Hip-hopping: The Back to the City Festival will take place in Johannesburg on 11 October. Photo: Supplied
Festival set to showcase the best of African hip-hop
For nearly two decades, the Back to the City Festival in Johannesburg has reigned as a major event for African hip-hop and 2025 promises to be no different.
With the theme “Power in Numbers”, the 11 October event unites 100 music artists, 20 DJs, 40 graffiti artists and 8 producers in a celebration of creativity.
From international headliner Lupe Fiasco to homegrown heavyweights Cassper Nyovest, A-Reece, Emtee, Kwesta and Big Zulu, the line-up spans generations and styles. Beyond the stages, fans can dive into MC and DJ battles, street basketball, skating and live graffiti sessions or explore more than 100 fashion and food stalls.
Babalwa Mentjies leads all-woman jazz ensemble
The Centre for Jazz and Popular Music hosts Intsholo Yamanina: Honouring the Melodies of Women in Song on Wednesday 15 October, led by celebrated vocalist and songwriter Babalwa Mentjies.
Originally from Makhanda and now based in Khayelitsha, Mentjies brings her soulful energy and accomplished artistry to the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Howard College Campus. The performance features an exceptional all-female band: Thembi Dunjana on piano, Tiana Amari Rwanqana on bass, Chanté Phillips on drums, Danél Dippenaar on alto saxophone and Hope Hadebe on trombone.
Together, they pay tribute to the power, resilience and harmony of women in jazz. Mentjies, who was named an Influential Woman of the Year last year, blends rich storytelling with deep emotional range.
The concert starts at 5.30. Tickets are available at the door for R120 (general), R90 (pensioners) and R60 (students).
Major exhibition opening at Cape Town’s Zeitz MOCAA
Dialogue: The work of Lerato Shadi (above) and Robin Rhode will be on A Protea Is Not a Flower at Zeitz MOCAA. Photo: Zeitz MOCAA
Zeitz MOCAA will be opening A Protea Is Not a Flower on 16 October, a multi-generational exhibition pairing Lerato Shadi and Robin Rhode with the lives and works of Gerard Sekoto, Bessie Head and Don Mattera.
Curated by Khanyi Mawhayi and running until 15 November next year, the project maps exile, identity and memory through paintings, installations, photography and film. Sekoto’s Le Massacre de Sharpeville meets Shadi’s Maropeng while Rhode’s Twilight responds to Mattera’s rhythms, creating a formal dialogue across time.
The title borrows from Mattera’s poem Protea… to ask whether the national flower is simultaneously a symbol of movement, resilience and estrangement.
Drawing on written correspondence and modernist output, the show explores both external displacement abroad and internal isolation at home, asking what it means to live between worlds.
Supported by the Mellon Foundation and BMW South Africa.