\nAzania, the\nname given to South Africa black liberation\nmovements, holds\nemotional gravity. In\nthis play by the same name, it is also the name of a 14-year-old\ndaughter gone missing amidst the turmoil of apartheid, as writer,\ndirector, and actor Xola Mziwakhe presents\nan epic story of a man named Buntu Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The characters\u2019 names indicate this is a story of South Africa, and Azania <\/a><\/em>is one of the strongest community theatre productions on the Fringe at the National Arts Festival this year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In\nthis music-meets-storytelling production,\nHloniphani Mthethwa strums the pain and joys of the father as he\nlives a richly textured life from apartheid to democracy. In Maskandi\nguitar riffs\nand tremulous voice, Mthethwa, who appears nervous at the start,\nbecomes as essential as a heartbeat to the body of the fictional\ncharacter Buntu Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With\nhis symbolic\nname, Buntu struggles to retain his humanity when he learns how his\ndaughter suffered at the hands of his white boss. He fights with\nhimself as much as the white boss when he finds his\ndaughter\u2019s letter stating why she has run away.\nThe story runs through to 1994 when Buntu votes for democracy and\nthen attempts to find his child. But\nnothing is as straightforward as it seems, and waiting\nbecomes a major theme within the\nnarrative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Azania<\/em>\nis written with an ear for history and a soft touch to politics. It\nis a redemptive story, and\nmusic smooths its edges, as integrated into\nthe storytelling as the words and movements of the actor. But the\nstrong storytelling is undermined\nby the tightness of the performance in the\nspace, by the shoddy backdrop of dripping newspaper pieces\nhaphazardly stuck to the wall and curtain, embarrassingly\nfalling to the\nfloor every now and again. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\nis elements such as these that reveal the importance of a director,\nadmittedly a struggle within the frugality of community theatre,\nbut Azania<\/em>\nhas such potential that it would be remiss for the work to continue\nto tour without continuing to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Azania\nis available to view on the National Arts Festival Fringe\nprogramme.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Credits:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Writer\nand Director : Xola Mziwakhe \u00a92021 The Critter. This article is licensed under a\u00a0<\/em>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nMusic\ncomposers: Tsepo Da-Optimist, HloniphaniArt, Xola Mziwakhe
\nStage\nManager: Nompilo Ntshangase
\nProject\nManager: Fezeka Shandu
\nLight\nDesigner: Fezeka Shandu <\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n