Banned from the Land curates spaces of healing, where one can suspend their worries, fears and doubts surrounding their daily lives, past and uncertain future, in order to surrender to the present moment bringing about peace within. Both the Band and the audience share in the journey(s) of exploring healing through intuitive creation of music and song.
The duo creates their soundscapes by using their voices, indigenous instruments namely: uHadi, uMqangi/uMrhubhe (African bow instruments), the Kalimba and isitolotolo (mouth harp), western instruments: the alto saxophone and guitar, and current technologies such as loop pedals.
The sounds and songs are woven together by folklore style storytelling. It is this dance between musical sound and the spoken word that creates the pathways to dimensions and worlds within us where we can access ancestral memories, urgent messages that we need at this time, self-acceptance and healing at the soul level.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Banned from the Land is a duo consisting of storyteller, Amandla Akhona and recording artist Xhanti Nokwali. They are both multi-instrumentalists, singer-songwriters. ‘Izixhobo zabo’ consist of vocals, guitar, alto saxophone and host of indigenous instruments: uHadi, uMrhubhe, isitolotolo to name a few. Their sound is inspired by the melodic structures, rhythmic patterns and harmonic textures of abaNtu, drawing very deeply from the Xhosa tribes. Within that one can clearly hear hints of classical, jazz and afro soul resounding from the background and training of the individual artists, who have
come together to explore the possibilities of all these elements which make them.
The ensemble was established by the two artists, who have been working independently around the country, predominantly in the Eastern Cape, as a means to draw attention to and to dig deeper into ancestral technology and ways of being as an alternative and even a bridge in the times of modernity.
They draw inspiration from the history, creativity, resilience and resourcefulness of abaNtu; from the Xhosa ancestors of their own immediate lineage, and across the borders to the Bayaka of the Congos and beyond.
