The Sunday News
Rumbidzai Mhlanga, Sunday Life Reporter
DOING what one is passionate about brings a more coherent meaning to one’s world. No matter how long it can take a person to find out what fate has in store for them, in the end they will be what they are meant to be.
For celebrated artiste, Nkululeko Innocent Dube, the founder and director of Inkululeko Yabatsha School of Arts (Iyasa) the journey to self-discovery was long and arduous. It took him six years while in the education sector to pursue and realise his dream. Being an artiste was a calling he could no longer run away from. It was God’s case that he could not appeal.
Sunday Life Reporter Rumbidzai Mhlanga (RM), talked to Nkululeko Dube (ND) who narrated the story of his life and walked the reporter through the at times rough path that he has so far travelled.
RM: What made you quit teaching and venture into arts industry?
ND: I left the teaching profession to pursue my arts career on a full time basis. You see, I was always passionate about arts but because education was also important I had to go to college and have a profession. I therefore did teaching. But even as a teacher I did a lot of arts in almost all the schools I taught, the likes of Ntabazinduna, Northlea and Mpopoma High School. The truth of the matter is I really never divorced myself from the arts even during my teaching days, I really enjoyed arts. The success of the Mpopoma High School drama club also played a role in my decision to say I needed to take a step further into the arts industry. The opportunities that came after the club had done well forced to take a decision of focusing on doing arts full-time.
RM: Can you tell us when and how Iyasa was formed.
ND: I was working with a group of vibrant and talented young people who by then knew they had to leave school and probably it would have been the end of their careers. Iyasa is a product of Mpopoma High School, I was just the patron of the already formed drama club and we did more, suddenly we became a craze of the whole country. Those who still remember our first piece was Woza my fohloza by Mbongeni Ngema then we did Ibum Jive then one event led to another starting on a regional level, national then we went abroad. That is where it all started, we then decided to take our club to a more professional level.
RM: What motivates you to keep going?
ND: Firstly, I want to highlight that if it was not for arts I wouldn’t be where I am today. For me flattery and criticism go down the same drain, you find out that people have a lot of perceptions about us artistes and if you allow that to affect you, it will also destroy you. That is what at one time would have made me give up on my career. There is a lot of public pressure, a lot of beliefs and opinions. I am motivated by appreciation, especially by the people I am doing this for, the young people. My greatest inspiration is seeing young people benefiting from what we are doing.
RM: What was your mission when you started Iyasa?
ND: When I got into the system, I didn’t like the image people had about artistes. It was taken as an industry of people who have failed in life or who do not have anything to do. I did not also like the representation of the girl child in the industry, arts seemed not to be meant for girls back then so I took it upon myself to change the myths which were in the industry. So, my mission was to change the way people viewed arts, I wanted the same people to start appreciating and see great opportunities to sustain life and even the national economy. And I think we have partly achieved that. There was also no space for the young people in the industry, people were looking for ripe talent but no one was ready to groom talent hence we formed Inkululeko Yabatsha School of Arts to bridge the gap and start grooming young talent from scratch as well as train them to be what they are passionate about.
RM: Looking back, from where you come from, what is the feeling?
ND: Looking back and seeing more than 20 years in the industry I ask myself how it even happened and I get inspired that if I have travelled this far, I might as well run the whole race. I get nervous looking at what I have achieved and get the satisfaction that I am doing what I love and there is no turning back.
RM: Being a celebrity, what do you think people say about you?
ND: I have never been concerned about what people say, I am only concerned about my work. I always run my race and stick to my principles, I am of course informed by what I read, see and hear but I do not make it my template to life. I am very sure that there are people who believe in what I do and I also appreciate that there are others who do not. What matters to me is the happiness of the people I do this for the rest is not an issue to me. I know I can never please everyone in life. I learn from both the negative and positive things I come across in life.
RM: What uplifts you when you are at your lowest?
ND: I am an avid soccer fan, a vivid Manchester United follower and I read a lot of inspirational books. I also listen to a lot of music my best artiste being Zola 7, Bhekumuzi Luthuli and Mbongeni Ngema. I love particularly his song tilted Melodious messages of hope.
RM: Tell us about the future of Iyasa.
ND: We do a lot of dance because that is what the market allows us to do. I feel like it’s not the right time for us to spread our wings and bring in more expertise, so we are bringing young people with fresh ideas who want to come and explore their ideas and start new initiatives we are opening a platform for them. We founded Creative Diversity and Social Inclusion (Credis) to promote upcoming talent and give them a platform to showcase it to the world.
RM: Since you have achieved almost all that you aimed to, what have your products achieved?
ND: I can proudly say most of my students even though some are no longer in the arts, have their successful projects. For instance we have Sandra Ndebele who is notably doing well in the industry, some of them have started projects that are almost similar to Iyasa. Pepsi (Magonya) started a dance group in Australia and others have a drumming club in China just to mention a few. But most of them are doing quite well and it gives me a lot of satisfaction.
