Ep.1 (S4): Caroline Wanjiku Kihato speaks about turning data into art

The Migration Podcast

We only just get started with Season 4 and there is important news already: -Fiona will be on leave for a while, leaving you in Kate’s capable hands. ("bye bye!"~Fiona) -The annual IMISCOE conference is about to start; we hope to see you in great numbers online or in person in Warsaw from July 3-6th 2023. https://www.imiscoe.org/conference -We have a new podcast team! Follow the IMISCOE channels to learn more about our members. Now…back to business: Have you ever considered translating your research into music or other forms of art? In this episode, Asya Pisarevskaya speaks with Caroline Wanjiku Kihato about how she collaborated with artists to turn stories from her book “Migrant Women of Johannesburg: Life in an in-between City” into a musical composition. Titled “You Will Find Your People Here”, the exhibition at the La Biennale Architettura 2023, is a collaborative of performance, film, composition and artwork by pianist Mareli Stolp (South Africa), sociologist Caroline Wanjiku Kihato (Kenya), composer Clare Loveday (South African) and artist Sedinam Awo Tsegah (Ghana). The project is part of curator’s special project Gender and Geography. The show opens on the 18th May and can be seen until November, 2023. The work is based on Caroline Kihato’s book, Migrant Women of Johannesburg: Everyday Life in an in-between City, (Wits University Press) which explored the lives of women from different parts of the continent who came to live in Johannesburg. It was transformed into a composition by Clare Loveday. Mareli Stolp performed the music at William Kentridge and Bronwyn Lace’s Centre for the Less Good Idea in July 2022, before being chosen for the Biennale. Awo Tsegah joined the project, providing the fabric maps and artwork for the exhibition. Follow this link to learn more about the exhibition at the Venice Biennale: https://www.labiennale.org/en/architecture/2023/gender-geography/caroline-wanjiku-kihato-clare-loveday-and-mareli-stolp-collaboration-sedinam-awo-tsegah Visit the project website here: https://www.youwillfindyourpeoplehere.frame45.com/the-film/ Follow this link to Caroline’s book : https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/10411672 Funding declaration: Mellon Foundation, Mobility, temporality, and Africa’s future politics project, at the University of the Witwatersrand (Grant Number 1804-05760) The African Centre for Migration and Society, University of the Witwatersrand The Migration Governance Lab, University of the Witwatersrand and Oxford University African Futures Institute, Accra Ghana. Dr Caroline Wanjiku Kihato is a Visiting Researcher at Oxford University’s Department of International Development and at Wits University, Johannesburg. She is also a Global Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars in Washington DC. Her research focuses on migration, gender, governance, and African urbanization. If you enjoy the Migration Podcast, please consider “liking” and “following” us. Thank you for listening!