• About the Project
  • About the History
  • About the Artist
  • Welcome Words
  • In Conversation
  • Credits

About the Project

Sonic Communitary:

The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz

A multi-channel sound installation by Emeka Ogboh for the African Union’s Julius Nyerere Peace and Security Building in Addis Ababa, 2016

Emeka Ogboh won the competition to create an artwork for the new building of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The artist presents a complex sound installation that engages with the past and present of the Association of African States. The artwork reflects the African Union’s motto of “unity in diversity” and explores its guiding principles and visions within a Pan-African context. The title of the exhibition refers to the range of frequencies audible to the human ear and emphasizes the act of listening. Using historical speeches originally recorded for radio transmission, the artist reflects on the significance of words and public speech while also highlighting the role of information media and archives in shaping collective memory and an institution’s cultural legacy.

Emeka Ogboh presents a dynamic archive of interwoven voices, songs, sounds and thoughts. His multi-channel sound installation connects the interior and exterior of the Julius Nyerere Building, guiding the listener through a course of four different acoustic spaces.

 

Julius Nyerere Peace and Security Building, African Union, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo: Christina Werner

With the catalysing vision of the German Federal Foreign Office to imbue the building with art, ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen initiated a dialogue among experts from the African Continent to award the commission for this art installation.

The jury included the following experts: N’Goné Fall, curator and cultural consultant from Dakar; Stacy Hardy, author from Cape Town; Patrick Mudekereza, author and cultural producer from Lubumbashi; Alya Sebti, director of the 5th Marrakesh Biennale (2014); and Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew, director of the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design in Addis Ababa. A representative of the African Union held an advisory position and artist Olafur Eliasson served as the non-voting chair of the jury.

The jury’s decision was preceded by the conference Future Memories at the Alle School of Fine Arts and Design, University of Addis Ababa in September 2014. The conference was jointly conceived and organized by ifa and the Alle School with funding from the German Federal Foreign Office. Future Memories provided a forum for African art experts and scholars to discuss cultures of memory and the significance of art in public spaces within African contexts. The jury’s selection of Emeka Ogboh’s proposal signals a fundamental change with respect to art in public spaces, constituting a clear rejection of the monumental in art and the manifestation of remembrance in static monuments.

The unanimous decision of the jury represents a continuation of efforts to promote dialogue and trans-African discourses. The jury hopes that the selected artwork might inspire users and visitors of the building in finding creative solutions to the increasingly complex problems they face daily.

 

 

ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen was appointed by the German Federal Foreign Office to conceptualise and realise the art competition, as well as oversee the production process for the winning work for the Peace and Security Counil’s new building of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The process included the international conference Future Memories and a related online publication which can be accessed at future-memories.org. The exhibition PLAYBACK. The African Union: 20 to 20,000 Hz, presented at the ifa Gallery Berlin and at the Modern Art Museum: Gebre Kristos Desta Center in Addis Ababa, provides insight into Emeka Ogboh’s working process through sounds and other archive materials the artist compiled for his installation work at the building in Addis Ababa.

The German Foreign Office financed the construction of the Julius Nyerere Peace and Security Building in Addis Ababa as a representative contribution to the development of the strategic management capabilities of the African Union with a focus on conflict prevention and containment. The building will be used for the planning and implementation of future peacekeeping missions in the African Union.

About the History

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU)
and the African Union (AU)

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established on May 25, 1963 in Addis Ababa when representatives of 32 independent African nations and liberation movements in countries still under the yoke of colonial domination signed the OAU Charter at the Africa Hall in Addis Ababa. The objectives set out by the OAU were to promote the unity and solidarity of African States; co-ordinate and intensify their cooperation and efforts to achieve a better life for the peoples of Africa; defend their sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence; eradicate all forms of colonialism from Africa; promote international cooperation with due regard to the Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights; and coordinate and harmonise members’ political, diplomatic, economic, educational, cultural, health, welfare, scientific, technical and defence policies.

