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Photography by Luke Ncube
Front row with Ebumnandini
Established in 2018 by the Stiff Pap duo of Jakinda Boya & Ayema Qampi – shortly joined thereafter by Francesco Mbele & Lenzo Mangonyane – 'Ebumnandini' is one of the most exciting youth-focused soirées emanating from the city right now. Having attended quite a few of their parties myself here in Johannesburg, I can safely say that most of my enjoyable nightlife experiences took place at Ebumnandini.
But why is this party – continuously – tantalising the experiential taste buds of its attendees? I take a step back and earnestly try to answer this question.
Photography by Tara McAuliffe
Jakinda and Ayema started throwing parties in 2018 under the Ebumnandini moniker, and taking a look back at their earlier archived IG posts, you can see just how they had formulated the blueprint for what Ebumnandini is today. So, the latter addition of Francesco and Lenzo served to elevate the visual aesthetic of the event, as well as densify its roots within creative collaboration.
From Nollywood inspired events, bootleg Ebumnandini graphics, and so much more, it's become very clear that this collective isn't merely throwing aimless parties – they're being custodians to youth nightlife culture. It only makes sense why they were able to secure the Boiler Room x Ballantines True Fund, alongside Alex Michelsen's CPT-based 'Prime' event.
Graphics by Ebumnandini
Graphics by Ebumnandini
I had the absolute pleasure of virtually engaging the Ebumnandini team in order to further understand their creative vision, who forms a part of their team, securing the True Fund and what that means, and sooo much more.
Photography by Luke Ncube
To me, Ebumnandini has blossomed into a party which continually has its pulse on youth going out culture — when and how did its initial conception come about? Who runs it?
Ebumnandini: Ebumnandini was founded in 2018. Although it’s a Joburg based event, it actually started in Cape Town. The first Joburg event happened in early 2019. It was founded by Stiff Pap (Jakinda Boya and Ayema Qampi) with Francesco Mbele joining as the third member in 2019 and Lenzo Mangonyane subsequently joining as the fourth member shortly after. Those are the core members of the team but we’ve since added various team members in different positions such as door staff, assistants, photographers and videographers.
Photography by Xzavier Zulu
Has the event always been hosted at Great Dane (Braam) in Jozi? I know you tend to also host soirees in collaboration with Prime at the Waiting Room in Cape Town?
Ebumnandini: The first event happened at a venue called Oasis in Cape Town (it doesn’t exist anymore). Once we started hosting in Joburg, we mostly hosted at Kitcheners and The Tennis Club. Great Dane is relatively new for us, we had our first Great Dane event in May 2022 but Ebumnandini has been doing events all over Joburg for a few years now. We took a huge break when the pandemic began because we wanted to prioritize the safety of attendees and our team, so we didn’t host for almost a full year but now we’re back in the swing of things.
Photography by Luke Ncube
I can confidently say that Ebumnandini's marketing (i.e. graphics, imagery, concepts) is my favourite of any party in JHB. From Nollywood memes to bootleg logo graphics – what inspires this aesthetic?
Ebumnandini: Everyone in the team has a creative background so we always try to emphasize that part of ourselves. We all love art and culture, so we just try to express that through the platform as much as possible.
Graphics by Ebumnandini
What is your take on the upcoming crop of exciting DJs in JHB? And what does it take for these emerging deejays to play at Ebumnandini?
Ebumnandini: We’re always excited to come across new artists because we partly created the platform to give opportunities to emerging artists. It’s a youth focused event so we want to support young creators as much as we can. We’re always open to hearing mixes etc. from people who want to play at our events – all it takes is talent and initiative. We encourage people to reach out to us via email and sometimes, we ask for suggestions from our Instagram followers. That’s actually how we came across Lucas 3000 and Glen3k for the last two ETVs.
Photography by Kahlo Greed
Ebumandini was also the recipient of the Boiler Room x Ballantines True Fund, correct? How has the experience been throwing parties with their support?
Ebumnandini: It was a great learning experience for us. We’re pretty underground, so we’re not used to the corporate standards that are usually required by brands like that – but we found a workable middle ground between our styles. It definitely helped us improve our infrastructure and create a more efficient experience and platform. We’re a much stronger brand and team now that we’ve had that kind of experience working with people who have done this on a much larger scale than us.
Photography by Thabo Mthobeni
How best could the platform you are cultivating be supported in order to continue producing some of the dopest parties Jozi's underground has witnessed?
Ebumnandini: Money is always the answer lol. If any brands want to support us, we’re willing to engage with them, as long as it aligns with our vision. We’ve been fortunate enough to get some support already and it definitely helped a lot, so we’d be keen to take things further so we can continue to scale up our productions.
Any upcoming party plans for the near future which you'd like to share with potential Ebumnandini goers?
Ebumnandini: Yep! There’s a lot on the way. A big one is coming up quite soon actually, so look out for the announcement any day now!
Photography by Kahlo Greed
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