Grahamstown will tomorrow (Friday 24 February) become one of 10 venues around South Africa for an artistic event marking the deaths of more than 600 South African men when the SS Mendi sank in the English Channel on 21 February 2017.
Grahamstown will tomorrow (Friday 24 February) become one of 10 venues around South Africa for an artistic event marking the deaths of more than 600 South African men when the SS Mendi sank in the English Channel on 21 February 2017.
Conceptualised by UCT lecturer and writer, Mandla Mbothwe, Ndabamnye no SS Mendi: I became one with SS Mendi – a segment about the living monument and the young thirsty soul – will be performed twice during lunchtime tomorrow during the Puku isiXhosa Story Festival.
There will be two performances of the piece, which is around 15 minutes long, at 1pm at the National English Literary Museum (NELM) on Friday 24 February.
Historian Nomathamsanqa Tisani will introduce the work and its creators.
Ndabamnye no SS Mendi will be performed by Lulamile Bongo Nikani, who graduated in Fine Arts at the University of Fort hare in the mid-90s and has since built a career as a performer, director and arts educator.
Mbothwe describes the piece as the creative representation of a man who became one with the SS Mendi.
On 16 January 1917 the Mendi troopship sailed from Cape Town en route to Le Havre, France, carrying 805 black privates of the South African Native Labour Corps, five white officers, and 33 crew members.
On the morning of 21 February 2017, the SS Darro rammed into the SS Mendi, which sank in 20 minutes.
More than 600 men died, by far the majority of them black, members of the SANLC. When the ship went down, they sang and danced, led in “the Death Drill” by Reverend Isaac Wauchope.
In the performance, the text of SEK Mqhayi’s poem, Ukutshona kukaMendi, is used as the basis for an argument with the Living Monument Character.
“The segment performance is about the man, the spirited soul, on to whom the ship SS Mendi held – or he held on to her,” Mbothwe explains.
“He swallowed their war cries, his heartbeat came from their dance, and his belly was filled by their clan names.
“He is the thirsty soul in salty waters. Their names are stuck in his throat, he wants to vomit them, but only the living can make him: only when they seek to recover the names of their loved ones, that he can place these names back home, back in the landscape, back in the memories of the living.
“He is the man of water and land. He is mud of the past ready to be moulded into the future.”
The costume, conceptualised and curated by Mbothwe, is designed by Lea Bishop.
Mbothwe will also screen minutes of looping interpretation film of the Death Drill.
The performance will be one of 10 live installations around the country.
Nikani worked at the Steve Biko Centre directing the Abelusi, Izithole and Imbewu performing arts programmes, and has appeared in TV series including Ityala lama Wele and Tshatsha.
As a theatrical director Mbothwe has won numerous awards such as the Fleur du Cap award for most innovative and contributing theatre company in the country, together with Mark Fleishman, Jennie Reznek-under Magnet Theatre Educational Trust (2012 & 2010); nominated of best Director in Mendi and Biko’s Quest, Best director award Stop Crime Festival Artscape for ‘9437 to Stadt’ (2002); a medal for Committed Community Educator (2002), just to name a few.
Between 2013 to 2014 he was a Creative Manager at the Artscape Theatre where he plans to advance training and development in theatre and engage in creative methods for the celebration of African stories. He developed and curated several programmes, festivals and productions.
PUKU ISIXHOSA STORY FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND
For the full programme please go to: bit.ly/GrocPSF17
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