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Emancipation and the freedom to live in Africa.
Did emancipation create Stibel’s wealth? George Stibel is the first “black” millionare in Jamaica. He built Devon House in Kingston. Today we are proud of his legacy and we claim it as our own. Can the promise of wealth replace the dignity of returning home? Questions for emancipation and suggestions for reparations.
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Blue flags
No Sun…. Light…. Questions from Above Soft blue Soft girls in an era of artifical intelligence Can we ask Gwen? Or will it always be Ken? United Nations meeting on Slavery…what happened? Will we live on the Moon?
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Into the unknown
Into the unknown No one knows That is growing Maturing Watching life changing Dreams fading Re-emerging This is my journey Into the unknown
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Loss
Rain dropsI never talk about lossBooks, furniture, thingsPlants die and they grow backMeLiving through loss like its nothingBut its somethingIt pains deeplyIt hurts to the coreI never talk about lossMaybe i used toBut i don’t anymoreMove through this lifeKeep goingGrowing, glow, blowSearch for the flowYou know what to do
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In between Senegal and Guinea Bissau
I am always writing Always reflecting Something.something on my mind all the time. In between. In between thoughts.this and that. Where am i How does it feel? Is there an answer. Oh Africa. In the hq i wonda. How does it feel to hold you so close. We sat together in Bakau. Sandy dirt roads…
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The year always starts like this
The beginning of the year always feels like this. Starts off slow. Searching. I am still here.Looking into what another year has in store. Africa. I am in Africa and life is different. I am 45 and life is different. I like the peace and quiet of Bakau. It reminds me of something. I have…
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Hamilton Goome-Have faith
Give thanks for life. One more year around the sun. The moon, “my guiding star”. It feels good to be 45. 45 is such a big number but not really. I feel so young still. So much more infront of me. We should live to feel life. This experience of time. Living to know more…
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Thoughts about art while working in Bakau, Gambia, West Africa
Thoughts about art while working in Bakau, Gambia, West Africa is a forthcoming publication which features a collection of reflections i shared with subscribers to my mailing list in 2025. Order your copy at djafifa@gmail.com for a special price of $50usd. Subscribe to my mailing list using djafifa.art
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Why Collect work by Sounds of Life
Sounds of life is a record label that started at the SOUL HQ in 2018. Sounds of Life produces and distributes sound art and audio documentaries. Between 2024 and 2025 we completed 5 sound projects; Mohammed, Djinn Jinn Genies, A view from Ghana, Fi Dunia and As Salam Alekum. Fi Dunia is a creation story told in Wolof. Wolof…
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The Time Machine Installation
An installation is a work that creates an experience by using a combination of objects or sculptors, sound, or video in a space. The installation is meant to bring the viewer into a sensory experience stimulating and generating wonder and awe. The Time machine is a sound system made from second-hand speakers connected to a…
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The Sacrifice?
June’s broadcast on Art Radio features “Sacrifice”, it is inspired by Tabaski or Eid Al Adha the annual Muslim celebration that commemorates the prophet Ibrahim’s (Abraham) willingness to sacrifice his only son Issac to God. Individuals and families kill at least one ram and share the meat among friends and neighbours. This broadcast of Art…
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What is Religion
What is Religion? I watched the wood carvers movements on the wood.
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Uncle Bai
How are you? he said. I am a little okay I replied. My name is Uncle Bai. He was buying donouts from my friend. She sells donouts and fish in the Bakau Fish Market. Uncle bai like “Mambai” she added. I used to sell these things, I sell to all the boys here, real silver,…
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What is art in Africa?
I watch the sun set at the Bakau fish market. In the evening many birds flock to the market. It is beautiful to see.
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Sign up to my mailing list
Time really does fly. I have been living and working in West Africa for the past 7 months. I am currently based in Bakau, the Gambia and I work from my studio, the Sound Culture University. My explorations in art started 20 years ago. After obtaining a PhD in Sustainable Development i began to fully…
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Sounds of life releases “Mohammed”
Mohammed is just one of the many people who have helped me to appreciate the complexity of life and living in Bakau.
