Congolese singer-songwriter Freed Mushaga recently announced the release of “SAMANA,” a collaboration with award-winning Belgian–Italian–Burundian spoken-word artist and singer Joy Slam, arriving September 4 in the city of Madison, Wisconsin USA. The track will be available on Bandcamp and all major platforms.
According to a released statement, the project is an ‘ambient blend of folk, soul and spoken word. “It is an existential meditation on freedom, mortality and personal responsibility. Stripping away the external markers through which people often define themselves—status, wealth, power and social roles—the song turns toward a more fundamental question:What kind of life did you actually live?”
Rather than presenting freedom as unlimited personal license, “SAMANA” explores freedom as the courage to live authentically, confront inherited cycles of oppression, take responsibility for one's choices, and ultimately leave something meaningful behind.
The song also serves as a prelude to a much larger artistic project currently taking shape around Freed Mushaga, bringing together an expanding network of artists and collaborators across Africa and beyond. While details of the forthcoming project remain under wraps, “SAMANA” offers the first glimpse into a body of work built around cross-cultural collaboration, dialogue and a shared exploration of what it means to be free.
Joy Slam’s work combines poetry, music and social consciousness. The two artists first connected in 2022, between Bukavu and Bujumbura, and discovered a shared belief in the power of artistic expression to contribute to peace, healing and social transformation. “Their collaboration on “SAMANA” brings together Freed's soulful and melodic approach with Joy's distinctive spoken-word voice, creating a dialogue between song and poetry. The result is a restrained yet powerful piece that feels less like a conventional single and more like an invitation to pause, question and reflect,” read part of the statement.
Born and raised in Bukavu, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Freed Mushaga has developed his artistic practice against the backdrop of a region marked by prolonged conflict and displacement. His experience of exile and mobility has deeply shaped his music, which draws from AfroSoul, Afropop, folk, jazz and African storytelling traditions.
Despite the circumstances surrounding him, Freed has continued to create, perform and build bridges through music. His work has taken him across East and Southern Africa, and most recently to the United States for an artistic residency and a series of performances in Madison, Wisconsin.
Freed who has performed twice at Sofar Sounds Harare, is a winner of the Music In Africa Live Fund 2022, a finalist in Nigeria's #SixtyPercentOfUs competition, and was named among the 100 Most Influential Figures in South Kivu in 2022. His work has received recognition and support from internationally respected artists including Lokua Kanza and Gérald Toto, while his recent residency work brought him into dialogue with faculty and musicians from the Mead Witter School of Music at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
His music has also appeared on playlists and platforms including Feeling It - New R&B, African Glow, Apple Music's New Music Daily, Bukavu Vibez, East African Records, etc. and featured on internationally renowned media like VOICE OF AMERICA AFRIQUE, WORT FM, RFI, TheEastAfrican, Actualité.Cd.
“SAMANA” follows the release of Freed's JE SUIS EP and JE SUIS – The Live Experience, a live album recorded in Nairobi with a new generation of Afro-Jazz musicians.
The live project expanded on the original EP with new and remixed material, using poetry, live instrumentation and Freed's distinctive vocal approach to explore the contradictions and complexities of contemporary African identity.
The track was produced by Wana Benjamin of East African Records.