Dumama

Dumama is a musician, composer, sonic poet and creative producer from South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province, now based in Berlin. Her practice plays with the deconstruction and critique of archaic modes of representation in Southern African/African sonic and performance culture, while also composing music for herself and others. As a storyteller and lyricist she weaves together childhood songs, stories and personal memories with electronic hues and gestures, experimenting with the divide between traditional oral culture and futuristic, globally oriented poetics in her embodiment of an African technological consciousness. The collaborative debut album from her music duo, dumama + kechou, titled ‘buffering juju’ was released in March 2020 with South African Independent Label, Mushroom Hour Half hour. Rooted in improvisation, she predominantly works with voice, uHadi (a traditional Xhosa bow instrument), live vocal effected loops, processors, field recordings and distortions for her performances and compositions. ‘No Abiding City’ marks a rare new release in the Soundway Records roster, and offers a compelling contemporary counterpoint to the label’s peerless reissues and compilations.