Portrait of producer and songwriter Boddhi Satva
Design Indaba
Cape Town, South Africa
Central African producer and songwriter Boddhi Satva was selected by Design Indaba to take part in our collaborative initiative with Google Arts & Culture, titled Colours of Africa. Africa is known for its bold, unapologetic use of colour. Stories are told in pigments, tones and hues; a kaleidoscope as diverse as the cultures and peoples of the continent. For the initiative, we asked 60 African creatives to capture the unique spirit of their country in a colour which represents home to them. The projects they have created are personal and distinct stories of Africa, put into images, videos, texts and illustrations. Each artist has also attempted to articulate what being African means to their identity and view of the world.
- Title: Portrait of producer and songwriter Boddhi Satva
- Original Source: Design Indaba
- What it Means to be African: For me, being African means understanding your Africanness as something that goes beyond your country of birth and the colour of your skin.
- Subject: Boddhi Satva
- Rationale: My colour is green, the shade of green leaves on the mango trees I grew up under. There was one particular tree on our property that I remember. It was large and warm and welcoming, such a peaceful tree. One dry season I remember thinking that this tree would be a beautiful tree to die under. When I am old, I thought, I would like to die in the shade of these green leaves. There’s an element of grace and power that comes with the colour green. The equatorial forests of the Central African Republic are places of many myths and the thumping sounds of hand-carved drums. It is a place that can be both soothing and brutal. The kapok, mango and banana trees that grew there made quite the impact on my connection to nature. As children we would throw stones at the fruit or use sticks to knock them down, making fun of one another and laughing. The sound of the drums beating messages from village to village in the afternoons is one of the earliest influences in my music. If you listen carefully to my tracks, you can hear the rhythm of those drums.
- Project: Colors of Africa
- Location: Central African Republic
- Lead Quote: When I am old, I thought, I would like to die in the shade of these green leaves.
- Hex Code: #205218
- Colour Choice: Mango-tree Green
- Biography: Boddhi Satva is an AFRIMA-nominated producer, songwriter, whose roots lie in the Central African Republic, a home to which he still returns. His troubadour tendencies have endeared fans across the world to his sound, a melange of trance-inducing stompers he refers to as “Ancestral Soul”. Satva's eclectic tastes sees him move from house to hip hop, to Ndombolo with Caribbean grooves. He helped shape the Ancestral Soul sound identity, and in the process established himself as a figurehead of the new Afro-House movement. Now based in Lisbon, Satva spent the better part of the past 20 years living and creating from Brussels, where he also co-curated the Ancestral Show on the radio. It’s here that he refined his musical ear and his image and fashion sense. He collaborated with sartorial collective Art Comes First on the “Kitendi” music video. Besides running Offering Recordings, which has been instrumental in launching a number of artists’ international careers, he hosts the Ancestral Soul Radio Show on Sudan's Capital FM and London's DRUMS Radio, broadcasting to over a million listeners worldwide. In 2021 Satva and collaborator Badi won the Octaves de la Musique (Belgian Grammy) for Best Urban Album of the Year. Satva is currently preparing the release of his third album.
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