen to Lebohang Kganye as she takes us through some of the thought processes behind the work. In the conversation, she asserts: More than anything, the work also provides a space for therapy and for healing. As much as it is about loss, it is also about celebration. In that navigation of guilt [of loss] is also a celebration of a person. Listen to the full episode on nkatapodcast.com.Also available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Deezer, Google Podcast and over ten other podcast platforms. Follow the podcast on these platforms to get notified when new episodes go live. Use the time stamps to navigate to parts of the podcast. Also, listen to the podcast alongside Lebohang Kganye's website: https://www.lebohangkganye.co.za/Want to join a growing community of supporters and reviewers of the project? Checkout out our Patreon page. Host: Emeka Okereke (Barcelona)Guest: Lebohang Kganye (Johannesburg)Production: E.O Multimedia LTD. Art works: Lebohang KganyeMusic/Composer: Kupesonics/KupeskiSupported by Stiftung Kunstfonds GermanyCreated during the Research Residency Program at The Over | Pol & Grace BarcelonaSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In this episode of Dots of Thoughts Podcast, Emeka Okereke is joined by Ekow Eshun to reflect on the book, “Africa State of Mind” edited by Ekow Eshun and published by Thames & Hudson. The book brings together works from 52 contemporary photographers from Africa. Fundamental to the book is Ekow Eshun’s intention to “explore how contemporary photographers have presented Africanness and Africa as a physiological space as much as a physical space”.The conversation departs from the book’s periodical marker: all photographic works were made in the 21st century. It would meander across various topics while touching on conceptual considerations in the works of such photographers as François-Xavier Gbré, Hicham Gardaf, Eric Gyamfi and Lebohang Kganye. A recurrent point of consensus is that the works included in the book exemplify how today’s photographers are articulating the complex narrative of African realities. Not only do their work offer a unique yet critical gaze, but it also rescues the photographic medium from its colonial history and deployment. “There is no simplicity or singleness to Africanness”, Ekow says. One might think that this needn’t be said in 2021. This is precisely what this book hopes to achieve: These photographers show that such concerns have become secondary to image-makers of today. “If we say black is beautiful, it’s like these photographers are saying: we must question what beauty means”, Emeka adds. Where are Contemporary photographic practices from the African continent heading or pointing to? This question brings the podcast conversation towards the end while leaving enough room to account for whatever the future holds. Use the time stamps to skip to parts of the podcast. Listen on: https://nkatapodcast.comAlso on: Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Overcast, Deezer and more than ten other podcast platforms. Host: Emeka Okereke (Barcelona)Guest: Ekow Eshun (London)Production: E.O MultimediaMusic: Sir Kupeski DJ.  Supported by Stiftung Kunstfonds GermanyCreated during the Research Residency Program at The Over | Pol & Grace BarcelonaSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In this episode of "Time Does Not Pass. We, on the other hand, pass through it - and make forms of it", Emeka Okereke (Berlin) is in conversation with J. Redza (Kuala Lumpur). They reflect on the idea of Time in relation to age(ing). This episode can be best described as a "rumination between millennials". Emeka Okereke and J. Redza were born on the same year (1980, Kaduna Nigeria, and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) - a coincidence that preceded their encounter in 2006 over the internet. Insofar as they are yet to meet in person, this conversation builds on their relationship forged in the umbilical Time portal sustained by cyber connection. They managed to share what Emeka Okereke called "a communal time-zone" over 14 years. What does this kind of connection mean as we head further into the subjectivist era of the 21st century? What is the foremost millennials' role in bridging the gap between a post-generation and the future generations of the world? What does it feel like to be forty – both as a man and a woman – in our Time? Is forty the new thirty as the younger generation become less conservative and gradually removed from the previous generation's cautious disposition? J. Redza offers a few suggestions for a better appraisal of these thoughts: "We are still in the consciousness place where we are learning