Painting at the Africa Hall by Assefa and Sereke Yemane Berhan in honor of the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The painting features portraits of the participating heads of government present on May 25, 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The representatives at the Head of State Conference were:

  • Haile Selassie I, Emperor of Ethiopia
  • Ahmed Ben Bella, Prime Minister of Algeria
  • Mwami Nwambutsa IV, King of Burundi
  • Ahmadou Ahidjo, President of the Federal Republic of Cameroon
  • David Dacko, President of the Central African Republic
  • François Tombalbaye, President of the Republic of Chad
  • Fulbert Youlou, President of Republic of the Congo (Brazzaville)
  • Joseph Kasa-Vubu, President of the Republic of Congo (Léopoldville)
  • Hubert Maga, President of the Republic of Dahomey
  • Léon Mba, President of the Republic of Gabon
  • Kwame Nkrumah, President of the Republic of Ghana
  • Sékou Touré, President of the Republic of Guinea
  • Félix Houphouët-Boigny, President of the Republic of Ivory Coast
  • William V. S. Tubman, President of the Republic of Liberia
  • Hassan El Rida El Senussi, Crown Prince of the Libyan Kingdom, Representing King Idris I and Head of the Libyan Delegation
  • Philibert Tsiranana, President of the Malagasy Republic
  • Modibo Keïta, President of Mali
  • Moktar Ould Daddah, President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania
  • Hamani Diori, President of the Republic of the Niger
  • Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Prime Minister of the Federation of Nigeria
  • Callixte Habamenshi, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, Representing Grégoire Kayibanda, President of Rwanda
  • Léopold Sédar Senghor, President of the Republic of Senegal
  • Milton Margai, Prime Minister of Sierra Leone
  • Aden Abdullah Osman, President of the Somali Republic
  • Tsehafi Taezaz Aklilu Habte-Wold, Prime Minister of Ethiopia
  • El Ferik Ibrahim Abboud, President of the Supreme Council and Prime Minister of the Republic of the Sudan
  • Julius Nyerere, President of the Republic of Tanganyika
  • Habib Bourguiba, President of the Republic of Tunisia
  • Milton Obote, Prime Minister of Uganda
  • Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of the United Arab Republic
  • Maurice Yaméogo, President of the Republic of Upper Volta
  • Jaramogi Ajuma Oginga Odinga, Representing the African National Liberation Movements in Non-Independent Territories

Twenty-one further states gradually joined over the years with South Africa becoming the 53rd member on May 23, 1994.

The Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was replaced by the African Union. On September 9, 1999, the Heads of State and Government of the Organisation of African Unity issued a Declaration (Sirte Declaration) calling for the establishment of an African Union. The thirty-sixth ordinary session of the assembly of Heads of State and Government ended with support from the 53 member states for the Constitutive Act that established the African Union in Lome, Togo, on July 11, 2000. The headquarters of the AU is the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

 

About the Artist

Emeka Ogboh

Born 1977 in Enugu, Nigeria. Lives and works in Lagos, Nigeria and Berlin, Germany. Emeka Ogboh won the competition to create an artwork for the new building of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Emeka Ogboh´s complex work for the African Union’s new building, the accompanying exhibition PLAYBACK. The African Union: 20 to 20,000 Hz, his installation The Song of the Germans presented at the 56th Venice Biennale and his most recent work for Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen 2016 all highlight the centrality of issues of diversity and multinationalism to global contemporary discourses. Ogboh specialises in digital audio media and video and is co-founder of Video Art Network (VAN) Nigeria, a platform that promotes New Media art activities in Nigeria.

