Another year, another Youth Month. For the 7th time the growingly famous annual Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival, is happening at the Constitution Hill site in Johannesburg.

June 2019 marks 43 years since the 1976 Soweto uprisings. A time when scores of youth arrested during the ’76 protests were incarcerated in the prisons on the Constitution Hill site. According to Constitution Hill CEO, Dawn Robertson, June 16, of 1976, was a day that our country’s youth claimed their rightful place in our country’s narrative. “It is the day that symbolises the rising of our nation’s youth against oppression. It is the day that changed the course of our country’s history.” Robertson expressed .

This is a day that not only sent shockwaves, hurt, and anger in places surrounding the Soweto area , but across the entire country’s provinces, including the North West Province. Stories of the 1976 narrative from a local perspective have been heard from great names such as Popo Molefi, Thandi Modise, etc. It is such voices that encouraged and continue to encourage younger generations that follow to always remember and never to forget what happened in ‘76 and what it meant.

The Basha Uhuru Freedom Festival for today’s generation is platform that young people are given to express and share what they know about where they come from and where they are going or what to go. This seven year old festival not only showcases art, design, film, poetry and music, it also provides inspirational workshops and entrepreneurial support programmes for young creatives.

Activities for the 4 day event includes the greatly anticipated show stopping music festival which will be held on the 29th of June, Saturday, called the Sounds of Freedom concert from 13:00pm to 01:00am featuring hip hop, house, gqom, kwaito, amapiano and afro soul’s finest in the form of Riky Rick, Msaki, Langa Mavuso, Thebe, Khuli Chana, Mthuda & Njelik, DJ Kent, DJ Dimplez, and many more. Including artists, performers and acts who were developed at Bridges For Music, a Nando’s supported non profit organisation. Other artists will include, The Brother Moves On, Urban Village, African Rhythm Productions, Ikati Esangweni, Coppashot & Bobotical, DJ Zero, Rosie Parade, Deniece Mars, Sistamatic, P Kuttah, Scott The Girl, Tha Muzik, Ace of Spades, DBN Gogo and FOSTA and The Charles Géne Suite.

Other activities will include The Basha Bacha Creative Uprising: a three-day creative summit packed full of workshops, talks and an industry pitch session where designers can win funding and mentorship opportunities on the 26th, 27th and 28th of June .

The fine art programme, Expressions of Freedom, opens to the public on the 27th of June with two exhibitions that will close on the 31st of July.

The best rhymes will be on show when talented poets gather at Words Of Freedom at The Women’s Jail on the 28th of May at 18:00.

The 27th and 28th of June are Films screening nights, including films such as Norman Maake’s Love Lives Here, which stars Thando Thabethe and Lungile Radu. Jahmil X.T. Qubeka’s apartheid era Western starring Ezra Mabengeza, Sew the Winter to my Skin and An Act of Defiance about anti apartheid lawyer Bram Fischer will be watched too. The Khanyi Mbau and Aubrey Pooe vehicle Red Room will screen, as will Into Infinity that stars Thishiwe Ziqubu, Nandi Nyembe and Treasure Tshabalala.

Makers Market which opens at 10am on the 29th – The Makers’ Market will bring together the finest local food, drink, art and craft producers in the area, ensuring goods that are unique, original and designed to inspire.

All events are free, aside from the concert. Tickets for that are R75 can be purchased www.bashauhuru.co.za and R100 at the festival gates.

Basha Uhuru, the foremost urban, creative youth festival in South Africa, is brought to you by Constitution Hill in partnership with Nando’s, the Department of Arts and Culture, Brand SA, Gauteng Tourism, Gauteng Department Of Economic Development, Business Arts South Africa, Gauteng Film Commission and the Gauteng Enterprise Propeller.

Advertisement: