The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WHEN Cont Mhlanga announced his retirement in 2016, his stated intention was to retreat to the serenity of the countryside in Lupane, Matabeleland North Province.
An illustrious journey that had begun in his father’s backyard before he founded Amakhosi Cultural Centre 32-year prior, seemed to have finally come to an end. After over three decades, he was now leaving the frenetic life of a theatre or TV director for the relative calm of rural life.
Mhlanga now wanted to wake up to the countryside’ summer cool breeze and sound of bleating goats. This, at least he thought in 2016, was what he wanted.
Before long, however, Mhlanga found himself flirting with the arts again. The long and fruitful romance that had begun in 1982 was not quite over.
There was time for one more dance. Once, again Mhlanga found himself bewitched, mesmerised by a spell he largely cast upon himself.
When he moved to Lupane, Mhlanga fell in love with a story that he had heard repeatedly while growing up. This was the story of King Lobengula’s journey from a burning Bulawayo, all the way to the Shangani River where his forces spilt the blood of colonial forces in his honour and defence.
From his humble homestead, Mhlanga could hear the echoes of that ancient conflict, the battle cries of brave warriors and the death rattle of the Martini-Henry breech loading single-shot rifle.
Pupu Battlefield Memorial Site
The urge to create, to bring an old story to life, was reawakened. The old fire that was starting to die down within him was rekindled and the Pupu-Shangani Festival was born.
“Our intention with the festival was always to tell the story of the Pupu-Shangani Battle and to do so with the help of the people that have always lived in the area,” recalled the festival’s co-ordinator, Thembelihle Mhlanga.
“The intention of the festival to take the people of Zimbabwe to the graves in Pupu through art and storytelling. We wanted this to be a Zimbabwean thing that would bring our people closer to our history, closer to their own story. So, we wanted to bring everyone along, with the festival telling the story alongside the people that live in the area. It is important to note that the carnival itself was meant to symbolise the Ndebele entourage’s crossing the Shangani River.”
Last week, Mhlanga would have smiled from Heaven as the country’s top brass made the long trek to Pupu to highlight the importance of a battle that was for over century only remembered in song. Thembelihle said what unfolded last week in Pupu was something that Mhlanga had worked hard to see brought to life.
“Cont always wanted to chart the journey from where it began right up to the tree, umtswiri. However, it was always important to him that the events that led to that moment when the king disappeared be documented as well. Cont understood that a lot of things happened during the journey, right to up to the battle and the king’s rest or disappearance. So, that is what he wanted to highlight because even during the journey, a lot of things were lost including the king’s treasures. Cont’s idea was to bring the story to life because if you look at the battleground, you can still find the tree where the Maxim gun was mounted.
“We wanted everything to be documented and we were lucky that in the area there were people who were old and had an intimate knowledge of the history of the place from even before people settled there. For example, there was an old man called Magagula who was really resourceful because he knew how history had unfolded from what he had been told by his elders,” said Mhlanga.
In the last interview that Sunday Life did with Mhlanga, he volunteered his time, guiding the news crew from Bulawayo all the way to Cross Malunku, King Lobengula Road and Nkayi-Lupane Road in Lupane where the Ndebele monarch is said to have passed on his way to the Shangani River.
Eventually, Mhlanga led the news crew to the river itself, where he was at pains to point out that the King had not disappeared, as a song that chronicles his fate claims, but had instead moved into Zambia.
Indeed, the search for King Lobengula’s grave is something that consumed Mhlanga later in his life. According to Thembelihle, the ultimate aim of the Pupu-Shangani Festival was to eventually partner with the Livingstone Cultural Festival (LICAF) in Zambia.
It is said that at the festival, the story of King Lobengula’s journey after he left Zimbabwe was told. Mhlanga wanted to bring those two stories, told separately for so long, together.
“Our intention was to eventually merge with the LICAF. That was the ultimate goal of the festival because we knew that on the Zambian side, they have a story on the journey of King Lobengula. It is a story that is told at LICAF and our intention was to bring the two stories together. The Zambian side would tell the story from their own perspective. So in the end both stories would merge making the narrative about King Lobengula’s journey whole,” he said.
For fellow arts practitioner Raisedon Baya, the fact that the story of the Pupu Battle has now been recognised as an essential part of the country’s history that needs to be documented is testament to Mhlanga’s vision and passion for stories that tell the Zimbabwean experience. His dream, it is now evident, was a valid one.
“Cont was many things. Besides his interest in telling stories he loved history and culture. He had so many historical stories about Bulawayo, how the townships were named and the like. But when he moved to Lupane he was more interested in telling the Pupu story. He wanted curate activities at the actual place where the battle happened, he wanted the story known. It’s unfortunate he couldn’t tell the story the way he wanted because of resources,” said Baya.
