Is CommuNnity the Nnew Currency? a conversation with the Nnetwork
- Phemelo Sui Moipolai
- 1 day ago
- 6 min read
Understanding the Nnuaunced World of the Nnetwork (& Mav).
Before the philosophy, before the definitions, before the questions there is the world itself. The Nnetwork is not just an idea; it is an evolving ecosystem. A space where culture is not only experienced, but documented, distributed, and developed. What began as a response to isolation has grown into a structured platform for connection, collaboration, and creative progression.
Founded by Mav, 'Eric Maphagela', in 2020 in Brixton, Johannesburg, during lockdown, the Nnetwork emerged at a time when physical connection was restricted but the need for belonging was heightened. Its true momentum, however, took shape in Observatory, Cape Town in 2024 where the movement transitioned from concept to consistent, lived experience.
the Maverick, the Movement, the Moment
What started as a series of events has since evolved into something far more intentional.
In 2024, the Nnetwork laid its foundation hosting over 65 activations across more than 15 venues, while collaborating on dozens more. By 2025, this grew into over 100 activations, with a structured rhythm of weekly programming and a rapidly expanding community.
But these are not just numbers.
Each activation whether a cypher, workshop, open mic, dinner, or exhibition serves as a point of entry into something larger: a system designed for interaction, visibility, and growth.
The shift is clear: from hosting events → to building infrastructure.
Six Circles, One Movement
At the heart of this infrastructure lies a layered community model; 6 circles forming one movement. Each circle plays a distinct role within the ecosystem:
The NNetworth: growth and development
The NNepotism: referrals and access
The NN Exchange: collaboration in motion
The NNotice Board: awareness and communication
The NNeo Circle & O Gang: identity, culture, and belonging
This structure allows individuals to move beyond passive participation into active contribution, where value is exchanged through relationships, creativity, and opportunity.
The WhatsApp ecosystem itself was intentionally structured as more than communication infrastructure. It functions as a marketplace, resource hub, creative exchange, and relationship engine simultaneously.
Within niche communities: DJs, performers, producers, visual artists and multidisciplinary creatives; individuals are encouraged not only to participate socially, but to exchange services, opportunities, and support. This reflects a deeper ambition:
To build systems where independent creators no longer need to wait for institutional permission in order to grow.
The Sunday Show, In the Backyard!
Within the Nnetwork, gatherings are not treated as isolated events or curations. They function as infrastructure recurring points of contact through which culture is built, tested, and sustained in real time. From The Sunday Show to midweek sessions and more experimental formats, the channel (or the Nnetwork) has become the backbone of cultural entertainment within the OBScene.
The Sunday Show, in particular, stands as a pivotal gateway into the community. What began as a curated gathering quickly evolved into a recurring entry point into the wider network a space where artists, audiences, and contributors intersect for the first time before often becoming active participants in the broader system. Across its iterations, it has helped facilitate engagement with hundreds of artists and creators, functioning less as a standalone event and more as a portal into the ecosystem itself.
Alignment between artist and audience, between emerging and established creatives, and between individual expression and collective movement. The gathering becomes the medium through which the network recognizes itself.
In this sense, what happens within these spaces is not only performance.
It is alignment... between artist and audience, between emerging and established creatives, and between individual expression and collective movement.
The gathering becomes the medium through which the network recognizes itself.
A key principle defines this approach:
no repeats.
Every event exists as a singular moment in time — never duplicated, never replicated, always experienced in its full presence. This intentional ephemerality shifts the meaning of participation. It removes the safety of repetition and replaces it with immediacy, attention, and presence.
the end?
As a result, all moments must come to an end. They do not disappear they resolve.
They become reference point to a shared cultural history, marking time not through permanence, but through presence. Each Sunday sits as a fixed point in the evolution of the Nnetwork: a reminder that culture is not built in continuity alone, but on a chance encounter intentfully persued.
The deliberate act of coming together before we ride off into the sunset. Until the epilogue reveals a moment worth the return.
