The word ubuntu is often expressed as “humanity toward others” in Xhosa, which is one of the official languages in South Africa and Zimbabwe. In Zulu, the most widely spoken home language in South Africa, ubuntu can also mean “I am because you are.”
In essence, ubuntu represents social justice, fairness, and interconnectedness. According to Stellenbosch University postdoctoral fellow Nomvo Dwada-Henda, ubuntu can be applied as a model for inclusion of persons with disabilities.
Therefore, it’s fitting that the Vines Art Festival applied the title “Ubuntu; I am Because You Are” to its upcoming blind and low vision-friendly event celebrating Black creatives. This free multidisciplinary series of performances takes place in Dude Chilling Park (2390 Brunswick Street) on Friday (August 9).
Held in partnership with the Black Arts Centre in Surrey, poet, storyteller, and community connector fanny kearse will serve as the emcee. The opening act is Léral, who describes her nostalgic soul pop as “soup”. Born in America and raised in South Africa, she is also a vocal coach. Her set of songs and storytelling, Love Candy or Human (Cold World), begins at 6:10 p.m.
Siobhan Barker embodies ubuntu spirit
Next at 6:40 p.m. is author and social justice and equity advocate Siobhan Barker. Genderfluid and of mixed African, Latin, Indigenous, and European ancestry, Barker lives with a disability. Moreover, Barker values how people with multiple intersectionalities can advance decolonization. In Dude Chilling Park,
Barker will share Thunderthighs Wants to Wake the World; a harvesting Ancestral tea-chings tale.
“Our hero Thunderthighs takes you on a laugh-filled journey of confronting social norms, gender & body biases that WEIGH (pun!) us all down and encourage the disconnect,” the Vines Art Society website states.
Barker will be followed by Morning Star Trickery at 7:05 p.m. It’s billed as songs about “building community and the inevitability and necessity of change, growth, and renewal”.
In addition, there’s more music at 7:30 when Tre-Ana Cope Quog performs. She’ll be followed at 7:50 p.m. by solo vocalist Eye.Sha, She draws on traditional Gambian griots—a class of traveling poets, musicians, and storytellers—and fuses this with contemporary R&B, and West African vocal stylings.
Eye.sha was born in Riyadh to Gambian parents. In 2022, Exclaim magazine listed her as one of eight emerging Canadian artists to watch.
Ubuntu closes with Kinfolk Nation
Whereas Eye.sha’s ancestral home in The Gambia is near the westernmost point of Africa, the next artist, Black Pace/Lady Pace, hails from Malawi. It’s on the opposite side of the continent.
Black Pace/Lady pacee, a resident of Bowen Island, sings hip-hop, Afro pop, and music from the village where she was born.
Ubuntu; I am Because You Are also features Kinfolk Nation at 8:40 p.m. in Dude Chilling Park. The duo comprised of Lady Dia and Trophy is exploring “The Birth of the New Jazz: the Sound of Ubuntu”.
“We are storytellers coming from the fars and beyond’s of the Kinfolk Nation; a creative tribe who carry stories from the many Africas and Beyond,” they state on the Vines Art Festival website.
The duo embraces ubuntu philosophy and aims to build a Nation of those who also embrace this concept.
“Everyone is welcome,” Kinfolk Nation says, “but only if you have love.”
Like other events at the Vines Art Festival, there will be installations. Ibrahim Yusuf, who was born in the Nigerian state of Enugu, is one of the featured artists. He paints and engages in pyrography, which involves decorating wood with fire.
Event details
The Vines Art Festival presents Ubuntu; I Am Because You Are in Dude Chilling Park at 6 p.m. on Friday (August 9). The festival runs from August 7 to 14. Check out the full schedule of free events on the website.
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