The live magic may be gone, but the National Arts Festival showcases some exhilarating work
The 45th edition of the National Arts Festival was always going to be fraught with difficulties once the Covid-19 pandemic made clear that South Africans would not be able to gather in the Eastern Cape town of Makhanda for its annual showcase of music, theatre, art, dance, comedy, literature and panel discussions — a reflection of what the country is thinking and feeling.
Madosini, a master of instruments and composition, was the featured artist at this year’s National Arts Festival Those had all disappeared. To be replaced by a buffering sign, the WhatsApping, a household in the background — all intrusions into interaction. Where previously one’s eyes and attention had the freedoms of engagement, that experience was now mediated by cinematographers, directors and editors. One’s reflection on work became more solitary and lonely.
A stellar programme included Standard Bank Young Artist for Dance, Lulu Prudence Mlangeni, who returned to her Soweto hood for a documentary, . The film brought together autobiography and dance, her life and her life’s work, to explore the anti-black, anti-female milieu she had to fight against and rise above.
was performed and filmed within the claustrophobia of a square no larger than a small, four-walled shack. Instead of corrugated metal and cast-away wood, the walls were made of blankets — the blanket of the matriarchy, poverty, defence, rural nostalgia, warmth and protection. Sopotela’s room was furnished with nothing more than a shovel, potjie pot, elemental heater and storage chest. All these props were evocatively used as parts of the performance and the filming process.
Mini-documentaries were released daily during the festival’s 11 programmed days. Each episode centred on one of Madosini’s songs as it traversed her life from a teenager playing the umrhube in the reeds of Pondoland as part of the initiation ritual for young girls to international acclaim. Archival footage, including from Poetry Africa in Durban and Womad in Reading, imbued the short films with a gorgeous sense of performance and personal insight.
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