The Blackhouse

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The Blackhouse centres the African-NZ experience. Sharing stories, observations, music, history, news, interviews, business news, politics, & events from our diverse communities in Aotearoa. This platform centers the African New Zealand story.

African people have been present in Aotearoa via organised migration policies for 60 years (in 2020). Most arriving post WWII. The first organised programme started with the S.C.A.A.P (Special Commonwealth African Assistance Plan scholars). International students from African commonwealth countries who came to New Zealand between 1960 to around 1972. Sadly, there is very little documentation or captured history about all of those students, but their legacy & descendants live on in New Zealand. The Blackhouse with the use of media & music seeks to contribute to the documentation by telling our African Aotearoa stories.

Our diverse community over the last 40 years has more recently grown into a diverse community of roughly 16000+ people across Aotearoa. In some of our African communities some families are 2 & 3 generations deep, in other areas only one generation deep. However we are often not recognised as having been here for any significant amount of time. Many African NZers have arrived here as toddlers or teenagers or born here today. All with different or varied backgrounds & experiences in NZ but with that shared heritage & connection to Aotearoa. Their stories also need to be added to the multicultural historical archives of Aotearoa archives. 

The Blackhouse seeks to document our community, at all these intersections.  We do a live show with guests from our diverse communities, endeavouring to make space for their voices telling their stories about their projects, their business enterprises, their career aspirations, & their concerns about the future  because The Blackhouse is also their space. Everyone has a story to tell, but all too often, as everyday African heritage people, we have felt invisible, marginalised & shut out from the mainstream cacophony.of Aotearoa life. These are the stories we seek to discover & explore & make them a part of the fabric of Aotearoa's multiculturally rich tapestry.

We focus not only African NZ music artists but also African-Australian artists. Australia has become one of those migration options for African NZers, for the very same reasons many Kiwis have traditionally travelled for work, career expansion & music endeavours.  
Many, [caveat: this only happens African New Zealanders have travelled to Australia to broaden their music careers, & collaborate with African-Australian artists. This trend is only getting stronger & the unique sound developing within the African diaspora in both countries is creating a lot of buzz on the international music scene.

Here in the Blackhouse we are working towards building positive, safer spaces with our dual identities, our migrant backgrounds,& breaking down stereotypes in Aotearoa  telling our stories as only we can.  



Meet the team so far: 
On tech-deck we have SoundsBySomewhere an accomplished producer, & all around a nice guy. Doesn't like speaking on the mike but at episode 22 he just threw all caution to the wind. Of Tanzania heritage & born right here in Newtown's Wellington hospital. He likes to be known as an Afro-Kiwi with Ice Cubes scowling face. "Can't you see I’m busy!”  & "Never!!".  

Main Anchor, co-ordinator & creator is Mz Liya, born when MLK still had a dream. Her ethnic ancestry is Tanzania. A GenX’er, & proud of it. Especially the fact GenX are the champs at surviving Covid lockdown reasonably sane. True story!!. Because she is an enigma we decided to contact a paleontologist to run some tests & sent numerous emails to David Attenborough. We think we may have discovered the last of the original Afro-Kiwi’s in their natural state. We can't be 100% sure however as our second opinion, in the form of Sir Attenborough's analysis, is still pending. Her favourite saying is “Our instagram back inna day was knocking on our friends windows, & looking through the glass” 

Co Host: the Indomitable Miss Paida. Hailing from the land of the mighty Victoria Falls Zimbabwe, Paida has the incredible superpower of being able to find a direction to take a guest interview in under .00367th of a second! She has the intrepidness to discover the story within the story. Her eye >brain >leading question coordination is beyond superb even when her co hosts are using Airport runway signals, in French. She beats the house every time with her tenacity. Her favorite saying is not "Say less" but rather "tell me more".

Crew Member: Modi Hailing from Bagamoyo Tanzania. Modi is a fearless go-getter. Always on the move, once upon a time an intrepid traveller. He loves note taking, cooking, structure, drumming, dancing, coordinating & planning for everyone. He's been on two episodes. Once as a guest & once as a co-host. We definitely need more notetakers & plan makers at The Blackhouse & with his love of communication, literally being a jack of all trades. Jumping behind anything with buttons could be right up his alley. His favourite saying is "Alright people! Let's not crawl before we can walk, & give me some paper & a pen, thank you."    

Look out for updates in 2021.