I am on a Zoom call with Sun Xa Experiment, a music group whose sound is known as Afrofuturism.
The name is a mixture of Sun Ra, the late avant-garde American jazz icon, and Ndikho Xaba, who was an exiled left-field South African pianist and songwriter. Both these artists have inspired the band’s sounds immensely.
On my screen are the five members of the band, who I later find out are Buyisiwe Njoko, the lead vocalist; Karolo More, the dancer; Lerato Setei, who handles percussion and back-up vocals; Tebogo Mkhize on bass guitar and back-up vocals; and Simphiwe Watte on percussion.
They had just come out of a rehearsal preparing for the Fête de la Musique, which took place at Victoria Yards in Johannesburg in June.
I see smiles, and a lot of laughter in the room, although their mic is off. Eventually, Njoko realises that we cannot hear each other.
“We thought our mic was on. Clearly, we are tired from the rehearsal we just had,” she says with so much energy that I fail to see the exhaustion she is talking about.
“We would have loved to have you come watch us during rehearsal,” she continues.
I agree, thinking it would have been a great way to avoid all the technological glitches and the distraction of the screaming three-year-old in the background — one of the stresses of working from home during the school holidays.
Sun Xa, which means “the sun is out”, started in 2014 in a garage in Soweto — the same garage the band has gathered in to rehearse and take my noisy Zoom call.
More shares that they were just young Sowetans who loved music and gathered in its name through a jam session.
“There were many of us when we started, but because of others wanting to venture into other things, we are now a band of only five members,” he says.
Although the constant shift in numbers was tough for the group, they forged ahead and reminded each other of the reason they gathered in the first place.
“What keeps us together is the memories that we have made over the years. We have gone through a lot as a group,” Njoko adds.
“It is always such a beautiful thing when we are together but there will always be one person in the group who will say that they want to do their own thing — now the group has to shed and mourn. Those are some of the things we have had to go through over the years.”
It has been 10 years since the inception of Sun Xa Experiment, whose ancestral yet avant-garde music has echoed through the streets of Soweto and beyond.
Their sound, Afrofuturism, seeks to retell the African story in a positive light, where we are prosperous, allowing us to tap into technology and the future in a liberating way.
Maybe that is the popular way of describing their music but their sound is very familiar to the spirit.
In 2021, the band released an album titled Umculo Umuthi.
You can hear notes of Busi Mhlongo in the song Makhosi from the album, the title of which loosely translates to “music is medicine”.
The track Isiqalo sounds like a prayer or chant, a loud wail that digs deep into one’s soul.
The music may be modern and experimental but it transports a profound message to the spirit.
Mkhize describes the sound as “free and authentic”.
“It is music that is meant to transport you to another realm. We like to sum it up as healing music.”
Sun Xa’s sound has generated curiosity among the community of Soweto, with young people peeking in when they hear the music coming from the garage.
“We embrace them,” says Njoko. “We allow them to sit in through rehearsals and some parents have told us they feel at ease knowing their children are learning from us.
“So, the sound means a lot to the community.”
Now I understand why they had no problem with the kids fighting over a tennis ball in the background.
Sun Xa Experiment recently released a new, self-titled album.
“Our previous album was about healing; this new one is about finding ourselves and redefining who we are,” Njoko says.
The first song on the five-track album is Buyisuthando, which means “bring back love”.
“We feel like that’s one thing we have lost and are bringing back to the collective.
“However, we are also having a dialogue where we allow our listeners to introspect and see where they have gone wrong in their relationships,” Njoko says.
The new album is about connecting with one’s spirit as well as that of the universe. More shares that it takes a lot from the group to make music this heavy as they have to dig deep within themselves.
The album is not available on digital platforms. Setei says they still hold the old-fashioned way of distributing music through CDs and vinyl close to their hearts.
“There is something special about holding your music in your hand and interacting with the people who made it,” he says.
“The band is a family and we see the people who consume our music as family. So, we want to meet them, tell them about the music, and give them the music in their hands to take home.”
He chuckles about not trusting the digital-music system and enjoying doing things in an analogue way.
It has been a decade for the band, yet they still have big dreams of what they want to achieve.
They speak about opening the Africa Cup of Nations one day, hearing their music play on mainstream South African radio and performing on world stages.
However, they are not going to sit and wait for that to come to them —they will be going out there, gracing stages and cementing their name in the Afrofuturism space.
“For the past 10 years, as Sun Xa Experiment, we have been able to ‘akuyi fonela’, which means ‘to call yourself’,” says Njoko.
“What we have done is we have picked up the phone and called ourselves. We realised that we were not getting booked, so we started touring and getting the music out there.
“If you are going to wait for others to call, you will wait forever.”
Afrofuturism in South Africa: Reimagining the present and future
American avant-garde keyboardist Sun Ra (1914 to 1993), was a prolific musical genius, jazz innovator and Afrofuturist of note.
He took his name from the Egyptian sun god Ra.
Born Herman Sonny Blount in Birmingham, Alabama, in the US, he maintained he was from Saturn.
Combining his adventurous music with spectacular shows, Sun Ra and his large band, the Arkestra, dressed up in “bizarre blends of African costumes and sci-fi space pilot kit”, as John Fordham describes them in his book The Knowledge.
Together with science-fiction writers Octavia Butler and Samuel R Delany, Sun Ra was central to the concept of Afrofuturism.
The term was coined by American writer, lecturer and cultural critic Mark Dery in an essay titled Black to the Future from the anthology Flame Wars: The Discourse of Cyberculture, published in 1993.
Afrofuturism is described by Emory University as “a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry”.
Today, it generally refers to literature, music and visual art. Some contemporary musicians associated with Afrofuturism include Outkast, Nona Hendryx, George Clinton, Janelle Monáe and Solange.
Although this cultural movement is closely associated with the African-American experience, it has found fertile ground in South Africa. In a country still grappling with the apartheid legacy, Afrofuturism allows for the reclaiming of black narratives and the possibility of a more equitable future.
This is done through envisioning the future through a black cultural lens by challenging historical narratives and empowering African identities — retelling and elevating the continent’s stories.
Local artists and writers have begun to explore themes of liberation, resistance and future possibilities, imagining worlds beyond the oppressive structures of their time.
Visual artists such as Viwe Mfaku have incorporated Afrofuturistic elements into their work, blending traditional aesthetics with futuristic motifs.
The genre of electronic music, particularly, has seen a surge in Afrofuturistic themes. The same goes for free jazz and roots music.
The future of Afrofuturism in South Africa looks promising, with a new generation of artists and thinkers continuing to push the boundaries of imagination and creativity.