Bongani Majola and Thebe Mabanga
Johannesburg’s Nelson Mandela Theatre is host to an uneasy mix of audience members. Zulu-speaking hostel residents from surrounding settlements rub shoulders with black and white suburbanites keen to learn more about Zulu history. All have come to watch the life story of Zulu king Shaka in the musical Bayede Shaka: A Spear Is Born.
This is the latest production from the Kwa-Mashu Community Advancement Project, also known as the K-Cap Alive Kids from Kwa-Mashu in Kwa-Zulu Natal.
“This is a time when people realise the importance of where they are coming from,” says Xolani Majozi, spokesperson for K-Cap. “Shaka was an advocate of black unity. This play is not just relevant to the Zulu people, but to people who want to know about the history of black people.” More importantly, it seems, “it’s about music and entertainment”.
The first thing director Edmund Mhlongo does is to dispel the myth that King Shaka Zulu was a bloodthirsty autocratic warmonger who discouraged any public show of affection from his warriors. In fact, according to Mhlongo, Shaka played by Mfundo Msibi had a girlfriend, Phampatha, played with stunning vocal prowess by Zimhlophe Shembe.
For those wanting a textbook account of the life of Shaka, accuracy is not guaranteed nostalgia trips are seldom accurate. But one can forgive any slips of historical truth in favour of what audiences demand of musicals: namely song and dance.
Shaka, more than any other Zulu king, commanded the richest poetry of praise singing. This Mhlongo imaginatively melds into heart-rending songs, giving the musical a dimension of originality. The contemporary choreography is equally entertaining, but the traditional Zulu dance called ukusina is not as emphatic as one would like it to be. Perhaps the theatre cautioned against excessive stomping on its stage
The production is mostly in English. If the narrative is not as powerful as it would be in Zulu (you always lose something in translation), then the inadequacy is compensated for in the hilarity that results from using English to tell a very Zulu story.
A shortcoming of the production is a lack of technical sophistication. There are times when the group’s community theatre pedigree comes through to cause some odd moments. The set would be well served by some idyllic projected rural hillside backdrop, rather than the big blank screen. The work looks all the more awkward given the presence of an unconcealed band, which between songs finds itself looking more like a spellbound audience.
The production company that presents this work has risen from the ashes of political violence that has gripped KwaZulu-Natal. The project was started as a community theatre group and has now expanded to offer computer graphics training, a filmmaker’s training project as well as music and dance classes. Funding is secured form Britain through the British Council and Durban-born London-based filmmaker Janine Horfan. The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology also helps to foot the bill.
Bayede Shaka has already toured London. It will be heading for China in March, Norway in May and will enjoy a European summer in June when it returns to London.
The group’s first three productions focused on Durban’s street kids in We Are Alive, landmine casualties in Angola with Cry Not Child, and child labour in Our Voices Our Right. All three have had international seasons.
With Bayede Shaka they have gone in search of their roots.
The details
Bayede Shaka: A Spear Is Born is at the Nelson Mandela Theatre at the Civic Theatre in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. Shows are from Tuesdays to Saturdays at 7pm and on Sundays at 2pm. Call 083 621 6338 for details