The special issue draws together several scholars and artists from the University of the Western Cape and beyond in thinking about what the editors call the ‘sono-historical object’. Featuring a range of authors interested in embodied listening, Hauntologies of the band Sankomota, Abdullah Ibrahim’s black sonic geography, biographical reflection, on listening to Johnny Dyani, and kinetic objects.

According to the editors, “sound has become a loud, if not deafening, presence in the humanities, especially in relation to questions about archive, music studies, technology and, indeed, knowledge in the global south.” In part this occurs through the field of sound studies but also from long-standing inquiries into aesthetic practice, music and sound art. African aesthetics and political ideologies are rooted in the practice of sound. There have been concerted efforts to make sense of what role sound in its different iterations – music, sound art, radio, voice, etc – has had producing the postcolonial present.

This special issue of Kronos was supported by the NIHSS.

For more information on this sonic enquiry: