feature: “meet angel-ho, the cape town artist resisting colonialism’s legacy through sound”

Check out the new music from Cape Town video and live performance artist ANGEL-HO (aka Angelo Antonio Valerio), a 21-year-old fine arts student who recently dropped his debut EP (‘ASCENSION’) – born out of sounds that he created for his art performances. With this debut project, the South African creative is tackling head-on the legacy of colonialism in South Africa. He told Fader in a recent interview, “In the context of South Africa, POC were forcibly removed and relocated to racially segregated areas. This was called the Group Areas Act [1950], and it still echoes today in the form of gentrification. Removing bodies from public space has become more psychological than physical; it’s a self-surveying process, and it’s really impacted the way people “perform” themselves in public and private spaces. For example, I would go with my friends to spots in town and people would just stare because we’re POC in a predominantly white space. People don’t feel comfortable around us, because they don’t know how to engage with POC, but the majority of strictly hip-hop events in Cape Town are run by white people?” ‘ASCENSION’ is the first record from NON Records, a collective that ANGEL-HO co-founded with fellow African artists Chino Amobi in Richmond (Virginia) and Nkisi in London, UK. He says, “It was interesting for me to have this dialogue between [these countries], considering our colonial histories […] And creating music that’s in resistance to [that].” Listen below.

By Alexander Aplerku, AFROPUNK Contributor

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