 

Exhibitions (Selected)

2016

  • Prize of the Böttcherstraße in Bremen 2016. Kunsthalle Bremen
  • La Ville au loin – FRAC Centre-Val de Loire
  • Market Symphony: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art

 2015

  • Playback. The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz, ifa gallery Berlin
  • Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk
  • Disguise: Masks & Global African Art, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle
  • 56th Venice Biennale, Venice

2014

  • HLYSNAN: The Notion and Politics of Listening, Casino Luxembourg
  • DAK’ART Biennale, Dakar
  • Mikromusik: Festival experimenteller Musik und Sound Art. Berlin.
  • The First International Biennial of Contemporary Art of Cartagena de Indias, Cartagena

2013

  • Urban Sounds, Haus der elektronischen Künste, Basel
  • National Pop-Up Theatre, Federal Government printing press, Lagos
  • 2nd Istanbul Triennale, Taksim Republic Art Gallery, Istanbul
  • Infecting The City, Public Arts Festival, Cape Town

2012

  • African Art and the Shape of Time, University of Michigan Museum of Art, Michigan
  • Manifesta 12
  • Invisible Cities, Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, Massachusetts

2011

  • ARS 11: KIASMA, Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
  • IMAG[IN]ING CITIES, The Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi

2010

  • Afropolis, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Cologne
  • Green Summary, The Centre for Contemporary Art, Lagos

 

Commissions

2016

  • Market Symphony: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington, D.C.
  • Eko’polis: FRAC Centre-Val de Loire

2015

  • DISGUISE, The Seattle Art Museum, Seattle

2014

  • A Lagos State of Mind II, The Africa Center, New York
  • Trancemission, International Biennial of Contemporary Art Foundation of Cartagena, De Indias, Cartagena

2013

  • Ghost of the Machine, Goethe Institute, Lagos

2012

  • A Lagos State of Mind, Menil Museum, Houston
  • Lagos-Manchester (LOS-MAN), three outdoor sound installations, Manchester
  • This is Lagos!, Westdeutsche Rundfunk, Cologne

 

www.emekaogboh.com

Welcome Words

Unity in Diversity

“Percent for art” enjoys a long tradition in many parts of the world. Whenever a public building is constructed, a certain amount of its cost – usually one percent – is reserved for art. At first, this might not seem like much. However, it is often enough to build a bridge between a space and the people who imbue it with life. Art is a unique form of communication. It can encapsulate the most complex of relations in a single touching experience.

I am glad that the ifa – Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, an institute for international and cultural relations, decided to apply this concept of “percent for art” to the new building of the African Union’s Peace and Security Council. Moreover, I am delighted that the Federal Foreign Office has been able to provide funding for the building and the innovative sound installation by Emeka Ogboh.

Emeka Ogboh transforms the building into a space for memory and reflection and incorporates the adjacent area into this transformation. His work evokes both the history and ideals of the African Union, whose motto “Unity in diversity” is reflected in the installation. As you enter the building, you hear the speeches from the founding sessions of the Organization of African Unity in 1963. These sonic testimonies are redolent with ambition and hope and demonstrate how much has been achieved since the forerunner of the African Union was founded – and how much is yet to do.

“The challenges and opportunities which open before us today are greater than those presented at any time in Africa’s millennia of history”. These words by Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I still ring true, 53 years after they were first uttered. While the racial injustice of the apartheid system and the last vestiges of colonial oppression have since ceased to exist, many member states of the African Union still struggle to overcome serious problems such as social inequality, violent conflicts and insufficient economic diversity. I firmly believe that these issues can only be solved under the umbrella of a strong African Union.

Emeka Ogboh’s art invites staff and visitors to the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to take a closer look at the long and ongoing tradition of the African Union. It also invites us to reflect on what the African Union is today and how it could look in the future. It is hard to imagine how one percent for art could be better invested.

Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier

Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Federal Republic of Germany

 

 

Take Care of My Legacy

Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz is a voyage into time and space, balancing between yesterday and today, between euphoric utopia and implacable reality, between inspirational action and endless hope. This work of art by Nigerian sound installation artist Emeka Ogboh combines audio taken from official political speeches, musical lyrics and bird songs. Taking material from the audio archives of the African Union (AU) as a point of departure, Ogboh explores the AU’s journey on the road “Towards a Peaceful, Prosperous and Integrated Africa”. Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz remaps the vision of the AU Founding Fathers and monitors its achievements. Ogboh’s installation is an invitation to challenge the future. “Unity in diversity”, the AU motto, is the conceptual basis from which Ogboh addresses themes of the political, social and cultural complexities of a multi-faceted continent.

