In this talk, UK djs, artists and activists whose roots are from the region of SWANA – South-West Asia and North Africa. SWANA is a new, decolonial word replacing the Middle East, but as it always is with all the terms that are trying to concise and homogenise large groups of people from the huge area – it’s not perfect. There is still a lot of space for improvement and reimagining our vocabulary and its a big part of decolonisation. They talk about inclusivity, social justice, discrimination, orientalism and much more.

Music from the SWANA region is experiencing a renaissance, and so, as I call it, club colonization begins. There are a number of artists that are playing and sampling the music from the region, touring the world and making lots of money, without even being from the region. Again, just like with techno music, we are experiencing the colonization of clubs and music. White man has found its way again to exploit non-white culture and steal from it wearing white gloves.

The panellists, all living and working in the UK, talk a lot about the privilege, knowledge and access that should be used systemically by them and others, to include and educate others so further colonization can be stopped and what happened already – slowly reversed. Calling each other out within the community, working on those communities from the very foundations, organising small grassroots events and promoting artist who are not lucky enough to have the platfom – these are just some of the ways discussed in this pannel.

COMPETITION SHOULD NEVER BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN COLLABORATION