Nwando featured on Tribe Arts

Simultaneously eerie yet beautiful, vulnerable whilst comforting, grounding yet transformative, Ebizie’s ritualistic audio experience calls upon the listener to embark on what cannot be better described than a “radical act of self-care.” Narrated both authoritatively and seductively by Wennefer, the three-part immersive experience will take you on a metamorphic journey to the self and beyond.

Staged in three parts, the journey has a clear beginning, middle and end: the self as the subject throughout. Wennefer’s hypnotic narration lulls you into a trance as she encourages you to park your conscious mind “on a sun lounger” to make room for the intense emotional confrontation which follows. The self is punctured, deflated and regrown as you are guided through an internal cleansing ritual which plays with the death-rebirth cycle through language and sound. Nwando utilises powerful natural imagery – water to cleanse, oil to anoint, the anchoring of self in a spiritual garden – while the playful soundscape both unnerves and gently carries the listener through unchartered territory, evoking an experience which is at once sensuous and vulnerable. The meditative ritual brings difficult emotions to the surface, urging you to discard of what no longer serves you and continuously returning you to your spiritual garden, holding the crops of now and seeds of your future, which are yours to nourish and weed out as you wish. When the hour is up, you are greeted in the holding room by Wennefer and Nwando – a boudoir-type space draped in pink plush. Here, you and your co-voyagers share intimate details about your personal journeying, eyes glued to the cinematic and whimsical coming-together performance by Nwando and Wennefer, fanciful and comforting at the same time.

From start to finish, the experience calls upon the free will of the listener, encouraging you to confront your whole self without judgment. The journey was a practice in the affirmation of self, and for racialised bodies, this is the most radical act of self-care.

Inaya Hussain