how to use the internet. We need to be more conscious of how we use the internet rather than how it uses us". "In many different cultures, we talk about fate, and that there are many circles in life. This I find fascinating. So I don't see things in a linear way.""Despite what you want to do in life or online [cyberspace], the basis is your sense of who you are; it has to be very strong."The conversation rounds up with the need to be grounded in oneself. To be disciplined. And finally to consider that if one has good health, it translates to the wealth of Time. Yet this kind of wealth cannot be saved in a deposit box or a bank account. It is to be used every day – in the present. Host: Emeka Okereke (Berlin)Guest: J. Redza (Kuala Lumpur)Production: E.O Multimedia LTD. Album Art: J. Redza ArtMusic: DJ Kupeski. Timestamps: 0:00: Introduction by Emeka Okereke3:47: J. Redza joins the conversation via Zoom6:29: It's as if we have known each other since childhood: how Emeka and J. met11:40: Creating a Time Tunnel18:22: Life is not linear. There circles of fate, lessons from my parents22:40: How do you deal with the societal pressure of age(ing) and Time?26:36: The Paradox of Age: Keep your childlikeness29:29: Let nature have its way in us: relating with each other and the internet space.31:22: What does it feel like to be forty? 36:52:The Transitional role of the millennials in the 21st century41:52:Success: your sense of sense has to be very strong45:42: The Wealth of Time. 48:41:Living in the Now: an excellent note to end51:20: Outro and vote of thanks by Emeka Okereke. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

"I am looking at Time as an element of art, an element of expression not as a clock or calendar. I am looking at the capacity you have as an individual to define a progression of your existence and your event."In this episode, which continues our reflection on Time, Emeka Okereke is in conversation with Jude Anogwih. It opens with Anogwih's proposition to think of Time as an element, an interactive material for expression and agency. From here on, the conversation takes the form of open-ended questions serving to broaden horizons, while acting as mirrors that do not only reflect ourselves to us but calls for the inclusion of the reflection of others into our views of the future. While the aim is to discuss Time beyond its quantifiable entrapping, there are few pointers in the conversation which serve as support structures for thoughts explored:"The concept of difference, of becoming of multiplicity, of diversity, of equity – these are things that are resonating today. How do we create a society that reflects all and not one?""I am always reluctant [to align with] the idea of "the future". But I am interested in the idea of "future generations" because these are more of minds. How do we shape minds that will understand and accept the dynamics and changes of Time?""Sometimes, we look at the future from our individual myopic reflection; we are not asking ourselves: how do we bring in the reflection of others into that future?""To understand and comment on Time is like trying to embrace the sea or trying to give a full hug to the ocean.""There is a lot we are rethinking: the concept of difference, but also the whole idea of becoming". "This different interactive concept of Time is what I, as anartist, look at. The dynamics of it all; how it defines today, and now and, possibly, the future we are trying to shape."How do we accept what we are not familiar with?""How do we live and thrive in the unprecedented?""How do we create this amazing flower of sadness that will help others to be hopeful, and remind me of where I was and what I want myself to experience next?Listen to the full episode on: https://nkatapodcast.com/show/dotAlso available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Deezer, Overcast, and more. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

We often hear such expressions as "Time passes". "Don't waste time". "Buy time". "Spend time". But, is time quantifiable in the sense we use it? Isn't it a paradox, this inclination to contain what contains us? These are some of the thoughts (and more) foregrounding this reflection on and about time. This podcast is an introduction to a series of conversations aimed at fleshing out thoughts regarding our understanding/reading of time as a non-physical yet uncircumventable component our connectedness. Subsequent episodes will feature guests from different parts of the globe, st each discussing and expanding on specific themes. Follow the conversation on www.nkatapodcast.com/dotAlso available on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, Deezer, Overcast and more. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

