Part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the
future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.
This event is part of the Innovation Provocation: Transnational Avant-Gardes Season in collaboration with the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
John Pfumojena Performance
Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford
Follow John Pfumojena on Twitter: @FalsettoJohn
This event is free but booking is essential. TO BOOK TICKETS PLEASE CLICK HERE.
Join John Pfumojena at the Pitt Rivers Museum for an early evening event exploring the spiritual ancestry of Greater Zimbabwe past and present on 12th July 2022, 17.30 to 19.30.
The event will begin with a rousing performance of music and song from composer, musician, singer, and performer John Pfumojena. John will play mbira and sing self-composed contemporary Zimbabwean music that speaks to the spiritual practice of invoking the ancestors. John’s co-star from his recently premiered show BUNKER OF ZION, Tawanda Mapanda, will also perform on marimba. The performance will take place within the cabinets of the museum collection, bringing the living contemporary music into confrontational conversation with the museum artifacts.
Following the live performance, there will be an in-panel conversation featuring John Pfumojena in conversation with Dr. Lennon Mhishi (Pitt Rivers Museum), spoken word artist Rory “Rawz” Campbell, and Prof Shadreck Chirikure. The panel will discuss the ethics of museum collection, including the specific complexities of housing spiritual items from other cultures, the legacy and contemporary music of mbira and marimba, and the problematic relegation of living instruments to ‘artifacts’ in European museums, as well as the issue of ‘access’ which sees living descendants locked out from their rightful communion with the spiritual objects of their ancestors. Lastly, the conversation will turn to the future and to the steps that can be taken to bring the ancestor’s objects home.
Part of the Innovation Provocation: Transnational Avant-Gardes Season