Ataya: HUMA Interdisciplinary Seminar Series

Speaker: Russel Hlongwane (African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town).

Bio: Russel Hlongwane is a cultural producer from Durban. His work enquires about the effects of heritage, modernity, culture and tradition on black life. Working in the modes of creative research, cultural production, performance, design theory, writing, film and curatorship. He is currently (2023) pursuing a MPhil in southern urbanism at the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town.   

He is member of working groups spread across the African continent and internationally.  He has shown work extensively across Europe as well as Argentina, Japan, Sharjah and throughout South Africa.    

Topic: A two part intervention of a short experimental film which is accompanied by a performance lecture. The film is set in the year 1220 in the ruins of Mapungubwe. The film takes Zulu folklore, practices of transcendence and places them within a digital framework.    

The protagonist, uMalanje, is of an advanced black civilisation exiled to the fourth dimension who returns to deliver a message. He warns of a digital empire devised by the shrewd Nqomqhayise who has migrated the people’s history from the metaphysical cloud to his personal servers- thereby disconnecting his people from their past(s). uMalanje says the antidote to this grand threat is to activate the cryptid snake, Inkanyamba, which is tethered to the said ‘metaphysical cloud’.   

The performance lecture sees Russel Hlongwane locating the protagonist of the film in his family lineage. Hlongwane narrates a series of dreams in which he is visited by uMalanje revealing to him answers to questions of unexplainable cloud phenomena in the Msinga (Greytown) region of KwaZulu-Natal.   

How Ataya works: One presenter and their work – in exchange with the audience. Each Ataya session engages with selected work by the presenter (a text, artwork, performance, even food). The presenter introduces their work and grounds the subsequent discussion with the participants. For best engagement, we recommend participants to view the work (made available in advance on our website) before the session. More on the Ataya Series

Please note this seminar exceptionally starts at 12.30 pm with lunch served at 1.30 pm

Lunch will be served at 13:30 SAST (GMT+2).

Register to attend: send us an email at huma@uct.ac.za

Attending online? Register to join via Zoom: 

 See Google Maps for directions