On a Mission with Music: Singer Kokonelle

As a young girl, Kharis Petronelle Ikoko told her mother that she wanted to become president of the Congo one day. Her mother’s response was to ask whether she was sure she wanted to die: a first, hard confrontation with the reality of her native country, which she left together with her family aged eight to build a new life in Germany.

Performing under the stage name Kokonelle, the now 29-year-old singer has many strings to her bow: a trained paralegal, she organised demonstrations throughout Germany after the murder of George Floyd in 2020, works as an educational consultant, anti-racism trainer and curator and is also studying communication design.

But what is most important to Kokonelle is music. Ever present in her life from the very beginning, music is part of her Congolese identity, she says: “Music is part of our history and has played a big part in shaping it.” In her songs, she mixes hip hop, R’n’B, Afro pop and soul and addresses topics such as empowerment and self-determination from her perspective as a Black woman.

Kokonelle will perform and hold a workshop at the Mental Health Arts Festival at the Gasteig HP8 on 20 July. Her aim: to explore how colonial structures have manifested themselves in our bodies. “I want to explore what each of us experiences in our own bodies every day. I want to deconstruct and analyse how the bodies of Black women, white men or people who are not read as German are perceived as being different,” she says. According to the artist, certain bodies are visible, while others are not given any space at all.

“I am driven by my origins,” says Kokonelle. “I associate my country of birth with family, community, friendship and a place where I am not judged by the colour of my skin.” But also a place that is associated with a great deal of pain: “Everything I’ve built up here is based on the fact that the people in Congo are suffering,” says the artist. According to Kokonelle, who sees her vision and mission in raising awareness of the consequences of colonisation, 80 percent of all parts used in our everyday appliances are sourced from the Congo. “This exploitation of the country is something I just can’t ignore.”