You get a Badge, you get Badge... Everyone gets a Badge
Belonging within the Nnetwork is not abstract it is both experienced and expressed.
Badges, originally simple stickers have evolved into symbols of participation and contribution.
From early distributions of just over 100 badges to more than 400 issued by 2025, they represent a growing network of individuals connected through shared experience.
Before badges, there were stickers placed throughout Observatory as subtle signals of presence. Today, those calling cards have become more refined, but the intention remains the same:
What creates enough value for people to return consistently?
Beneath the aesthetics remains this important question that defines the philosophy behind the product.
The approach is deliberate. Buy Badges.
At its core, the Nnetwork already functions as an interconnected ecosystem of niches: distinct creative identities, brands, and communities existing within a shared cultural framework.
This structure creates space for both specialization and exchange, allowing individuality to thrive without disconnecting from the larger movement.
Mav reflected openly on what he described as the “Mav era” - a period where his physical presence, availability, and direct relational engagement formed a significant part of the network’s momentum.
During that time, community-building was deeply personal. Relationships were reciprocal, intimate, and actively maintained. Now the call extends beyond physical gatherings and into digital infrastructure.
Mav the Circle Bigger? Nnetwork Show Dem
Across WhatsApp groups, physical spaces, badges, and shared language, one thing becomes clear:
The Nnetwork is not just building a following it is building a system of belonging.
A system where:
connection creates opportunity
participation creates identity
and contribution creates value
In many ways, the network is attempting to answer a modern creative dilemma:
How do independent creators survive without waiting for institutional permission?
The answer emerging from the conversation was clear: build ecosystems where community itself becomes infrastructure.
Rather than treating networking as occasional social interaction, the model proposes a living exchange economy where relationships actively move opportunities between members.
Community, then, becomes less of a passive audience and more of an active system.
Re-root, Pass Begin & Collect a Nnew Jozi
Another major theme was geography.
Mav described his move back to Johannesburg not as abandonment, but as re-rooting. The network can no longer think of itself solely through the lens of Cape Town culture or Observatory-era intimacy.
Many members have already relocated across provinces, particularly between Cape Town and Johannesburg, and now find themselves disconnected from local support systems.
This creates both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenge is maintaining cohesion across distance.The opportunity is becoming truly national.
What made the Cape Town ecosystem powerful was its flattened hierarchy. Shared badges, shared language, and shared access dissolved many traditional barriers between emerging creatives and established figures. As the network expands, preserving that philosophy becomes essential.
Johannesburg introduces a different scale entirely: more dispersed, more industrial, more ambitious, and less dependent on tightly clustered social scenes. Expanding into that environment requires redefining how the network functions while maintaining its underlying ethos.
The conversation explored a new pivot, introducing a new vantage point as Mav earns his debut producer credit on the visuals for Akhona's insatiable Bounce by DFWNE, alongside director Raphadu Maphoto. This opens the dialogue to a newer medium of expression, extending music platforming into its digital frontier. See the editorial on CEC. for the full read.
The vision discussed was not simply expansion, but interprovincial reciprocity; a bridge where members can move between cities while remaining connected to opportunities, people, and culture.
The Nnew Ones (The Nnuaunce)
From this complex mind, a Maverick shaped this is the landscape. A creative ecosystem built on circles, gatherings, badges, and community. A movement that has evolved from spontaneous chill, to artist platform, to market hub. And within this evolution, a central question emerges:
If community can be built, nurtured, and exchanged like this could it be considered a form of currency? For what follows is not in question, but in reflection.
The challenge now is whether those nodes understand their responsibility within the system.
So, how does one hold value without suffocating it? How does one redistribute opportunity without exhausting the source? And what happens when the original source steps away from the centre?
When the idea evolves beyond a location and becomes a way of thinking, what begins as a place where people gather eventually transforms into a mindset carried by its participants.
We become the very opportunity we seek, foster the relationships we need, and share the knowledge required to build ourselves.
When the Nnetwork is no longer defined by where it exists, but by how it exists, the question remains: Who is the Nnetwork? If not us.
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