Bwanga “Benny Blow” Kapumpa

Why does the numeric virtual interface of Instagram or other platforms have the inherent power of belief? When European powers conquered the world, their civilizational push aimed to eradicate traditional beliefs, healing, and folk practices that held people together.

Bwanga “Benny Blow” Kapumpa invites Doctor Bwanga, a fictional character, to hold court as a traditional healer, called Ng’aka in Zambia, to the 13th Berlin Biennale. Doctor Bwanga is out to heal the anxieties of modern life caused by politics, corrupt regimes, and the vain egos of men.

Seeing the practice of the healer as a third dimension of human interactions, Kapumpa believes we can explore subconscious ancestral knowledge through storytelling and soothsaying. Although Zambian folk traditions were suppressed under British rule, they persisted and remain significant among many communities along the Zambezi River.

Kapumpa’s sessions take place in a typical German phonebooth topped with a Zambian thatched roof. Here, the audience can phone Doctor Bwanga to hear his artificially generated voice and advice. We believe most digital myths but question traditional knowledge systems labeled as folk.

Doctor Bwanga’s arrival is announced by posters throughout Berlin and a social media campaign, mirroring the many advertisements for witchdoctors found on public transportation, public toilets, and government buildings. Someone among us is a customer seeking these services to validate their existence. For Doctor Bwanga, the sighting of foxes around Berlin is a sign that the spirits of German ancestors are visiting their descendants, who eagerly want to communicate. Doctor Bwanga serves as the medium, ironically an algorithm seeking to make us believe in it.

Text: Sumesh Sharma