Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WHEN Matesu Dube knelt and bowed before President Mnangagwa, waiting to be capped, a cheer went up from fellow graduands who were looking on at Lupane State University recently.
This was Dube’s moment of glory and he had 1 707 voices to cheer him on as he reached the pinnacle of his academic life so far.
Matesu Dube
The merriment was warranted. Dube had just become the recipient of the Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa Chancellor’s Award for his final-year project titled “The Journey of Umkhathi Theatre Works”.
His fellow graduands understood the long and arduous journey that Dube had just endured. Just like him, they had toiled away for long, burning the midnight lamp as they sought to put a fitting cap on their academic studies.
However, for Dube, the journey had been much more than just a year. His trek to that stage had been 27 long and hard years in the making. The journey had not begun in lecture halls but on the fabled dusty streets of Njube, where Umkhathi was formed.
“When we formed Umkhathi it was just out of mere enthusiasm,” Dube told Sunday Life.
“I never dreamt that one day I would be on that academic platform because of a project about Umkhathi Theatre.”
In 1997, Dube came together with Maqhawe Moyo, Alexander Mhlanga, Richard Mahachi, Mthandazo Sithole, John Phiri and Tsoka Ndlovu to form Umkhathi.
That particular year was a desperate one for the seven as they had just seen Young Warriors, the group they had all been a part of since 1993, fold due to the exit of a crucial member of their management team. Out of the desperation of unemployment, Umkhathi was born.
“The idea of forming Umkhathi came after we realised that we had theatre training that we got at Young Warriors Theatre Company under the late Norman Takawira.
Matesu Dube (second from left) with classmates at the graduation ceremony
Norman Takawira had moved to Harare as he had gotten a job at Assitej Zimbabwe as a programmes officer and the senior members at Young Warriors failed to run the group and it folded.
“As youths from Njube with the energy and enthusiasm that we had, we thought of forming a theatre group and we named it Umkhathi. We named the group Umkhathi, which we felt reflected the situation which we found ourselves, which was unemployment,” said Dube.
At a time when social media was not even a thought in the minds of the most tech-savvy innovators, Dube said Umkhathi faced an uphill battle to get recognised, as people gave favour to more recognisable names like Black Umfolosi.
“In our formative years, we were inspired by groups that include Sunduza Theatre and Dance Company, Ihawu Lesizwe, Savuka Arts and Black Umfolosi. Most of these groups were already exporting their productions overseas and we wanted to be like them. However, we faced many challenges.
For one, we did not have the finances to buy costumes. We also wanted to make a name for ourselves and be invited to perform at big events but remember at that time there wasn’t any social media through which you could share posters and other publicity materials. To get a Press release out in the newspaper, when there were renowned groups including Amakhosi and Iluba Elimnyana was very hard,” he said.
With Dube at the helm, Umkhathi blossomed, and over the years, they have become recognised as one of the country’s greatest exponents of traditional dance. Dube has rightfully also become widely known as an expert in traditional cultural dance. He acknowledges that this is mostly due to the cultural education that he got in Bulawayo when he was young.
“People identify Umkhathi more with traditional dance because we created our own brand of researched, polished traditional dance accompanied by choreography and four-part music.
I grew up watching traditional dance in my hood during traditional ceremonies. During my primary school days, traditional dance was popular at school, I remember we used to watch Umdala uMalaba, who would, from time to time, visit schools to perform amabhiza.
I attended Helemu Primary School in Njube, which was a powerhouse in traditional dance and theatre in the early eighties. At one time, I was part of the traditional dance club at primary school. During Christmas celebrations, there was a lot of traditional dance at Nketa Park in Mpopoma, an event run by the Bulawayo City Council,” he said.
When Dube and his six companions started laying the foundation stones for Umkhathi, they were doing so against the backdrop of a society that viewed the arts as a distraction, an unnecessary pastime that was taking their children from the classroom. When he walked on stage and accepted his award from the President on 9 November, he was aware once damned and condemned as one of those that were “uneducated.”
“In Zimbabwe, artistes have always been looked down upon by society yet they value artists from other countries. Back then when we started Umkhathi, it was even worse as people couldn’t understand what you meant when you said you were an artist. Back then people looked down on artists and thought they were just mad people.
I was lucky as I never faced any resistance at home maybe because my brother was involved in a musical band called Wells Fargo in the early eighties. I remember there was Madlezibabayo and people thought he was mad. The mindset changed when they heard our plays on the radio and later saw some of our products on television.
Now that we have courses like film and theatre at university level, I hope this will continue to change people’s minds,” he said.
However, Dube acknowledged that a lot of things had changed in the 27 years since he entered the industry.
“A lot has changed. I guess since the time I enrolled at LSU, I have been introducing what I learn at LSU to Umkhathi this includes screen acting, and we have done several skits and videos for different organisations.
We are also working on adapting one of our dance shows, Footprints into a movie. Personally, my thinking and planning of projects have changed. Now I have to think academically when planning a show like preparing a stage set and how to go on the process of building the show,” he said.
When he walked on stage, cap in hand to finally get his academic honours, many saw one man silently rejoicing at finally crossing the finish line. However, on his shoulders, Dube believes he carried young men and women who have represented Umkhathi through the years. It was their moment as much as it was his.
“I feel good about the documentation I have been doing over the years, be it posters, videos, or newspaper cuttings, these were the backbone of the project that won the Chancellor’s award in the faculty of Humanities at Lupane State University.
I feel proud of Umkhathi and will never regret working at Umkhathi for more than a quarter of a century, hard work pays. This is a milestone for myself and Umkhathi Theatre as this is the first such project to get an award at LSU because this is a graded project that was marked by academics, it’s not an honorary award,” he said.