The landmark speeches – delivered in 1963 at the inaugural meeting of the organization formerly known as Organization of African Unity (OAU) – generate a strong sense of sweet nostalgia echoing the exalted spirit of the days of African Independence. But this journey into the past, while cloaking us in a state of reassuring determination, subtly poses a subliminal, yet fundamental, question: Have Africans lived up to the vows of their elders? If Colonization and Apartheid are considered part of the past, is Unity nothing but a chimera, given the amount of humanitarian crisis and communitarian tensions the African Continent is still facing today? The AU anthem ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke (Diverse People Unite), the composition by South African composer Neo Muyanga realized upon invitation by Emeka Ogboh, sophisticatedly infuses an organic and yet uncanny subliminal message. It tells us that in order to deeply embrace “otherness”, Africans will have to cherish brotherliness and constantly keep in mind that the stranger on the other side of the street or country border will never be anything more than the reflection of our own aspirations and soul. Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz praises a visionary mission statement designed more than five decades ago. It is meant to remind us of our individual responsibilities as Africans. It is also meant to urge us to protect a collective memory and to share our collective destiny as one people. The African Union anthem, sung in different African languages, symbolizes a recollection of familiar voices emphasizing the humanist ideals of Diversity and Unity that constitute the foundation of the organization. The official speeches, the original song and the organization’s anthem are combined with songs of birds hailing from the garden. While referring to nature, these additional elements can be seen as a metaphor for celebrating vitality, the DNA of African citizens, who have the extraordinary capacity to adapt thanks to their unwavering culture of resilience.

Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz builds a unique acoustic ecology. It departs from the Building of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to spread in its garden and mirror the energetic vibrations rising from the streets of Addis Ababa. It links the building to the history of both the AU and Pan-Africanism. Audio speakers, strategically placed in the building’s public spaces and in the garden, allow the artwork to be experienced inside and outside, collectively or in solitude. By its specific fluidity, this sound installation permeates different indoor and outdoor spaces, embracing visitors in an impalpable, permanent cocoon. It invites them to dive into a plurality of sounds and to use one sense only to open up their imagination. It invites them to remember the dreams of the Founding Generation and to find the strength to transform them into an irrevocably vibrant reality. It invites them to wonder where the torch is that has been passed to the next generation. If this multiplicity of sounds, voices and languages celebrates the diversity of African societies, it also reminds us that only a deep acceptance of this plurality, which all too often is at stake, will allow Pan-Africanism to blossom and inspire future generations.

Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz is a poetic and, yet, enigmatically familiar sound installation combining audio fragments to create an immersive, but non-intrusive, experience. It balances the intimacy of personal encounter and memory with a sweeping meditation on time, space and language. This intangible artwork highlights the inherent tensions between ‘without’ and ‘within’, opening a transitory space and locating a hidden pause within even the most fleeting, seemingly ordinary, moments. The result is an unpredictable, imaginative experience embracing the cultural commonalities that define the soul of the Continent. This sound installation is an invitation to pause, to listen closely and to escape. The jury – the five African contemporary visual arts professionals, who selected this artwork – hopes that Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz will give users and visitors of the building the inspiration to find the creative solutions, which the increasingly complex problems they face daily so urgently require.

N’Goné Fall

Independent curator, essayist and consultant in cultural policies, on behalf of the jury

 

In Conversation

Tuning in – Listening to: Sonic Resonance and Frequencies of an Institution

Christina Werner in conversation with Emeka Ogboh and Neo Muyanga

 

Emeka Ogboh reflects sonic traditions, acoustic spaces and the quality of listening within a wider context of shaping collective memory and an institution’s cultural legacy. His work engages with the past and present of the Association of African States; aims to explore its guiding concepts, such as pan-Africanism; and directly references its visions and rhetorical innovations in the form of a dynamic archive of voices, sounds and thoughts. With the AU motto “Unity in Diversity” as a conceptual basis, Ogboh developed the overall ideas for the work. Acknowledging that listening is more than a gesture, Sonic Communarity: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz presents listening both as an attitude and as the taking-of-a-position for thoughts to “space out” into the world. The voices of the past recall the need to revisit the principle of “Unity in Diversity” again in order to (re)create common goals for coming generations.

