The African Imaginary Podcast

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and filmmaker Wanuri Kahiu dive into Kikuyu naming and giving birth to your ancestors, the management degree her parents demanded before film school, Afrobubblegum and the right to make fun, fierce and frivolous African art, banning Rafiki and taking the state to court, directing Washington Black across three continents, hope as a discipline, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Wanuri Kahiu on Instagram Wanuri Kahiu is a Kenyan filmmaker, writer and producer based in Nairobi. She studied management science at Warwick before taking an MFA in film at UCLA, then returned to Kenya, where her science-fiction short Pumzi set out the concerns — ecology, imagination, hope — that run through her work. She coined Afrobubblegum, an argument for 'fun, fierce and frivolous' African art; her 2018 feature Rafiki was the first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes and was banned at home, and her legal challenge produced a…

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and musician Bongeziwe Mabandla dive into a childhood in rural Tsolo with trees for an audience, the mother who quietly bought the crayons and the guitar, sensitivity and depression and getting paid to feel, the health scare that reframed everything, his long partnership with producer Tiago Correia-Paulo, singing in isiXhosa to rooms in France, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Bongeziwe Mabandla on Instagram Bongeziwe Mabandla is a South African singer-songwriter who blends isiXhosa folk with electronica, a sound he calls Xhosa soul. Born in Tsolo in the rural Eastern Cape, he was sent to the Lady Grey Arts Academy as a teenager, later studied drama in Johannesburg and appeared in Generations before releasing his debut album Umlilo in 2012. His catalogue is built around a long partnership with Mozambican producer Tiago Correia-Paulo, from Mangaliso, which won Best Alternative Album at the SAMAs,…

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and curator Sunny Dolat dive into a Nairobi childhood held by four aunts and a grandmother, Maasai naming and the children who wait for a name, The Nest Collective and the film Kenya banned, waste colonialism and the secondhand clothing bales, indigenous vocabularies of sustainability, fashion as the architecture of the body, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Sunny Dolat on Instagram Sunny Dolat is a Nairobi-based curator, stylist, creative director and production designer working across fashion, film and exhibition-making. He is a founding member of The Nest Collective, whose oral-history film Stories of Our Lives won a Berlinale jury prize, screened in some ninety countries, and remains banned in Kenya. His curatorial work includes In Their Finest Robes the Children Shall Return, made for the Ngola Biennial in São Tomé, a contribution to the V&A's Africa Fashion exhibition, and the touring…

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and musician Fatoumata Diawara dive into making her own stage clothes and the rhythm of the sewing machine, the trance states she calls her madness, fleeing an arranged marriage at nineteen and teaching herself guitar on stage, recording with Herbie Hancock, singing about female genital mutilation and albinism, the anthem she built for Mali in crisis, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Fatoumata Diawara on Instagram Fatoumata Diawara is a Malian singer, songwriter, guitarist and actress, born in Côte d'Ivoire to Malian parents. She began as a dancer and film actress before fleeing a forced marriage and touring for six years with the Royal de Luxe theatre company; her 2011 debut Fatou established her as a solo artist blending Wassoulou tradition with folk guitar, followed by Fenfo and London Ko. She has collaborated with Herbie Hancock, Damon Albarn and Gorillaz, Disclosure and -M-, and in 2013…

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and musician Blinky Bill dive into the cartoon behind his stage name, the Congolese and Southern African records that raised him, the fight with his parents over leaving sport science for music, Just A Band and the video that became East Africa's first viral hit, AI music and being human as an act of resistance, fashion as an extension of artistry, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Blinky Bill on Instagram Blinky Bill is the stage name of Bill Sellanga, a Kenyan producer, rapper and DJ based in Nairobi. He co-founded the electronic group Just A Band while studying sport science at Kenyatta University; their animated 'Ha-He' video is widely regarded as East Africa's first viral video, and their track 'Huff + Puff' later reached a global audience through the Netflix series Sense8. As a solo artist he blends hip-hop, electronic production and Kenyan traditional instrumentation, and has spent his career…

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and entrepreneur Justin Letschert dive into buying Bio-Oil in 2000 with no skincare knowledge, why the industry abandoned oil and how it came back, the Japan launch that tested South African quality, turning down the multinationals, his 'roots and tree' theory of creativity and mistakes, Africa as a roots continent, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Justin Letschert on Instagram Justin Letschert is a South African entrepreneur and co-owner of Bio-Oil, one of the most widely distributed single products in skincare. A chartered accountant by training, he and his brother David were running a pharmaceutical mergers and acquisitions business when they bought Bio-Oil in 2000, thirteen years after it was first formulated in Johannesburg. He runs brand and marketing while his brother heads the laboratory in Durban; the brand stayed a single product until 2018 and now sells in around 165 countries, having…

In this episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and musician Msaki dive into the layered meaning of her names, the icons who set her standard, owning your masters and protecting the soul of a song, burnout and the art residency that reset her practice, building pan-African infrastructure through Alt Black Continua, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Msaki on Instagram Msaki, born Asanda Mvana, is a South African singer, songwriter and multidisciplinary artist from East London in the Eastern Cape. Trained in fine art at Rhodes University, she has built her career as an independent artist who retains ownership of her catalogue, moving between folk, soul and dance music — including widely heard collaborations with Black Coffee and Diplo. She founded Alt Black Continua, a pan-African artist collective that has convened musicians at Sauti za Busara in Zanzibar, and works on building songwriting and music-business infrastructure on the continent. * The…

In this, our first episode of The African Imaginary Podcast, host Khangi Khoza and writer Tsitsi Dangarembga dive into the importance of the African imagination, Tsitsi's African icons, spirituality in her later writing, advice to writers, and more. Read the companion essay on Substack Follow us on Instagram Follow Tsitsi Dangarembga on Instagram Tsitsi Dangarembga is one of Africa's key literary voices. She has been writing for four decades and is best known for her trilogy of novels set in her home country, Zimbabwe. Nervous Conditions was the first novel by a black Zimbabwean woman to be published in English, and was praised by the late Chinua Achebe for being 'as natural as the grass grows'. * The African Imaginary on Linktree Our Website