Founded in 1927, Queen's College, Yaba, Lagos, Nigeria is part of a formidable legacy addressing the gender disparities between male and female education in Nigeria spearheaded by a group of women who contributed to the founding of this country's first government-owned secondary school for girls.The six years I spent in Queen's College between 1993-1999 formed part of a lifelong lesson in feminism, ambition and mediating between individuals across class, social and cultural differences, in what would also prove to be a network far beyond what I could have imagined as a shy thirteen-year-old walking through the blue gates of my high school campus for the first time. The 1990s, defined by a return to full-blown military rule, a tumultuous time as the late Chief M.K.O. Abiola's democratically-elected president was announced in June 1993, and in 1995 Ken Saro Wiwa and eight other environmental activists murdered by the state. It was under this climate that I began formal secondary education in an institution that would leave indelible marks on my psyche going forward extending way beyond Yaba and on the many global endeavours I have since saught.I had first encountered this school for girls through my family as decades earlier, two of my cousins had gone there. They would often speak so fondly about fellow peers, teachers, principals and all of the goings-on during their time in there, particularly 'boarding house' experiences. In my first two years, I was a day student. Then this was followed by four years of boarding, which, if I'm honest, confused me as I assumed this experience was for people who didn't live in Lagos or, you know, couldn't commute every day. I focus on my time as a boarder because this really was the first time in my life I met young ladies who represented all the different tribal groups in Nigeria, it felt like everyone from everywhere was here. I learned and heard about so many places I had never heard of or only saw on maps. A melting pot of cultures and experience and one that was a lesson in diplomacy and co-existence. Tuck shop, out-of-bounds, Mati Obasa, slabs (a washing area), and one Ju! Phrases that only a QCOG would understand! The stark realities that this was no Mallory Towers but really survival of the fittest, fetching water, washing your clothes and making sure they weren't nicked, sticking to the many rules. Still, indeed there was time for fun (acculturation, inter-house sports, visiting days and exeats!).I and everyone who has and still passes through those blue gates are part of a legacy of female leaders traversing many geographies and built on a vision by a group of women responding to the importance of educating the girl child in Nigeria and beyond. It is no small feat to bear and pass on the torch of Queen's College.Guest: Jareh DasHost: Emeka OkerekeText: Jareh DasCover Image: Jareh DasMusic: Life's Gone Down Low by The Lijadu Sisters. Production: E.O Multimedia LTD. Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

For 25 years, Madam Margaret Opambour-Adjei has run the Afroshop Tropical Markt, in Neukölln Berlin, where she sells foodstuffs, cosmetics and fabrics mainly from West Africa. Originally from Ghana, she migrated to Germany in 1988. In this episode, Emeka Okereke visited her shop during which they discussed various aspect of the movement of African food across borders. “We are quite conversant with the movement of bodies and people back and forth borders in the context of migration – in this case, Africans. But there is another angle to it: the movement of food. Africans have always carried their food with them when they travel or migrate. If there are two luggage allowances [for a flight], it is most likely that one of the luggage will be filled with foodstuff.”Their conversation was a glimpse into her life:The challenges of running such a business in Berlin; the trajectory of the transportation/distribution of African foodstuff and the agents involved. Some of the governmental policies which constitute bottlenecks. Her shop as a Pan-African Space, as a space of conviviality. Her connection with Ghana, her home country. Incapsulating this is the fact that the conversation took place on the so-called #blackoutteusday, and in the same week when many people in the world are protesting under the “Black Lives Matter” banner. While this is commendable, it is crucial to articulate other ways black people are making lives matter - in their everyday lives. The likes of Madam Margaret may not be able to go for the placard-waving match-protest protest in Berlin. But she has kept a business running for 