South African musician, sonic poet, and cultural researcher Gugulethu Duma (aka Dumama) criticizes and deconstructs archaic modes of representation of South African sonic and performance culture.

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.

For her performances and recordings, she predominantly works with voice, uHadi (a traditional Xhosa bow instrument), live vocal effected loops, processors, field recordings and distortions.


This event was co-curated by Tracy September.
Tracy September is a musician, performer, and music researcher born in South Africa and based in Zürich. Drawing from jazz, traditional Xhosa singing, and electronic experimentation, her work explores memory, spirit, and protest through improvisation. Tracy weaves voice, electronics, texts, archives, and field recordings into storytelling rooted in ritual and community. She also composes for film, theatre, and dance, performs with the band Black Pitch, and DJs under the alias youngseptember.

ANCESTRAL ROOTS invites people to a celebration that honors heritage and culture, living in and through the diaspora, and third culture identities through sound, storytelling or chanting, making the invitation wide, vibrant and inclusive.