In May 2018 we were honored to welcome the Malian singer, songwriter, guitarist and acclaimed actress Fatoumata Diawara at M.Bassy for an unplugged concert ad well as intimate talk with Musa Okwonga about connection, receiving and sharing as well as following the path of an African feminists. She is hailed as the voice of young African womanhood – proud of her heritage but with a vision that looks confidently to the future and a message that is universal.
On the occasion of our exhibition project »Beyond AI: Resistance & Coexistence« in spring 2024 we warmly welcomed the artists Nkhensani Mkhari, Jazmin Morris, Vanessa Amoah Opoku & Linda Dounia Rebeiz at M.Bassy for a public panel discussion. In a private prelude on the evening bevor the opening, we had the one-off chance to record an in-depth podcast conversation of these leading young artists engaging in new digital technologies from a decolonial and sociopolitical perspective.
The acclaimed Grammy-winning Beninese French singer-songwriter and choreograph Angélique Kidjo was welcomed at M.Bassy on March 7, 2023, for a music and culinary conversation about her music career, African life in the diaspora, culture, racism and gender with the British-Ugandan writer, journalist and musician Musa Okwonga. The evening was musically rounded off by the Hamburg musician Saliou Cissokho who learned the tradition of playing the kora from his father in Senegal.
In July 2018 we warmly welcomed the acclaimed vocalist, composer, writer, and performer Somi Kakoma performing with Toru Dodo (piano) and Herve Sambe (guitar) for an unplugged concert at M.Bassy. Afterwards, the audience was invited to attend a personal conversation between the artist and the journalist, author and musician himself Musa Okwonga about the struggle of being a Black immigrant in the US, spaces of agency for African identities and giving voice to the community.
Accompanying the exhibition project »Unity in Diversity: Pan-African Art Practices of Collective Care« with Larry Achiampong, Sammy Baloji, Hamedine Kane & The Otolith Group (Oct 12 – Dec 6, 2025) M.Bassy hosted a three-day Thinking Lab entitled »Pan-Africanism: Past – Present – Future« with Larry Achiampong, Aïssa Maïga, Teemour Diop Mambéty & Attillah Springer culminated in a public panel conference on November 8, where pan-African core messages, demands, and visions were discussed with the audience, who formulated strategies for a solidarity-driven future in a globalised world.
As part of pur 2024 literature series »Making Wor(l)ds. Contemporary African Diasporic Women Writing in Europe« Minna Salami, a Nigerian-Finnish and Swedish feminist author, social critic and former Program Chair at THE NEW INSTITUTE in Hamburg, dived into an intimate conversation with the British-Ugandan writer, journalist, and musician Musa Okwonga talking about her latest book »Sensuous Knowledge - A Black Feminist Approach for Everyone« (2020) and her engagement in Black feminism, ancestral knowledge systems and embodied writing practices.
