Your essential dose of art and culture
Our Origin Festival South Africa 2026 is bringing together artists, Indigenous elders, scientists and communities for a weekend of music, storytelling and conversations about our relationship with the Earth at Kromdraai Impact Hub in the Cradle of Humankind from 16 to 18 October.
The music programme features TRESOR, Bongeziwe Mabandla, Buhlebendalo pictured, Tubatsi Mpho Moloi and Sibusile Xaba. There will be talks, Indigenous ceremonies, children’s experiences, youth showcases and activities. On Saturday, the main gathering is from 10am to 10pm, culminating at 9pm in the Global Moment of Unity, when communities across the world will join in a shared Prayer for Mother Earth. Saturday tickets cost R600 and weekend passes start at R1 100. Camping packages are available. Children aged 12 and under enter for free. Book via the Our Origin South Africa website.
Award-winning Afro-Jazz vocalist Mimi Mtshali is gearing up for a performance at UKZN’s Centre for Jazz and Popular Music on 21 October.
She will be performing music from her latest body of work titled Khaya Lami.
The talented musician, who has been in the industry for more than two decades, is a scholar of jazz music from the University of Cape Town’s jazz programme.
On the evening of her performance she will be joined by an accomplished ensemble of jazz musicians: Mdu Mtshali on piano and keyboards, Zolile Mgqatsa on bass, Sbu Zondi on drums, Thabo Sikhakhane on trumpet and Leon Scharnick on saxophone.
General admission tickets go for R130, pensioners will pay R100 and students R70 a ticket at webtickets or at the door.
Zoë Modiga returns with When The Rain Comes, a song that draws inspiration from the familiar 17th-century nursery rhyme Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Another Day which moms painfully listen to on Ms Rachel’s channel.
Here is an offering more nuanced and reflective to adulthood.
“Much like life’s storms, though it can be frightening when it thunders and storms. It is also a source of restoration and life. Knowing that is a warmth within itself and I pray those who aren’t anchored in that, find it,” Modiga explains.
Earlier this year, Modiga released an album titled The Vault. For many of us, it felt like a reintroduction or even a rebirth of Modiga who has evolved so much from her first offering Yellow: The Novel in 2017.
The gradual roll-out of singles gives listeners an opportunity to walk side by side with Modiga in her journey of transformation.
If you are interested in African literature, social justice, democracy and cultural debate, then you need to attend the 12th African Women Writers’ Symposium at the Soweto Theatre, Soweto, Johannesburg on 17 and 18 October.
Attendees can look forward to Nadine Gordimer In Memoriam Lecture, literary masterclasses, panel discussions, poetry, music and talks on media and justice.
You can join the conversation online if you are unable to attend in person.
On Saturday, there will be workshops facilitated by Quaz Roodt, Lex LaFoy, Lesego Rampolokeng and Dr Refiloe Lepere. There will also be panel discussions by Prof Nedine Moonsamy titled “The work of Bessie Head” and a tribute to the recently departed Dr Leloba Molema (Botswana) Prof Alinah Segobye,(Botswana) Dr Frank Meintjies and Dr Danai Mupotsa (online contribution).
Author Sisonke Msimang, pictured, will give a keynote address under the theme “What does it mean to love South Africa?”
If you have children, you can bring them as there will be a children’s workshop and literary talk. There will be something for everyone, so if you love literature and have nothing planned for the weekend, perhaps you could add the 12th African Women Writers’ Symposium in your plans.
Cape Town streets will come alive with around 30 free performances and installations across Cape Town from 14 to 18 October. The Institute for Creative Arts’ (ICA) Live Art Festival returns for its eighth edition, and is curated by Themba Stewart and Luvuyo Equiano Nyawose.
According to a release, “much of the work is site-specific, made in response to the spaces, histories and communities around it. Audiences move through the city and encounter the work where it is made and presented”.
“Every site on the programme has its own rhythm, its own audiences, its own histories”, says ICA director Professor Nomusa Makhubu. “The work is about listening to that context first and letting the art respond to what’s already there”
The festival will move through eight routes: Hiddingh Campus, the Company’s Garden, the Iziko Amphitheatre, Station Forecourt, St’ Georges Mall, the Castle, 16 on Lerotholi Gallery and Guga S’thebe. Expect performances and offerings by Vincent Mantsoe, Mandla Mbothwe, Mwenya Kabwe, Gavin Krastin, Auriol Hays, Qondiswa James, Wezile Harmans, Oupa Sibeko, Lungiswa Plaatjies, Meghna Singh, Sbo Ndaba Dance and Wolff Architects.
The festival is free so if you are in and around Cape Town, go check out what the world of arts culture has to offer.