Scholar of Zambezian Earth

Banji Chona (b. 1997, Lusaka, Zambia) is an artist, researcher and curator.

Chona’s current artistic practice is expressed through earth-based alchemy, a process which involves using indigenous natural materials such as plants and soils in producing bodies of work which combine ancestral baTonga knowledge and contemporary experimental techniques. Visual poetry is another expression of Chona’s artistic practice. Collages are used as mediums alluding to the intersections of ancestral histories, the present-day and the future of baTonga. Anthropological photographs are often used alongside objects, images and histories of personal accord.

Her research and curatorial practice are geared towards the unearthing and exploration of themes of identity, memory, and resistance grounded in a sense of storytelling and healing through alternative mediums. In its entirety Chona’s practice is grounded in the self-composed methodology of Radical Zambezian Reimagination. This notion is used by Chona as a portal which leads to the creation of alternative and critical historiographies that challenge and repair pre-existing asymmetries in history. These deeply inform the present. The use of the term Zambezia instead of Zambia is a clear example of this methodology, in that it is founded on the idea of imagining or reimagining an ancestral land that is not constrained by the limitations of colonial impositions, such as borders. This allows for a greater scope for connection and healing outside of the imagined nation-state of Zambia.

Chona’s works manifest in the visual, written and aural realm as experimental performance pieces, installations and dialogue.