“One Country” is a project that does research – with a focus on music and culture – regarding former and still existing connections between people living in Southern Africa: The Bantu people. In a first step, the project investigated the connection between Mozambique and South Africa. Later on, collaborations between Mozambique and Swaziland and Mozambique and Zimbabwe will be realized.
The connection between Mozambique and South Africa is characterized by many similarities in culture. The original tribe that connects the two countries are the famous Nguni people, only later tribes split and developed new languages and ways of living. The idea behind the project is to research and reconstruct the common cultural background with a focus on music and afterwards recreate the traditional in a more contemporean and modern style. The objective of the trip to Cape town was to find people and artists who still practice traditional Xhosa music, to interview and film them. The research material later laid – together with traditional Chopi music – the foundation and worked as a source of inspiration for recreating the traditional songs in a new way at the Nzango Artist Residency in Matola, Mozambique. Altogether 6 songs were recorded and the recreation process also documented by video. The final result is a performing act and a CD.