FLEE Project, book+CD, ISBN 978-2956967774, English, 166 pages, 2025, Switzerland

The African galaxy of media production has often been represented in Western societies, particularly in Europe, through exhibitions and initiatives that reveal theories and practices which should inform and inspire, but too often remain at the margins of international information flows. This is the catalogue of the homonymous exhibition at the Musée d’ethnographie de Genève (MEG), and gathers a small multitude of narratives connected to sound productions on the continent. The materiality of the exhibition, expanded here in essays and dialogues, intertwines the ancestral with the experimental use of sounds, including the exploration of situated genres or trends and their role in spirituality (claimed as decolonial), which together form an overall collection of ‘sonic events’. It is a well-conceived catalogue, addressing several topics, such as the return of African art to their respective countries, the use of music as a political tool, the multifaceted nature of Afrofuturism, and the strategic use of archives. The voices of societies, and inter-societal connections across states, can be heard through the role of sounds and instruments used by innovative artists in an act of collective research. The attached CD features interesting commissioned works by KMRU, Midori Takada, Yara Mekawei, and Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape (Mo Laudi).