Charl Blignaut
It’s easy to sensationalise the cultural myths that surround Lake Fundudzi near Thohoyando in the Northern Province. Fundudzi is referred to as the “zombie lake”, a place where buried ancestors are said to come alive at night and play drums beneath the water.
It is the myths and superstitions of Fundudzi that have informed much of Samson Mudzunga’s internationally acclaimed art work – but also landed the elderly artist in the midst of a communal feud that saw him languish behind bars for more than a year.
Now Mudzunga is back in prison – and the headlines – following bizarre claims of an elaborate murder plot linked to his art.
Although Mudzunga, one of the inter- nationally celebrated “woodcarvers of Venda”, is best known for his large, exquisitely crafted wooden drums, it is his elaborate performance rituals that have attracted particular interest from cultural anthropologists.
A fortnight ago, as journalists and academics prepared to trek out to the former homeland to observe Mudzunga’s latest performance piece, they learnt that the artist had been incarcerated for a second time for allegedly defying his bail conditions.
The work, which was to have both challenged and incorporated the myths of the lake, would have involved traditional dancing, feasting, the symbolic burial of the artist in one of his drums on the shores of the lake and his subsequent “resurrection” in Johannesburg.
When the artist’s son, Lufumo Mudzunga, learnt of the work he declared that his father was plotting to crawl from his “grave” – while all eyes were on it – along a specially dug tunnel and kill an enemy in a nearby village. He admitted he had not seen this tunnel himself.
This conspiracy theory has astonished the artist and his lawyer – particularly after the Sunday Times picked the story up: “Murder most strange” read their headline a fortnight ago. “Son ruins artist’s elaborate plot to kill his half-brother while supposedly buried alive.”
The truth behind the headlines is buried in an ongoing feud between Mudzunga and his son, as well as a long-standing cultural war Mudzunga has been engaged in with Headman Netshiavha, chief of Lake Fundudzi. Netshia-vha publicly opposes Mudzunga’s hyped performances and his demythologising of the powers of the lake.
The mini cultural war has been simmering for decades. Mudzunga, for example, carries with him a statement by his then 105-year- old mother claiming “there are no zombies at Lake Fundudzi”.
According to academic Cathy Coats of the region’s Giyani Technical College, “this is actually all about Samson’s performance work”. The trouble began in earnest in September 1997 after Mudzunga’s third performance.
“The headman blocked the road to [Mudzunga’s] homestead and banned him from drinking from the lake during his performance. We had to turn back and negotiate to get past.”
Soon after that performance, Netshiavha’s kraal was burnt down and two of his cars damaged. Mudzunga, who lives 30km away, was immediately arrested on charges of arson and malicious damage to property.
In what one associate of Mudzunga’s describes as a “gross miscarriage of justice”, bail was set at R30 000. According to Coats, Mudzunga’s lawyer allowed his client to remain in prison for 13 months without attempting to reduce his bail. The lawyer was, she believes, himself subject to threats from the community.
It was only when a Legal Aid lawyer, James Madiga of the University of Venda, was appointed to represent Mudzunga that he was released on R5 000 bail.
It was while he was in prison, claims Mudzunga, that his son took money from his home and sold two of his drums without permission.
Mudzunga laid charges against his son, who was arrested but turned state witness and then revealed his murder theory.
When contacted, Madiga, who is in possession of Mudzunga’s arson docket, stressed that the 13 witness accounts gathered from the chief’s homestead are by no means definitive and that, on November 24, the director of public prosecutions at the high court in Sibasa will be conducting a preparatory examination to determine whether or not the case should even go to trial.
His son’s claims against him have, however, landed the artist back in prison until then.
15