\nIf you maintain a deeply pessimistic forecast, you will at some stage\nbe proved prophetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our national poet,\nLesego Rampolokeng, is an oracle in Oratorio\nof a Forgotten Youth<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe past will\nbite you in the arse,\u201d is a classic no-frills Rampolokeng\nobservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Words written then, describing what we see now; food riots, a burning and looting. We watch the dam break and human hunger and frustration run in rivers, smashing through the symbolic veneer of capitalism and its extraction. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lesego foretold this\nall. In his gravel baritone ominous as thunder, he has always\nforetold it. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n We didn\u2019t want to listen. In the heady days of the \u201890s after the violence stopped, through the remaining optimism of the \u2018oughts, we smiled indulgently while ignoring the unease pricking the base of our skull, or turning below our stomach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While we dreamt of\nthe rainbow nation, Lesego never looked away from our shadow, voicing\nthat which we\u2019d prefer not to hear. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur lives are split, reality fractured… schizophrenia is seeking fundamental change, and getting statues,\u201d he growls. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Can\u2019t argue with that. He\u2019s right, always been right. His libretto for Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth<\/em> brings the future to the present as we watch KZN and Gauteng convulse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mandla Mlangeni, who was Standard Bank young artist for jazz in 2019, leads this oratorio, so presumably it got going after he finished that gig, but Lesego\u2019s been penning these prophecies for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This foray, big and\nambitious as it is, encompassing The Brother Moves On in association\nwith the Wits School of Arts, Resonance String Quartet, and Vivacious\nSounds Choir, is a success. More than: it is a feat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The live stream on Tuesday not so much. It stuttered and hung and was excruciating to endure; the virtual equivalent of a drunken conversation near your ear while you\u2019re trying to concentrate on the music, combined with a persistent heckler from the back. They shushed and quietened down as the gig went on, but never entirely shut up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, when the recording is loaded onto the National Arts Festival site to view on demand from 18 \u2013 20 July, the rabble would have been ushered out, and without interruption you can enjoy Lesego\u2019s cutting rhymes, the martial drums, the sad soaring horns. Mandla\u2019s muted trumpet echoing the melancholic notes of Miles Davis, transforming them, bringing them home to an African setting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *We see Yonela Mnana, Mandla’s collaborator, closing out with vocals seemingly drunk on sorrow, sorrowfully drunk \u2013 a longing in the voice resonating with the exquisite harmonies of the choir.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This while artist\nTawanda Mu Afrika brushes sand aside to form and reform the world;\ncities rise, are put on fire, a continent gasps, shouts, fists\nproliferate and in the end morph into whorls resembling flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This Oratorio is a\nremembrance, a celebration, a lament, a prophecy seeing its\nreckoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is a tour de\nforce viewed through glass. To have been there, in a crowd, a mob\ntuned in to the message, would have felt like a revolution. Its\nshadow will have to suffice, for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Photo: Screenshot\nof Tawanda Mu Afrika\u2019s dynamic work projected behind the musicians.\n<\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a92021\nThe Critter. This article is licensed under a <\/em>Creative\nCommons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License<\/a>.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n CREDITS:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n \nThe\nWits Ensemble: \nThe\nBrother Moves on: \nResonance\nString Quartet: \nVivacious\nSounds: \nLibretto:\nLesego Rampolokeng<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Sand Animator: Tawanda Mu Afrika<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n *This line has been altered to include Yonela Mnana’s name.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" If you maintain a deeply pessimistic forecast, you will at some stage be proved prophetic. Our national poet, Lesego Rampolokeng, is an oracle in Oratorio of a Forgotten Youth. \u201cThe … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4492,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[1169,1170,1173,1171,1174,1172],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489"}],"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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4489"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4577,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4489\/revisions\/4577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSibonelwesihle Kodisang (tenor sax)
\nMathapelo\nWesinyane (alto sax)
\nKgaugelo Modise (vocals)
\nEnoch Marutha\n(percussion)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nSiyabonga Mthembu
\nSimphiwe\nTshabalala
\nAyanda Zalekile
\nZelizwe Mthembu<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nKabelo Motlhomi (violin)
\nKabelo Monnathebe\n(violin)
\nTiisetso Mashishi (viola)
\nDaliwonga Tshangela\n(cello)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n
\nTshidiso monoton
\nPuleng sedi
\nAkhona\nThongo
\nNtando Nxumalo
\nSurprise Sengwayo
\nKhethiwe\nMalinga
\nBanele Khanye
\nMthokozisi Sibisi<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n