The Sunday News
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
NKULULEKO Dube is a man who abhors the limelight.
Despite being one of the most famous and recognisable names and faces in the local arts scene, the founder of Inkululeko Yabatsha School of Arts (Iyasa), Dube, does not believe that he should be anywhere near the spotlight.
The glitz and glamour, which usually has a magnetic pull on many in showbiz, is just not for him.
It is in the shadows, away from the flashing cameras and prying eyes that he thinks he is able to showcase his best.
“I try to allow my work to do the talking,” he told Sunday Life in an interview last week.
“I try to live quite a private life and stay away from the limelight. I am there to give others the limelight. I am there to give them a platform, I am there to give young people that I work with a chance to shine. It is never about me. I feel that it is important sometimes that I make it clear that I don’t want to chase after the limelight with the stars. For me, it’s important that I let the work speak because I don’t want to be the one who’s at the forefront of the team. I prefer to work behind-the-scenes, backstage and the rehearsal room.”
Perhaps, Dube’s reluctance to hog the limelight and the headlines might seem odd to some people.
However, Dube’s background, and the rise of Iyasa, might provide a few pointers as to why he has always been somewhat shy at the prospect of being the centre of attention.
Dube was, after all, once a humble school teacher who, when he was not in front of a blackboard, enjoyed taking his pupils through their paces on stage in his spare time.
His Mpopoma High School Drama Club, born at the now famous Room 37, served as the midwife in the birth of Iyasa.
Iyasa Dance Troupe
Dube has never looked back ever since, quitting his profession to serve the arts fully. However, the humble school teacher in him has never fully died, which is perhaps why the glamour of showbiz has never fully reeled him in.
“I always say to my artistes, the most important place for me, the safest place, is the rehearsal room. After that, I prefer that our presentations become the language that expresses who I am and who they are. It’s not about me. It’s all about them,” he said.
After 23 years in the arts, Dube believes that the business of making stars, of nurturing young men and women that live and breathe the arts, is what has kept him going.
“When you wake up every day and you can look around you and see the results of what you have been trying to do, that is motivation enough for me to keep going. When you look at the time you have invested into what you do, you realise that it’s easier to move forward than to go back. I am one who enjoys working with young people, especially creative young people. I am motivated by passion, not only my passion but the passion of people that believe in what I do.
“When I see, young people walking into my office or into our rehearsal space with a belief that this is where they will find answers to their dreams, that alone is motivation enough for me. Even after 23 years, we see our institution being relevant to a lot of people, locally and internationally. I am a person who enjoys working in a rehearsal room, trying ideas and I always believe that I can do better than I did yesterday. I want to recreate what I did yesterday but in a better way,” he said.
As Iyasa celebrated two decades in the arts industry, the Covid-19 pandemic was sweeping across the globe. Performances at events and touring have been the lifeblood of the group since it was founded in 2001 but the pandemic, which dealt a heavy blow to the arts worldwide, put a stop to that.
With the world now largely back to normal, Dube admits that the period was perhaps the most challenging that they have faced since Iyasa came into being.
Mpopoma High School
“It is not easy to pinpoint one year out of 23 as the hardest you have faced but I would say the most challenging year was the year in which Covid-19 started. At that time we had to cancel a lot of programmes, income generating programmes internationally. We had gotten used to a system of working whereby for half the year we were in Zimbabwe and the other half outside the country.
It was the first time we could not explore any of our opportunities though no fault of our own. It was a very hard year in that it also brought a lot of depression among the artistes that we were working with. We saw quite a lot of artistes choosing other avenues to make a living. It was a time when the composition of the ensemble was a very difficult thing to juggle. Keeping Iyasa alive, particularly the first year, was not easy. The year that we had Covid-19 was our most difficult year,” he said.
Dube and Iyasa have come a long way from those days in Mpopoma High School’s Room 37. He is now an industry leader, a man that has even been acknowledged as one of the men and women that have left an indelible imprint on the country’s arts scene by the Namas, the country’s premier arts award showcase.
Iyasa has become a nursery for budding arts talent in Bulawayo, a beacon of hope for creative young people who live in the hope that their talent can take them from their modest homes and even beyond the borders of their country.
After more than two decades in the industry, Dube said he is not tired of holding the hands of dreamy young people that want to shoot for the stars.
“I can’t say I am scared of the future but I am cautious of the future. That is why when I wake up, I make sure that what I will do on that particular day I am preparing the young people that I am working with for the future. It is the result of what we have been doing that keeps me going. When we look around at the careers that we have created, we feel proud. One thing about me is I also have around me, a very strong team of people, from my family, my wife and children, all the way to those young people that look up to me. What I did yesterday motivates me for the future,” he said.
