Zama

This book offers a compelling account of everyday life, livelihoods, and governance in post-apartheid South Africa among the urban poor and marginalized, anchored in and through a critique of the concept of informality, or living outside of the state, its laws, services, and protection. Using a case study of the Zama Zama, loosely translated from the isiZulu as ‘to hustle, or to strive’ and colloquially used to refer to those working as informal artisanal miners on Johannesburg’s numerous disused and abandoned gold mines, the book documents an ethnography of this community’s everyday lives, struggles, and hopes. It provides an intimate account of a community, its social relations, and its political relationship to the state. The narratives of the Zama Zama are used to raise broader questions about precarity, belonging, and governance in post-apartheid South Africa, and suggest that pervasive informality could risk the country's democratic order.

Olivier Alary is a Montreal-based musician and composer. Trained in architecture, sonic arts and instrumental composition, Olivier is interested in exploring the grey area between music and noise. Since 2007, he has provided soundtrack for over fifty feature-length fiction films and documentaries, including Night of the Kings, Up the Yangtze, China Heavyweight (Sundance), Corbo (Berlinale), The Great Darkened Days (TIFF), La femme de mon frère (Cannes), Felix & Meira (Locarno) amongst others. In parallel to his film work, he has released albums on Rephlex, FatCat Records, 130701 and has also collaborated with Björk, Nick Knight, Doug Aitken and Cat Power.

Paolo Conte has captivated audiences the world over for the past four decades. With his gruff voice and unmistakable style, he tells the tales of his humorous but poignant views of the world through his music. "Amazing Game" is the first-ever instrumental album by the Italian singer/songwriter and consists of recordings made at different times (from the ’90s to the present day), for soundtracks of theatre productions and for experimental purposes - all showing off his skills in improvisation.