25 years in Berlin – even as the business is frustrated by imperialist-capitalist realities. She Keeps her head up – for herself and those who depend on her as far as in Ghana. She makes "Lives Matter". This podcast is a small attempt to honour her own way of making lives matter.Guest: Margaret Opambour-Adjei (Berlin)Host: Emeka Okereke (Berlin)Text: Emeka OkerekePhotography: Emeka OkerekeMusic: Sir KupeskiGraphic Design: Innocent Ekejiuba,Listen on: nkatapodcast.com/dotSupport the project: nkatapodcast.com/patreon Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In this Episode, Emeka Okereke (Berlin) connects, through a phone conversation, with Diwas Raja (Kathmandu) – writer, scholar and Lead Researcher at the Nepal Picture Library. Their discussion expands on the intentions and the operative premise of the photography book, "Dalit, A Quest For Dignity" of which Diwas is the editor. The book, which is a Nepal Picture Library Project, "came about as an attempt to create a visual archive of the Dalit experience in modern Nepal."The episode opens with an introduction-style monologue that served to set the atmosphere for the ensuing conversation. It touched on various strands of thoughts related to the ethics and position of photography in (1) ascribing dignity and legitimacy to the oppressed/marginalised peoples; (2) the making of a multi-contextual world. The discussion took, as an opening point, the notion of relating "image-making to world-making" as culled from the introductory text of the book. It then touched on certain tropes upon which the reading and arrangement of the book's content are anchored. A highlight of the conversation is Diwas' point on the need to read photographs beyond the point of view of the maker. Thus, to account for the meaning acquired through relation as it makes its rounds across space and time. Here, it is useful to return to that highly neglected aspect of photography by which it occupies an important place in human relations: the social function of photography. Dalit, A Quest for Dignity speaks of image-making in relation to world-making. Although the images in the book operate in the milieu of the Nepali-Dalit lives, they strive to speak beyond their context. In this case, to ascribe dignity also means to assert a people place in the world without disavowing their locality or localised experience.If a photography book – which looks to address the past, while working in, and with the urgency of the present – should carry within it anything of the future, it ought to consider the place of images in the making of a multi-contextual world.This book from the Nepal picture Library is a significant response and contribution to the challenges of this multi-contextual world-making.Just in case you were wondering who a Dalit is, it's all in the conversation. Take a listenWant to support the project? Check out our Patreon Page: https://www.patreon.com/nkatapodcastHost: Emeka OkerekeGuest: Diwas RajaText: Emeka OkerekePhotography: Emeka OkerekeMusic: "Little Gestures" by Sir Kupeski DJ. Graphics: Innocent EkejiubaSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

To dedicate a conversation to Tony Allen is to recall the rich history of African Music, unsurpassed wit and creative ingenuity, needful rebellion, activism and truly African artistic inventions and languages through that very melodious, harmonious, rhythmic, soul-soothing art form called music. Much of Africa's temperament, sense of community, sharing, family, humanity and spirituality has been captured and indeed preserved in music. But it didn't stay static. If anything, it travelled at the same pace, if not more, as every slave ship that left the continent to cross the Trans-Atlantic ocean in the 16th century. It preserved itself in the subconscious and the imaginary until it was ripe to let itself out inform of Jazz, highlife, Palm wine music, Funk and eventually Afrobeat. This episode aims to discuss the legacy of Tony Allen from a perspective which takes into account his contribution towards the preservation and dissemination of Afrobeat. Joining Emeka Okereke (host) through a phone call is Jahman Anikulapo. He is a reputable name in the culture industry in Nigeria. He has been an arts and culture journalist since 1987. But in between, he is a theatre director, producer, and manager of numerous cultural projects and platforms. He is well conversant with the work and legacy of Fela Kuti, and he knew Tony Allen personally. They discussed the legacy of Tony Allen given the concerted effort to attach it, and somewhat overshadowing it with, the legacy of Fela Kuti. Their conversation threw light on the achievements of Tony Allen. If Fela Kuti is, rightfully so, the inventor of Afrobeat, Tony Allen – through a consistent, prolific career, boasting a discography of over 70 albums and collaborations – was indispensable in sustaining Afrobeat. That, in and of itself, is a worthy legacy.No foundation can stand without sustenance. No unique identity (as can be attributed to Afrobeat) can fulfil itself without collaboration outside itself.  