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We promote and disseminate traditional African rhythms and songs, preserving local Bantu cultures in Mozambique.
We produce music, record albums, audiovisual capture and editing, construct instruments, and more.
We are one of the few cultural institutions in Mozambique that provide adequate infrastructure for artistic residencies.
Our projects enable the research and documentation of an older generation of traditional musicians and their sounds.
In the region of Southern Africa, Nzango Artist Residency is a vibrant exchange platform for artists from Mozambique and neighbouring countries. It enables sustainable partnerships through artistic residencies, music production, recording of albums and audio-visual content, as well as the coordination of academic research on traditional African music and the preservation of local Bantu cultures within and beyond Mozambique. Continue reading….
Brazilian nationality, she was born in Franca-SP and has been living in Niterói-RJ since 2012, where she lives in Morro do Palácio and works in the Ocupação Cultural Palácio das Artes project.
Since 2017 she has been making co-productions in Mozambique, is a member of Festival Raiz and executive producer of Nzango Artist Residency. Geographer (UFF), post-graduated in Community-Based Cultural Policies (FLACSO-ARG), Master’s student in Culture and Territoriality (PPCULT – UFF). She is currently a member of the Maracatu Baque Mulher Niterói Women’s Empowerment Movement and an Environmental Educator at the UÇÁ Project. Creative power of multiverses, Odara.
He has been dedicated to traditional Mozambican music and dance since the age of six. He is considered one of the new masters of timbila.
Over the past 20 years, Matchume has toured the world as a musician and composer of traditional, experimental and fusion music. As ambassador of Mozambican music and culture, he has acted, taught and carried out artistic and cultural projects in several countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Botswana, Cameroon, Canada, Cape Verde, Chad, China, Congo -Brazzaville, Congo -Kinshasa, Denmark, France, Gabon, Germany, Guinea-Bissau, Japan, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Norway, Portugal, Reunion Island, Rwanda, Senegal, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Swaziland, Sweden , Switzerland, United States and Zimbabwe. He completed dozens of successful collaborations with international artists in the genres of musical performance, theater, dance and cinema. In 2016, he received his Bachelor’s Degree in Musical Performance from the University of Cape Town, South Africa (UCT). Currently, Matchume Zango is pursuing a master’s degree in Music, with specialization in performance and dissertation in musical technology in UCT. Founder of Nzango Artist Residency.
Akiyo Aminaka, Ph.D. is a Research Fellow in the Africa Research Group, Center for Area Studies, Institute of Developing Economies.
Specializes in Area Studies, History, and the Political Economy of Mozambique. Her major publications include Colonial Rule and Development: Mozambique and the South African Gold Mining Industry. Yamakawa Shuppansha published in 2014; “Politics of Land Resource Management in Mozambique.” In Takeuchi S. ed. 2022. African Land Reform Under Economic Liberalisation. Singapore: Springer, 111-135.
Profile: https://researchmap.jp/akiyo_aminaka?lang=en
Rio is from the northeastern SerTão, Bantu due to the continuities recreated on this side (Brazil) Fulô botada in Kariri. He is a singer/dancer, cultural nganga, actor, performer, theatrical and audiovisual director, composer, conductor of the projects and traditions that make up Kilombo Erês Mensageiras dos Ventos (Belo Horizonte/MG).
He is Master and Doctor in Theory of Literature and Comparative Literature in the Graduate Program in Letters at Ufmg. In 2016, Rio returned to the African continent and did part of his PhD at Eduardo Mondlane University (Maputo/Mozambique). With these titles, Rio Bantu really specializes in the Poetics/Oral Texts of Black Visions of the World and Ritualistic Performances with some published books that deal with these universes.
Brazilian, born in Belo Horizonte-MG. Technique in Dance, graduated, in 2020, by the Technical Course in Dance at the Interschool Center for Culture, Art, Languages and Technologies (CICALT), photographer, artist of the Coletivo Artístico Erês – Mensageiras dos Ventos and Technique in Graphic Design/Escola Zion. Graphic designer for the VASIKATE project: Afro-Atlantic trails.
“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.
The project involved artists from Mozambique and South Africa and was implemented by Nzango Artist Residency , . Nzango Artist Residency provided accommodation, food, local transport, its rehearsing space, recording studio and sound equipment. the necessary logistics (coordinating local artists, contacting performance places, organizing the workshop with young people of the community, etc.) and also supported Nzango Artist Residency in the administrative part of project management.
Canda, Nzanguine district on the coast of Inhambane province, Mozambique. The Chopi people are one of the smallest ethnic groups in Mozambique. They populate the lands bathed to the south and east by the Indian Ocean, whose western limit is located at a longitude of 34o, a location relative to both the peoples who are in their vicinity and those who are nearby southern Mozambican. Although the proportion of land they occupy is relatively small, the Chopes have one of the highest population densities in the entire countr
Chimène Costa (Buenos Aires, 1978) studied theater and dance and developed her professional career in several countries of Latin America as well as in France and Mozambique, where she was based at the time.
In parallel to her artistic work, Chimene was always involved in cultural management for most of the companies she worked with: she was permanent actress but also head of production of Teatro Experimental de Cali (Colombia); performer and assistant director for the multidisciplinary Mediterranean project Odyssée 2001- 2003 -2007 (project involving all mediterranean countries and artistic disciplines as well as interdisciplinaries projects) and director of international relationships at Companhia Nacional de Canto e Dança (Mozambique), among others. During 2017-2020 she was Pro Helvetia‘s production coordinator for the Latin America Programme Coincidencia. She was the artistic director of Centro Cultural Scala in Maputo and Centro Tofo in Inhambane, Mozambique. Currently, Chimène is general director of CC Artistic Consultancy and Services based in Nacala, Mozambique.