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How does it feel to live in Africa?
Next month will be Christmas. I will end the year in Africa. It is something I am looking forward to.Recently I have been trying to reconcile my different feelings and experiences. Is Africa what i expected it to be? What about the things i am seeing that i could never imagine, like what it means…
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Goree is the Story of Life?
Goree Island is an infamous place. It is known for its central role in the Atlantic Slave Trade. It is called the “slave island”. According to UNESCO between the 15th and 19th century it was “the largest slave trading centre on the African coast. The island was controlled by 4 European nations; Portuguese, Dutch, English…
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The Woman who sat beside me
How can I forget the woman sitting beside me? We did not exchange any words for the 6 ½ hours of the flight from JFK in New York to Blaise Daigne in Senegal, but I will never forget her. She seemed like an older woman maybe in her late 50s or early 60s. She seemed…
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Learning about listening in a dj Residency
The first series of DJ Residency was held at the SO((U))L HQ on Saturday April 27, 2024. The motivation behind the Dj residency was to create an event which allowed djs and music lovers to explore the idea and practice of creating interesting listening experiences. I have always been interested in understanding more about how…
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Telling my story
Revisiting some of my early ideas has been crucial to directing how i move forward with my work especially after an unexpected life event. I am grateful i was able to capture my thoughts, observations and ideas in this way and i had them to look back at. In my writing you get a snap…
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Why is it important To talk about Afrobeats?
Afrobeats is the sound of Africa today. Internet sources locate the root of the sound in Nigeria, Ghana and the United Kingdom in the early 2000s. Artistes such as P-Square, Tiwa Savage, Wizkid, Stonebwoy, Burna Boy, Ayra Starr, Tems, Mr.Eazi and Davido have become the face of the music internationally. The conversation about Afrobeats is…
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flashbacks
Sometimes i have flashbacks. Right in the middle of doing something there comes a memory. With the memory comes a feeling of regret. I just want to reach back in time and change my actions. If i didn’t do what i did i wouldn’t be here. It feels like i caused the loss of so…
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Reflections on Art Radio
I am taking some time today to reflect on the Art Radio project. I am thinking about the format that i have chosen to start with and some directions for the future. Each week i select some artist from my library. I organize the music as a playlist which repeats throughout the week. I listen all…
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Learning from art
When I started the memory project in 2019, it was from a curiosity about how popular music made us remember or forget events. I wanted to understand how individual memory works different from collective memory and I was hoping to find some music or sound related solutions to memory related illnesses. Now it has become…
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New cycles
Give thanks for another cycle in the circle of life. Some things feel new and some things feel the same way. I am looking forward to learning more about life but it is difficult to be surrounded by so much violence and death. It affects our ability to experience the beauty of life. We know…
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Introducing Art Radio
Art Radio is my latest project. It is a platform for sharing music and sound art. You can also listen to Sounds of life releases on ART RADIO. ART RADIO was launched in 2021 at the SO((U))L HQ in Stony Hill, St.Andrew Jamaica as a local broadcast for residents in and around the SO((U))L HQ.…
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Zaga Dat ! The future of African Music
A few weeks ago I was asked to make a presentation at a meeting of the African Caribbean Students Association at the University of the West Indies, Mona on Afrobeat/s and Dancehall. I welcomed the opportunity to explore some issues and ideas around the popularity of Afrobeat/s and I wanted to discuss the connections between…
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Piecing, Recycling and Recreating
In 2020 I started to work on the Time Machine Project, I wanted to design something that would be like a memory box, a physical device that people would find useful for remembering important national events.
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This is personal-Creative Work, Art and the Artist
I keep thinking about where to start. Where do I start to tell the story of the last 3 years. It is such a long story.
