“Through bricolage I ask what occurs when the medium resists being a platform for grand narratives but seeks to repurpose everyday expressions to elucidate the elegance of what appears ordinary and lacking in spectacle.” – Neo Muyanga, 2024

The thing that happened, composed by Neo Muyanga in 2024, explores themes of memory, identity, and resistance in South Africa. The “thing” is not a specific moment, but a recognition that today’s concerns are always intertwined in the previous “thing/s that happened.” For Muyanga, and the Southern African voices he features in the work, this stretches back to the 17th century, marking contemporary South African by “eruptions, disasters, conflicts” His sound design is meticulous; the two individual voices we hear are subtly manipulated through reverb and low-pass filtering, yet their words remain central in both the audio and in the storytelling. Each sonic element—from the ticking of a clock, the pizzicato sounds of an African musical bow, field recordings, and a supportive musical accompaniment— is carefully placed to evoke a strong sense of place and time. The use of ambient sounds, such as market chatter and Muyanga’s distant piano and bells, further immerses the listener in the setting and the unfolding story while never overtaking the speaker’s message.

The core segment recounts the experience of a struggling woman during a time of political upheaval, when former South African president Jacob Zuma was arrested in 2021. By blending oral histories with contemporary reflections, the piece underscores the difficulties and everyday resilience of communities in the face of adversity. The integration of archival audio and field recorded interviews creates a doubled sense of myth and reality, which Muyanga uses to encourage listeners to contemplate the connections between past and present struggles and the role of cultural memory in shaping identity.

The pacing of the piece is carefully controlled to maximize emotional impact. Slow, contemplative sections with sparse instrumentation allow for moments of introspection, and Muyanga’s use of silence is particularly striking; as the voices pause to reflect, musical phrases and other sounds punctuate the narrative to create space for reflection and key moments. The thing that happened boils down grand narratives of colonialism, uprise, and struggle to their component parts, i.e. a moment that precipitated moments, showcasing the way everyday politics are understood and re-told by those with intimate experience post “happening.”

The thing that happened was first broadcast on April 26, 2024 as part of Oscillations, a series on sound art in southern Africa, via Hoerspeil und Feature, and produced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur / Akademie der Künste / Centre for Humanities Research University of the Western Cape 2024. -Described by Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow 2024, Austin T. Richey