Ungo/Spaceship is a multisensory installation. It is an excerpt from an ongoing series/chapter of works that explore my matrilineal 'ancestress' from five generations ago. Handed down stories/memories believe that (as it was often the case during this time in history) this ‘ancestress’ was most likely abducted and fated for life as a slave in the Zanzibar island of Tanzania. This series/chapter (and by extension this proposed installation) holds a mirror to this history as it tries to imagine the fate which awaited my ancestress upon her arrival on this island.

Featured in this installation are two sculptural (ungo) objects of 50cm diameter each. A text is projected on one, and a video is projected on the other. In the text, we encounter two (hard to translate) Swahili proverbs which speak of the use of the ungo, its breaking, and flight to cloud nine; in the video, we encounter a game of ‘mdako’ being played on a woman’s belly. This is a children’s (counting) game of throwing and catching pebbles, but in this case, what are thrown and caught are cowry shells instead of pebbles. On the floor of the installation space, cloves are scattered, spreading their scent all over the room. Surrounding the installation, a woman’s voice is heard, wailing a Swahili chant.. ‘To my children, this is your mother.. I no longer have the strength, to fight/kill the lion.. the lion is stong(er), it killed my father, it killed my mother, it killed my brother, it killed my sister..now run..’