– Emeka, what was your response when you won the competition to create an artwork for the building of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia?

 EO: The first thing that came to my mind was that this is great news for sound art and aspiring sound artists on the Continent. It is a rare occurrence when a sound installation proposal wins over other art forms, taking the top prize. This is probably the first time it has happened on the Continent. That means that things are changing – a shift towards embracing new media and art forms. This will encourage young sound artists, some of whom have been in touch with me for a long time, to keep on working.

– What makes the medium of sound special to you?

EO: Of all the various digital media I have worked with, sound is the strongest medium for me. What I find fascinating is its ability to convey emotions and create immersive experiences that can potentially transport the listener from one time or space to another. The experience of sound involves complete immersion – not just for the artist creating the sound piece but also for the audience.

– How did you work with the site-specific, context and how did you find your source material for Sonic Communitary: The African Union 20 to 20,000 Hz?

EO: It started with visiting the site and its spaces in order to understand and sense the layout and how the acoustics could work on-site. I decided to work with a series of sound installations that form a sonic parkour, connecting indoor and outside spaces. The idea started with the African Union anthem, which centres on African unity and diversity. Then, I researched in the AU archives and other archives around the Continent guided by my interest in concepts of Pan-Africanism and searching for prominent speeches that fit the installation’s theme. I was excited to find recordings of the OAU’s founding ceremony. Excerpts from these historic speeches now intersect with the vocal composition centred on the AU anthem as well as with the choir piece created by Neo Muyanga. The garden inspired a specific composition using bird vocalizations from throughout the Continent. In order to ascertain the environmental impact of these bird calls on the local bird population, I worked with a local ornithologist and referred to his expertise when curating the bird sounds for garden.

– At a very early stage you invited Neo Muyanga to contribute and react to your ideas for African Union, which resulted in the composition ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke. Both of you have been in artistic dialog for the past years. In what ways do you see the project as continuation of common interests and an on-going dialogue?

 EO: Although we each come from a different professional background, we have a lot of common interests. Both of us have been exploring the topic of archives, especially with regard to working with African sounds and music. Another thematic interest we share lies in conceptualisations of Pan-Africanism, most often in the form of cultural movements that only regain their strength in contemporary versions and visions. The Pan-African ideal of “unity in diversity”, which is the theme for the overall installation, is at the core of the final composition ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke. In Neo’s words, “It is a rousing, slow anthem full of dignity that reflects our hopes and dreams as Africans of a new reality, this 21st century”.

 – Neo, what was your point of departure for creating the composition ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke in this specific context?

NM: In crafting the lyrics for the hymn ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke, I took inspiration from the preamble of the South African National Planning Commission (NPC), a text crafted by poets Antjie Krog and Njabulo Ndebele. The NPC is a document ostensibly meant to be a roadmap crafted by some of the region’s leading minds to help chart a new course for South Africa, redefining it in line with new African and global realities in the 21st century. And I wrote the composition, this anthem, in response to two very key happenings in 2015: the horrific attacks perpetrated by South Africans against immigrant black Africans now living in South Africa and a project I curated in São Paulo called Revolting Mass, which is an investigation into forms of protest threaded through the global South. The project seeks to understand the place of protest, specifically via the medium of music, and asks how we can use this form to re-interpret concepts such as Pan-Africanism and interdependence in the African Diaspora of the 21st century. The work I created for Emeka’s installation refers directly to those debates and to the current African realities of living with legacies of violence, conquest, oppression and resistance, and the need for those same Africans to turn a new page where Africans of many nations find joy in learning from one another and working together compassionately towards a new 21st century reality.

