Mother Tongue: Salvage Freedom

This episode of Mother Tongue traces how women’s voices and practices of survival emerge in the ruins of capitalism. Moving between Detroit’s techno warehouses, Johannesburg’s jazz gatherings, Kingston’s sound system culture, Algiers’ cassette underground, and Cairo’s zar healing rituals, the show listens for patterns of freedom in precarious worlds. Through the words of thinkers like Anna Tsing, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia Butler, and the sounds of Sister Nancy, Cheikha Rimitti, Babalwa M, Siya Makuzeni, and others, the episode explores how women and communities improvise, adapt, and imagine futures through music.

Tracklist:

Mother Tongue: Salvage Freedom

This episode of Mother Tongue traces how women’s voices and practices of survival emerge in the ruins of capitalism. Moving between Detroit’s techno warehouses, Johannesburg’s jazz gatherings, Kingston’s sound system culture, Algiers’ cassette underground, and Cairo’s zar healing rituals, the show listens for patterns of freedom in precarious worlds. Through the words of thinkers like Anna Tsing, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia Butler, and the sounds of Sister Nancy, Cheikha Rimitti, Babalwa M, Siya Makuzeni, and others, the episode explores how women and communities improvise, adapt, and imagine futures through music.

Tracklist

• Bam Bam – Sister Nancy
• N’ta Goudami – Cheikha Rimitti
• Pisces – Babalwa M, Nia Pearl
• Through The Thunder – Siya Makuzeni

Image Credit: Still from Rare footage from the Warzone – Part 1, Thin Video. (Used with credit)

Reference List

• Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt. The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins. Princeton University Press, 2015.
• Le Guin, Ursula K. The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia. Harper & Row, 1974.
• Butler, Octavia E. Parable of the Sower. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993.
• Matebeni, Zethu. Reclaiming Afrikan: Queer Visions for the 21st Century. Modjaji Books, 2014.
• Mazibuko, M. (2022) ‘Nasi iStocko! Forging contemporary feminist imaginaries of liberation’, Agenda, 36(2), pp. 344–42

Documentaries & Video

• Techno City: What is Detroit Techno? Directed by Third Ear. 2014. [YouTube]
• Women DJs | One Detroit Clip. Detroit Public TV, Charivari Festival feature, Episode 151/Segment 3. [YouTube]
• Thin Video. Rare footage from the Warzone – Part 1. Vimeo, https://vimeo.com/272698110.