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Music is a Conversation Vol 12
I will always be a Vbyz Kartel fan. It is a position which has gotten me some “dislikes” but what does it mean to be a fan anyway?
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Music is a Conversation Vol 11
It is exhausting to live in a country where you cannot dream….well dreaming means becoming bigger and better. “It is difficult to live in a place that limits your imagination. This living can take the life out of you. It takes so much more to live a life with meaning”. To continue dreaming ……….. Here…
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Music is a Conversation Vol 1
Music is a conversation is a 30 minute selection of songs designed to stimulate conversations and make memories.
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Recycle your old electronics
Donate your old computers and other electronics to the Time machine project. Email djafifa@gmail.com to find out about drop off points and times.
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Understanding Parliaments and Parliamentary Democracies
Parliamentary democracies in all former colonies of the British Empire use the Westminster system of government. The Westminster system was first developed in England
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Watching People Die
All year, everyday, I have been watching people die. Die from coronaDie from gunshotDie from heartbreak….poor health, lack of health care, health complications, comorbidities and so called “old age” All year people have been gone too soon.Sun is shining but life is filled with so much doom All year I have been watching people die.…
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Red Light- a very short film about life
Red light is a very short film about life. It is based on true events and raises fundamental questions about human relations now and in the future.
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Now Playing-Mr.Universe
Mr.Universe is the name of the exhibition now playing in the Sound Gallery at www.djafifa.com
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Voting in a pandemic? What is wrong with democracy?
Voting is a critical part of the democratic process. In a democracy citizens participate in the creation of the government by selecting representatives to the Legislature. Jamaica has fourteen parishes which are divided into sixty-three constituencies. Political parties and independent candidates compete to be voted as the best person to represent an area or a…
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Watch Spirit Desire : an experimental film project by dj afifa
Spirit desire is based on a soundtrack/soundscape called the “Mass”. It is inspired by the Catholic Christian ritual the Eucharist or Holy Communion, one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. The soundtrack positions Catholic Christianity alongside Haitian Vodoun to show their powerful similarity and to question what we know about Haiti and Vodoun.
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A day of national mourning
How can a nation remember what keeps it hopeful despite all the pain and the unexplained? A day of national mourning is a selection of tracks featured in the Sound Gallery at djafifa.com. It is dedicated to the memory of the elderly women who lost their lives in the Eventide Home Fire and the other…
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Learning about Jamaica through music
You cannot tell a history of Jamaica without music. Following the music closely will help you to understand the soul of the island and how that conflicts with the identity of the nation. Dub music emerges in Jamaica as a genre and a practice in the late 1960s.
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An “Archive of Jamaican Politics” on DTA Live Radio
Decolonizing the Archive Radio(DTA.Live) will be featuring excerpts of the Jamaica Parliament Audio database every Wednesday at 3pm (UK time). Dubbed an “Archive of Jamaican Politics”, the series was launched on August 6 and will continue to air throughout the rest of the year. The series will feature Sittings of the House of Parliament in…
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Jean Binta Breeze live at the Poetry Society of Jamaica
8 years ago, on Tuesday July 31, I recorded Jean Binta Breeze at the Poetry Society of Jamaica fellowship at the Edna Manley College for the Visual and Performing Arts. Jean Binta Breeze is a Jamaican born British based dub poet who has made very important contributions to the development of poetry and dub poetry.…
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What happens in the Senate?
The Jamaican Parliament is made up of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Senate contains 21 Senators appointed by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. There are 13 “government” senators and 8 “opposition” Senators. The role of the Senate is to Review Bills passed by the House of Representatives. Listen…
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A Sound Diary about Haiti
Haitian Sound Diary Vol 1 is my latest project. It is a one hour soundscape/documentary with material I collected while participating in the Ghetto Biennale in Port Au Prince Haiti in December 2019.
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Untimely events
Heartache Sizzle of pain A pang A ping in your chest Longing yearning For home Rest
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