 – When referring to ideas of Pan-Africanism and the motto “unity in diversity”, how do you relate the historic use and understanding of those concepts to current debates and forms of expression?

 EO: African Union was founded when many African countries were breaking free from the clutches of colonialism. Therefore the topic of Pan-Africanism, unity and peace is very prominent in these speeches. Choosing to work with those topics today, I endeavour to reassess the impact of such concepts. My interest lies in breaking the traditional norms and using new media art forms to enter the discussion. If that includes issues of Pan-Africanism, diversity, the African Diaspora or others, the tools to engage in the discussion do not belong exclusively to the realm of the political or the economic or the bureaucratic. Music and sound, art and poetry, protest culture and street art – all these forms of communication contribute and can have impact by critically reflecting on social issues, which often goes hand in hand with the desire for freedom of expression, and by engaging the people. We are supposed to be a part of an international integration that involves the exchange of different aspects of culture, language, translation. The work questions the slogan “Unity in Diversity” and the quest for sameness in an increasingly globalised world. The project’s elements of fragmentation, reiteration, translations and retranslations explore the losses and gains of such interactions, not only – but especially – as seen within a Pan-African trajectory.

– Both of you chose to work with vocal compositions based on different languages from the African Continent. Communication is a central motif. Could you elaborate on the use and significance of language and translation for this installation?

 EO: With an estimated 1500 – 2000 distinctive African languages in existence, language is one of the things that separate us on the Continent. But this situation does not have to be divisive all the time. So I chose to work with different languages for this project in my proposal for exploring the “unity in diversity” theme. One aspect of the project is the AU anthem, translated and recited in various African languages: same anthem; different languages. Neo made this connection and achieved it by having the composition ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke performed in multiple languages, too. It is a way of saying we are one, even if we speak different languages.

NM: ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke, the title of the hymn, is in the IXam language. The IXam language is one of the world’s earliest languages and was spoken among some of the first people of humanity. The fact that it is now nearly extinct speaks to the concerted effort to decimate not only the people, but also the culture and heritage of southern Africa’s first inhabitants, through violent colonialism and sustained racial discrimination. Currently, there are efforts to revive the language in parts of South Africa and to teach it to young people in school, particularly in the Northern Cape. However, most South Africans today of all colours remain ignorant of the existence of the IXam, their language and their way of life. For the choral composition, I used the languages: IXam, Isizulu, Kiswahili, French, Sesotho and English. These are all treated equally as authentic African languages of the 21st century.

– Both of you share an interest in archives, in particular radio archives. Emeka, you have researched the Nigerian Radio Station for your work The Ambivalence of 1960 addressing Nigeria’s independence in 1960, for instance. And Neo, your work with the Pan African Space Station (PASS) also represents a contemporary approach to working with radio and audio archives. How have you experienced working with sound archives and what is the relevance of archival materials for your artistic practice?

EO: I have learned to let go of fixed ideas when I start going through an archive’s collection, instead remaining open to entirely unexpected discoveries. You never know how it will impact you. An archive is like going back in time for me, accessing a period that existed long before my time. My experience working with radio archives has been quite captivating. These voices and sounds from the past have a way of capturing your imagination and letting you connect to and reinvent the moments captured in the recordings. When I began working with the Nigerian independence audio archives, I found myself transported back to 1960s Nigeria. Those audio recordings opened up research on the lifestyle, fashion and architecture of that time. Archives are very relevant to my artistic practice, given my recent interest in history and the way nostalgia and memory intersect in the conceptualisation of the present.

NM: For me, recording is a prerequisite for archiving, where audio archives are concerned. With the Pan African Space Station (PASS) we seek to reinvent the ways in which audio archives of poetry, for instance, are treated and distributed. Considering the advent of new recording technology – and the resulting questioning of boundaries between different systems of listening and playing back, the democratisation of sound and of listening, its role as a collaborator in our myths – now is the moment to re-investigate our use of sound on and off the page, where literature is concerned. This even moves beyond the music and poetry collaborations that we seek to archive and redistribute, but is nonetheless informed and supported by them.

