Resonance Archive Festival presents KAMAZU

Resonance Archive Festival presents

KAMAZU

Black Joy Under Apartheid

Featuring Selectors

Strait Jacket Tailor

El Metalo

Live at UNTITLED BASEMENT

30th August 2025 | 8pm

About the Artist.

Kamazu’s story is a compelling intersection of resilience, rhythm, and resistance.

Kamazu (Danny Malewa) was born in Orlando West, Soweto, in 1961, an only child raised by his mother Thelma and his grandfather, Steven Malewa—a committed ANC member whose activism earned him house arrest under apartheid. Growing up under constant police surveillance and political tension instilled in him a powerful understanding of music’s potential to uplift and challenge oppression. Originally known as Danny Malewa, he emerged as Kamazu in the mid-1980s during South Africa’s vibrant bubblegum era. He first entered the spotlight through Harari’s 1985 album Heartbeat, alongside artists like Chicco (Sello Twala). Kamazu’s influences ranged from reggae and Afrobeat to local funk, drawn particularly to genres that were politically charged and often banned in South Africa. In 2019, the Johannesburg-based Afrosynth label released Korobela (AFS043), an anthology featuring six master-tape-remastered tracks spanning his career: breakthrough hit “Korobela” (1986), the 1991 smash “Indaba Kabani,” lesser-known tracks “Victim” and “Why,” and two kwaito-influenced comeback songs from his 1997 album Ghetto Style—“Mjukeit” and “Atikatareni”. Throughout his career, Kamazu consistently wove social consciousness into his music, using danceable and uplifting styles to convey messages that resonated in a turbulent era. Source: afrosynth.com.

About Resonance Archive Festival

The Resonance Archive Festival, taking place in Johannesburg from August 27-31, 2025, is an event that explores the power of archives as tools for resistance, culture, and identity. It brings together filmmakers, artists, academics, and cultural practitioners to reflect on the past, question the present, and shape future memory. The festival's theme this year is "The pulse of memory, the power of story". 

The festival features a variety of events including: Film screenings: Including a screening of "How Long?" (1976), a film banned under apartheid. 

Symposiums: Engaging discussions on memory, archives, and their role in society. 

Exhibitions: Showcasing visual and artistic interpretations of the archive. 

Music events: Including sonic lectures on South African music history and performances. 

Sonic lectures: Exploring South African music history. 

Venues include The Bioscope, Eyethu Heritage Hall, The Market Photo Workshop, The Forge, Untitled Basement, The Library of Things We Forgot to Remember, and Ster-Kinekor Rosebank. The festival is presented by Anaphora Films in association with The South Festival of Memory.