Masimba Hwati was born in 1982, two years after Zimbabwe’s political independence from Colonial Britain. This is the year Juluka released “Scatterlings of Africa,” a hit song appeasing colonial fantasies and celebrating enigmatic Africa and flawed ethnic equality against the backdrop of Apartheid in South Africa. The following year, 1983, the new black Zimbabwean government unleashed “Gukurahundi,” the ethnic cleansing genocide on the southern part of the country. This is also the year Michael Jackson released “Human Nature.” Hwati is preoccupied with sound, micro-politics, sculpture, and performance and has created projects in Harare, Detroit, Johannesburg, Capetown, South Carolina, Nova Scotia, and Weimar.