EO: We have to acknowledge that we are in the 21st century and there have been many technological advances in music and sound production, information sharing platforms and new tools. Therefore every existing archive should be digitised, backed up and catalogued if and where possible, not just for the purpose of research, but most importantly to safeguard archival materials. It would be disastrous, should anything happen to storage facilities such as the African Union’s archives, where the early audio recordings still exist in the form of audio cassettes and reels only.

– Thank you both very much.

 

Emeka Ogboh, Lagos, Nigeria; Berlin, Germany. Ogboh specialises in digital audio media and video and is co-founder of Video Art Network (VAN) Nigeria, a platform that promotes New Media art activities in Nigeria.

Neo Muyanga, Cape Town, South Africa. Muyanga is a composer, songwriter and performer. Muyanga composes musical plays and choral songs and has produced a variety of works for chamber orchestras and large ensembles. Muyanga co-founded the Pan African Space Station (PASS), a platform for Pan-African music and sound art on the Internet.

 

Credits

ifa — Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, an institute for international and cultural relations, promotes art and cultural exchange through exhibitions, discussion platforms and conference programs. As a competence centre for foreign cultural and educational policy, ifa facilitates links between civil society cultural practice, art, media and science. ifa is supported by the German Federal Foreign Office, the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg and its capital city Stuttgart. The German Federal Foreign Office appointed ifa to conceptualise and realise the art competition and overseeing the production process for the winning work for the Peace and Security Council’s building of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The project is funded by the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Concept: Elke aus dem Moore, Head of the Visual Arts Department, ifa —Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, Stuttgart
Curation and Project Development: Christina Werner
Production Assistance: Inka Gressel, Sandra Müller, Sophie Rau, Helen Zeru
Installation: GIZ International Services Ethiopia
Composition !ke e:/xarra //ke: Neo Muyanga
Sound Engineering: Titus Maderlechner
Ornithological Advisering: Yilma Dellelegn Abebe
AU Anthem Translation: Omar Ba, Eieza Cocodia, Talike Gell, Bridget Tapuwa Makande,
Elsie Munthali, Annick Niyonzima, Ebere Stan Nwigwe, Godefroid Nzombi, Kumah Opoku
Flute: Abu Genre Keto
Translation Support: ID Recherchedienst Afrika UGh, Stuttgart/Bruessels
Flute Recording: Buhe Studio, Addis Ababa
Audio Research Support: Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency, Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia & Tanzania Broadcasting Corporation (TBC), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Website
Editing and Texts: Christina Werner
English Copyediting: Christine Wolfe, Nicholas Ricciardi
Design: Rasso Hilber

Copyright: 2016 Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (ifa), the authors and the artists

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Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (ifa) is not responsible for any contents linked or referred to from this website, and accepts no responsibility for its presentation in the websites of third parties. The information and contents have been carefully researched and checked, and can change at any time. Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen e. V. (ifa) cannot accept any liability for the correctness, completeness, or topicality of its contents.

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Sonic Communitary

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Channel 1 – OAU 1963

Emeka Ogboh’s composition reassembles historic speeches given by African heads of state at the Inauguration of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa in May 1963. Delegates from thirty-two independent African nations and from liberation movements in countries still under the yoke of colonial domination met at the Africa Hall in Addis Ababa. The conference, which opened on May 22nd of that year, reached its highpoint on May 25th with the signing of a charter for the new Organisation of African Unity (OAU) to replace rival factions within the Continent. A further twenty-one states gradually joined, raising membership to 53 states by May 23, 1994.

Researching numerous archives, Ogboh edited together historic audio materials including remarks made by Julius Nyerere, President of the Republic of Tanganyika; Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia; Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of the United Arab Republic; Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, President of the Republic of Ghana; and further representatives of the thirty-two signatory governments of the OAU Charter.

