{"id":4396,"date":"2021-06-26T17:41:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T16:41:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4396"},"modified":"2021-06-27T10:23:48","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T09:23:48","slug":"ndinxaniwe-rainbow-nation-deceit-exposed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4396","title":{"rendered":"Ndinxaniwe: Rainbow nation deceit exposed"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2018Art as archeology, as excavation\u2019 is the approach director\/producer Qondiswa James uses in devising this story through its iterations, \u2018rewriting the archive, we tell our own story\u2019. Ndinxaniwe<\/em> is a radical, tragic story that recognizes the fuckery of the Rainbow Nation lie, and excavates the truth of the past. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on Credo Mutwa\u2019s The Coming of the Strange Ones <\/em>from his internationally acclaimed Indaba, My Children, <\/em>James\u2019 interpretation of Mutwa\u2019s classic is a gift. It is a lens, a parallel, a continuum that illustrates how colonialism still plays out today in South Africa’s higher education institutions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is 11:17AM in the middle of a school day in the yard and we hear a sound like tight air spit from a piston and school children running. Pounding feet like stampedes for war cries, war crimes; I look outside through the grimy window panes of school buildings in the Transkei, and I think I imagine June 16, turned on its head.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ndinxaniwe <\/em>follows three teenagers attending a Catholic school in the forest of a rural town in the Eastern Cape. You feel the dust, the leaves, the smoky haze. The set, designed by Themba Stewart has branches from floor to ceiling, transporting us to the scene inhabited by those three boys in their school shirts, ties and grey pants. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The score is enchanting, natural and vocal, traversing a staggering range between peace and trauma. Soundscapes of birdsong in the kraal, the snoring of slumber, the stretching and rising from it. The live soundtrack by  musicians Iman Adams and Nkosenathi Koela, who sit among haystacks, sets the rural scene in which tension tautens.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Animals are embodied by the performers. Every motion and utterance is in sync, kinetic, and deliberate. The rolling of their necks slowly into the lowing cows, the panting with expectant canine eyes, the panic of the sheep. It crescendos to a blistering wall of frenetic sound and movement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a monologue, making direct eye contact with the audience, we are told that this is about \u201cone of those schools\u201d left behind by the revolution. We are reminded how “white monopoly capital” has stolen labour and plundered land. Why am I using the past tense here? It remains the case now<\/em>. I am reminded, and this is an important reminder. \u201cWe are failing, you are failing\u201d. Now, still. The play critiques the insidious effects of colonialism and patriarchy \u2013 effects that are tragic, common and current. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ndinxaniwe<\/em>\nis more than stirring contemporary adaptation of Credo Mutwa\u2019s The\nComing of the Strange Ones<\/em>. It\u2019s a masterwork in de-colonial\nartistic practice. Looking at African history through theatre,\nknowing and performing this history, the very telling of it by those\nto whom it belongs, is a powerful de-colonial tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To\nsay that the iconic African author, philosopher and sangoma\nVusamazulu Credo Mutwa\u2019s work draws on African mythology is an\ninadequate description of his contribution to humanity. In many\nconcrete ways, he immortalized ancient mythologies and documented\nindigenous history that is vital to our understanding of ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He instills in us the philosophy that knowledge is not finite or linear, it is transcendent as the soul. But it can also be forgotten and lost to the obscurity of time and the erasure of indigenous narratives. This erasure is what Mutwa countered, and this is what Ndinxaniwe <\/em>counters. Access to heritage is not guaranteed to post-colonial nations, and this is what makes Credo Mutwa and Ndinxaniwe <\/em>so indispensible, so potent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the\nteenage boys get high, drowsily slipping deep into the past, we\nfollow their hallucinations. Hallucinations \u2013 as a word \u2013 feels\nincorrect here, as these events depict a real and brutal colonial\nhistory. Melting into their vivid trip, we\u2019re taken to the very\nfirst point of contact between the white colonialists and the\nindigenous population. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lyricism of the performer\u2019s bodies on stage reflects Credo Mutwa\u2019s own lyrical telling of a time before missionaries arrived with guns and bibles. The settler ships appeared, in Mutwa\u2019s words, like \u201cmany-legged sea serpents\u201d from the river waters, and pink-skinned men with cold green eyes leapt out, the \u2018Strange Ones\u2019<\/em> with their metal weapons and need for baskets of food so they could engineer their plan to divide-and-conquer, kill and enslave, multiply themselves and their stolen wealth. To grow crops that, to quote Mutwa, are \u201cfertilized with hacked bits of dead slave bodies\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We the audience are often looped back to the schoolboys’ days, returned by strummed chords and routines starting anew: the break-time school bell ringing, repeated physical motifs, and a sterling display of physical theatre by performers Mfundo Zono, Mphumzi Nontshinga and Sivuyile Dunjwa who shift seamlessly between characters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are awakened from this fevered nightmare by a gunshot. We see \u201cJune 16th<\/sup> turned in on itself\u201d. Instantly, we remember the reality that this nightmare, the one of colonialism, is not over. That violence against black children has not ended, the war still rages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tonight’s show at 6pm is sold out, but you can watch<\/em> Ndinxaniwe online during the virtual National Arts Festival from 8 July. Buy a ticket and watch via the National Arts Festival <\/em>website<\/em><\/a>. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CREDITS:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Director & Producer: Qondiswa James
Production Manager & Assistant Director: Zukisani Nongogo
Performer: Mfundo Zono
Performer: Mphumzi Nontshinga
Performer: Sivuyile Dunjwa
Designer & Technical Manager: Themba Stewart <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 2021 The Critter. This article is licensed under a <\/em>Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Art as archeology, as excavation\u2019 is the approach director\/producer Qondiswa James uses in devising this story through its iterations, \u2018rewriting the archive, we tell our own story\u2019. Ndinxaniwe is a … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":4402,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[10,11,1],"tags":[1033,1148,1060],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4396"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4404,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4396\/revisions\/4404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}