Situa is a music video written, directed and produced by filmmaker Paulina Akbay, in collaboration with Afro-Neo Soul singer Donia Touglo.

Via singing in English and the language of her soul, Touglo draws attention to how we have lost our connection to the spiritual and natural part of society. The law of entropy suggests that everything in the universe is part of an irreversible process; even in the seemingly unnatural and disconnected times we live in are part of nature and evolution.

In order to find the answer and see the emerging pattern, the metaphor used for this irreversibility, Donia calls upon the ancestors. She does so by drinking the foam of a beverage called Ubulawu, which is made of water and the sacred Xhosa plant silene undulata. The drink is known for creating lucid dreams and mostly grows around the Eastern Cape of South Africa.

Touglo caves to slumber; in her dreams she is accompanied by symbolic spirit guides.

To honour Touglo’s West African Ewe roots, designer Hildegard Oehler adorned Donia and the dancers with her jewellery collection inspired by the Ghanaian Ashanti tribe as well as self-made cowrie shell garments; a mix of West African cultural objects and improvised items dressed the space.

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Abkay << Situa represents that universal, powerful connection to the cosmic energy around us. It shows us how to incorporate the ancient ways into modern day life and basically invites us to bridge the gap between the spiritual world and ours or rather to see that we in fact haven’t lost this holy connection. We might not fully grasp it, but we know something is out there >>