Needless to say: it takes many trees to make a forestIt is such broader correlations and historical perspectives that are of utmost importance. Listen to the podcast on: www.nkapodcast.com/dotAlso available on: Apple Podcast, Spotify, TuneIn and more... Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

In Episode 3 of Dots of Thoughts (DoT), Emeka Okereke reflects on a book which preoccupied him of late: Festac ‘77. This book, “decomposed, an-arranged and reproduced” by Chimurenga the Cape-Town based Pan African art space/publishers, is a compilation of the 2nd World Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture which took place in Nigeria, in 1977. It was an epic event that Ntone Edjabe, founder of Chimurenga, placed on the same historical pedestal as the Great Pyramid. The Festival brought together some 30,000 black artists and scholars from 56 different countries of Africa and the Diaspora to present, converse and debate African/black art and ideologies. Emeka Okereke (in Berlin) connected with Ntone Edjabe (in Cape Town) via a phone call to discuss the intentions, thought processes and conceptual positions which necessitated the book. Okereke suggested a descriptive premise as “anti-book” evidenced in the book’s unconventional form-content relation. Edjabe expanded on the analogy by referencing Toni Morrison’s Black Book as a significant source of inspiration. Like Morrison’s Black Book, Festac ‘77 set out with the audacious goal to put in book form an “unwritable history and story”. The foremost aim was to “experiment with new forms of writing that can capture the complexity, the epic scale of an event such as Festac ‘77.” A book that would account for the opacity, incomprehensibility, inconsistencies that are the crossroads of any foreseeable (African) unity.“The experiment was not to write a book about Festac. The experiment was to write a book through Festac”, Edjabe inferred.Join the conversation by leaving a comment on your preferred platform of listening. Listen on: nkatapodcast.com, Apple Podcast, Spotify, TuneIn and more. Want to become one of the foundational supporters of Nkata Podcast Station, see our Patreon page: nkatapodcast/patreonSupport the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com

Features: Innocent Ekejiuba /Oladimeji Olasoju /Ade Bantu (Lagos, Nigeria)Host: Emeka Okereke (Berlin, Germany).Episode two of DoT is an extension of thoughts explored in episode one. This time, Emeka Okereke connects with Innocent Ekejiuba and Oladimeji Olasoju, in Bariga Lagos – Nigeria. They conversed about the state of things with regards to the present situation. They offered remarkable views, garnished with pointed anecdotes (contradictions, grey areas, “politricks”), of how the everyday person of Lagos, and specifically, Bariga are dealing with the realities imposed on them by the lockdown. “Many people consider themselves as part of the “Essential Services” category because, essentially, that’s what they are to their family and loved ones”, Innocent inferred. While Oladimeji pointed out that no one has yet received any welfare benefits from the government, he was quick to note that the situation has encouraged acts of sharing, kindness, generosity and togetherness amongst neighbours. The masses, churches, and the private sector – not the government – are the real mitigators of this crisis. The entire episode is backdropped by “Disrupt the Program”, the new single from the Nigerian band, Bantu, led by the Nigerian-German musician, Ade Bantu. The song is a vehement rebuke of the government – calling out its ineptitude and abject disregard for the plight of the masses while imploring the people to do more than be social media protesters. Ade would further expand on the motivation behind the realisation of the song; why he chose to make its video in Bariga; the urgency from which this song, brimming with a Fela-Kuti intensity, emanated. What do you make of the different points raised in the conversation?Leave a comment on the episode in your preferred platform of listening. Selected comments will be addressed in subsequent episodes.Support the showThank you for listening. Follow Nkata Podcast Station on Instagram @nkatapodcast and Twitter. See the website for extensive materials: nkatapodcast.com