The work draws attention to vocal gestures and the speech act, highlighting different styles of political oratory and revealing the complex discourses of the founding members as they strove to delineate the AU’s guiding concepts and principles including “unity and diversity” and Julius Nyerere’s idea of the “communitary”. The excerpted speeches chosen by Ogboh emphasize ideals such as the promotion of African Unity and solidarity among African states; the eradication of colonialism in all its forms; the implementation of democratic principles and human rights; the pursuit of peace, security and stability; and the improvement of the quality of life in all societies. The speakers affirm the desire to achieve these goals through cooperation and peaceful negotiation among the AU’s members.

Ogboh’s arrangements highlight the role of political speech and the importance of media communication to its propagation, predominantly through radio broadcast. Not coincidentally, Ogboh found a majority of the historical audio recordings in the archives of the Ethiopian Radio and Television Agency. Radio transmission has been a dominant means of disseminating political information and education across the Continent and beyond from the beginnings of the OAU until today. To reach a broad audience, many radio stations operate in multiple languages. The historic speeches reverberating on this channel recreate the atmosphere of the OAU’s early days. More than historical artefacts, the recordings constitute a part of African collective memory. Emeka Ogboh states, “the installation is conceptualised as a spontaneous ‘agora’, a randomly arranged acoustic common space where listeners meet in transit and memories shift.”

 

Heads of States Conference, Africa Hall, Addis Ababa, 1963 © Bettmann/CORBIS

 

 

Channel 2 – Let Us All Unite and Celebrate Together

Emeka Ogboh developed an adaptation of the AU’s anthem “Let us all unite and celebrate together”. The lyrics have been translated into Akan/Twi, Amharic, Chichewa, Igbo, Kikongo, Kirundi, Lingala, Malagasy, Pulaar/Peul, Shona, Swahili, Wolof, Yoruba, as well as the African Union’s working languages of Arabic, English, French and Portuguese. Ogboh recorded native speakers reciting these translations in studios across the Continent. The anthem’s central motif of “unity in diversity” is expressed in a kaleidoscope of voices reciting each stanza in different languages accompanied by a subtle arrangement of pentatonic washint flute improvisations.

 

Channel 3 – The Gathering

As part of his installation in the garden of the Peace and Security Council’s building, Emeka Ogboh recorded bird calls from throughout the African continent. The recordings emanate from rock speakers placed among the varied topography, blending with the sounds of the local bird population and uniting the diversity of species in one geo-acoustic space. The bird calls further mix with ambient sounds, recordings of mundane urban soundscapes and the real-time voices within the space, permeating each other with varying clarity.

Channel 4 – !ke e:/xarra //ke

!ke e:/xarra //ke features a choral composition by South African composer Neo Muyanga commissioned by Emeka Ogboh to reflect the African Union’s theme of “unity in diversity”. The title of the composition is the translation of the motto “Diverse People Unite” from the South African coat of arms into the Khoisan language of the ǀXam. The motto informs the core of the a cappella piece and refers directly to current debates on Africa in many nations. The vocalists sing in ǀXam, Isizulu, Kiswahili, French, Sesotho and English, languages the composer presents equally as authentically and coevally African.

Neo Muyanga took inspiration for the lyrics in the hymn from the preamble of the South African National Planning Commission (NPC), a text composed by the poets Antjie Krog and Njabulo Ndebele. The NPC is a document created by some of the region’s leading minds to help chart a new course for South Africa, redefining it in line with new African and global realities in the 21st century. Paraphrasing the preamble in English, Neo Muyanga reinterprets it within the hymn:

 

ǃke e: ǀxarra ǁke

 Our home is where everybody feels free

Bounded to others;

Where everyone embraces their full potential.

We are proud to be a community that cares.

We come with our mixed legacies

Now where we live we seek to change our

Narratives of conquest, oppression, resistance.

Our new story is open ended with temporary destinations,

It is a story of unfolding learning.

Even when we flounder, we remain hopeful.

We have come some way.

What we are, is because of who we have been

And what we want to become.

Who are we? We are Africans.

In an African century.

We are part of many nations.