MUNGANYINKA IS A TRANSFORMER (2020)
Written collaboratively with Doris Auclair and Ausiàs Garrigós Morant, for prerecorded audio and bass clarinet. Co-commissioned by the Riot Ensemble and hcmf// in partnership with Zeitgeist Online Gallery
‘Ma’s heartbeat is the first rhythm I heard. Ma’s voice is the first music I have known. Munganyinka is a Transformer is a retelling of a memory. It is also a homage to my Ma’s voice. It is the early 1960s, she is 14 or 15 years old, a refugee from the genocide that has recently started in Rwanda. She is trying to return to DRC by road after one of many attempts to get back to Rwanda to find her family. Her only way out of the country is a bridge on the border, over the Rusizi river. When she gets there, bullets rain down as different factions shoot each other from the other side of the bridge. It’s just as dangerous to go back, so she decides to pretend to be a dog, in the belief that they won’t shoot at her. She drops down on all fours, walks the length of the bridge under constant gunfire, and makes it across to safety unharmed. Her power to transform amazes me.’