Writer: Thami John | Photographs: Supplied
On 28 March, Imvemnyama (real name Sive Mqikela) releases his debut EP Emnyamandawo across all digital streaming platforms. That same day, the project lands at Lit.Culture in Brixton for a launch that brings the music home.
Emnyamandawo translates literally as “the dark place”. Colloquially, it refers to those intimate, unregulated gathering spots — the ones that stay open long after they should, trading discreetly, where regulars know one another and an outsider is immediately visible. It is within such spaces that certain forms of thought and expression become possible, forms that might be unintelligible or even impermissible elsewhere, where domination enjoys the last word. Lit.Culture, at 29 Chiswick Street, is precisely this kind of site, figuratively and aspires to be one in a literal sense. A space apart. Intimate. Improvised. Unregulated.
The six-track project represents two years of work, bringing together fifteen musicians, a studio engineer, and five visual artists. At its core, Emnyamandawo grapples with refusal, inheritance, memory, and the continuities between historical dispossession and contemporary Black life. It draws on township idioms, Nguni oral traditions, jazz, protest music, and literary discourse. Tracks like Sawa Street rework historical metaphors of dispossession. Mculo Wam and Andiyithandi meditate on refusal as both ethical stance and artistic impulse. You’re Not Who You Think You Are (Cape Town), featuring Makhafula Vilakazi, stages a direct confrontation with a city’s carefully curated self-image.
The launch on 28 March will feature live performances of the full EP. On vinyl, Muntu Vilakazi and Lunga Mkila will each deliver solo sets, but also something more: a call and response format where each DJ will be responding to the previous selection of the other. It echoes the project’s own investment in dialogue, in collective utterance, in the play between voices. Outside, the courtyard will host books, thrifts, and vinyl for sale — a gathering of wares to match the gathering of sounds.
Special guests include Makhafula Vilakazi, Sive Joyi, and Khulu J — the latter having produced, engineered, and performed on multiple tracks across the project.
Doors open at 3PM.
The invitation is simple: come through. Find yourself in the dark place, where the music plays long after it should, where thought and contradiction and expression exist side by side. Where refusal finds its voice, and inheritance is sung aloud.
Tickets are available on Quicket https://bit.ly/4lM8Kbz for R150 and R200 at the door. Emnyamandawo drops on all major streaming platforms from 28 March.
