The Chimurenga Library (www.chimurengalibrary.co.za) is an online archive of pan African, independent periodicals – living, extinct and, at times, fictional. It is also the exhibition concept devised by the editors of Chimurenga for Cape Africa Platform 2009.

Presented in and around the newly launched Cape Town Central Library from May 2 - June 21, the exhibition embodies the proposition evoked by the title by “finding oneself,” as Moses Molelekwa put it, on the shelves of the Central Library; or inventing new categories that quietly encroach on the Central Library’s classification system; or proposing a map, clearly subjective and affective, to navigate the content found both in Chimurenga and the collection of the Central Library.

The exhibition includes a multimedia investigation into independent pan African periodicals from around the world; “Why Must A Black Writer Write About Sex,” a selection of sex scenes from African literature that contest clichéd inscriptions of literature and sexuality; and reading routes and sound posts that re-imagine the Library as a laboratory for extended curiosity, new adventures, critical thinking, daydreaming, socio-political involvement, partying and random perusal.

In addition, weekly Chimurenga Sessions will take place inside the Library. Dissolving the boundaries between text, sound, city, culture, and media, the Chimurenga Sessions will feature music and poetry performances, dialogues, screenings, and more.

The Chimurenga Library also traverses the division between the street and the Library with “Chimurenganyana,” a series of solos excerpted from the journal that will be distributed on the streets of Cape Town.

Non-authoritative, collaborative and incomplete, the Chimurenga Library serves as an entry point, the storyboard of an imaginary future that asks: What resources should be in a library? Is the library able to go beyond borders of disciplines and to create connecting platforms for various fields of knowledge? What role can libraries play in creating new forms and qualities of public space?