The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
FOR the past three or four years Intwasa Arts Festival koBulawayo has deliberately programmed plays with a strong historical link with Bulawayo and its people — after all the festival is, first and foremost, about Bulawayo and its people. This deliberate programming started in 2014 with the highly successful UMbiko kaMadlela which went on to collect all theatre awards during Nama 2015 — more importantly the play was supported financially by the City of Bulawayo as part of the 120 years celebration.
UMbiko kaMadlela, the play, looks at succession within the Ndebele kingdom — it is a story about Bulawayo and its people. The play is a gripping drama that resonated with most of those that came to see it when it showed during the festival years back. After Mbiko there was the Christopher Mlalazi-written Warrior directed by Matesu Dube and performed by Umkhathi Theatre, which was also well received by festival audiences. This year the festival, through an Umkhathi Theatre and Naughty by Nature collaboration, featured one of the most thought provoking play in Ihloka — this story is inspired by the Ndebele uprising against white rule. Again the play was well attended and well received. Most of the people that paid to watch the play left satisfied, with some even saying they would pay again to watch the same play.
So what is it that makes these historical plays attractive to festival audiences — who are mainly locals? Obviously it is the issues they deal with and also the language in which they are presented in. The plays are connecting with the people — telling people’s stories, reflecting on their history and acknowledging them as a people and an important people for that matter. The plays are a mirror in which locals come to see themselves and their lives — past and present reflected. Intwasa is a cultural space and this deliberate programming has hit a raw nerve, positively, and is beginning to bear sweet fruits in the form of people willing to pay for the plays. Therefore, more plays and stories about Bulawayo and its people need to be seen at the festival.
This could, in the future, be a tourist attraction — with people just coming to the festival to see and hear stories about Bulawayo and its people. This is not to say the whole festival should be about Bulawayo and its people. The festival is always preaching diversity and must continue to be diverse — giving everyone an opportunity. But within that diversity there must be one or two events that basically speak to Bulawayo and its people.
Thabani Moyo’s Ihloka was thought provoking — well directed and acted. It was also not for the faint hearted or thin skinned. One or two people that left the theatre after watching the show called to say the play was divisive and inciting. That could be true if you look at it outside the context of which the play was set and the playwright’s motives. The play was set at a time when the Ndebele people were angry, very angry, with the white man and his rule. The white man and his rule had brought untold suffering to the Ndebeles — bringing misfortunes to the land. The play is a call to arms — to rise against the white man and his rule and reclaim the glory of the past. The play is also a call to Ndebele people to reclaim their lost glory and dominance.
This viewed from outside the contest of history could be viewed as an idea supporting the current debate around the restoration of the Ndebele monarch — which I believe is not the intention of the writer and even the director of the play. It would be sad if the play is not seen outside the festival as it is well written and well-acted that it deserves at least a tour of Matabeleland. I would recommend it for the whole country but its movement might be restricted by language as it is mostly in IsiNdebele.
