AUTHENTIC VOICES AFRICA

About

Authentic Voices Africa, known as AVA, is a cultural and artistic collective from Uganda, founded in 2020 by Benzima Onzima and Dominic Claire. Their work draws on the spiritual traditions and heritage of communities along the River Nile, weaving together ancestral sound, indigenous chants, ritual movement, and futuristic electronics into performances that engage multiple senses at once. They made their debut at the Nyege Nyege Festival before going on to play a string of shows in Kampala, building a live presence rooted in that rich ceremonial and musical vocabulary. AVA are not simply recreating old forms. The electronics push their sound somewhere genuinely strange and forward looking, while the ritual and chant elements keep it grounded in something real and deeply felt. They are one of the more distinctive acts to have come out of the current Kampala scene.