Cities And Memory

This sonic work is an attempt to communicate my profound childhood relationship with Kano, as well as to hint at the complex layers of Northern Nigeria. It is a piece of strange juxtapositions, and cross-cultural interferences and vibrations. The sounds of ancient rock gongs in Birnin Kudu reverberating across the plains, beating out Hausa and Fulani rhythms and songs; the colonial British voice, a history of violence; and the beauty of the Hausa language. Sounds of my child self from 1970s, recorded 47 years ago, captured a bird call, and myself mimicking that bird, called Ragon Maza in the Hausa language. Beyond the hiss, which seems like a sonic version of the mists of time, you can hear the sounds at dusk, one evening of my childhood, the distant prayer call from Kano mosque, and the sounds of evening crickets. My flame tree seed pod, from our Kano garden, that has travelled the world with me in my suitcase, shimmies in the background. Kano beads, which you can hear, are glass beads that were made in Pal