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PRODID:-//MyGigGuide//Event Calendar//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART:20261115T120000Z
DTEND:20261115T130000Z
DTSTAMP:20261115T043803Z
UID:event-10196@mygigguide.co.za
SUMMARY:Umkhosi Wenala
DESCRIPTION:Umkhosi Wenala is a theater-making/storytelling collaboration between Empatheatre and Mbazwana Creative Arts (MCA)in Zululand\, Kwa-Zulu Natal that set out to create an innovative democratic decision-making space for youth in northern KZN\, South Africa through the process of restorative public storytelling. Over a period of 18 months the team listened to stories of elders\, youth and everyone in between in Northern KZN to surface the rich and diverse histories of this region. With the legacies of apartheid many perspectives and histories have been excluded in decision making\, and this play sets out to re-map these lost histories and memories through the leadership of KZN youth. From out of the research and devising workshop process\, a new musical theatre production was born titled Umkhosi Wenala (The Festival of Abundance). Since 2022 the production has toured across the region of Northern Zululand\, with each performance followed by citizen assembly with the audience\, performers and creative team. Umkhosi Wenala features 13-young activist theatre-makers and storytellers in the region\, and worked to mobilize their existing capacities and talents towards democratic governance and social-justice issues arising for them. The two collaborating organizations Empatheatre and the Mbazwana Creative Arts (MCA)share a combined vision for forging inclusive creative processes and spaces where community artists/writers/ musicians and performers are located center-stage of their own stories and histories. THE PLAYThe 60 minute musical (told in isiZulu and English) tells the story of two twins\, a brother Nkosana and sister Makhosazana who inherit a kingdom after the disappearance of their mother\, a queen\, said to have drowned in the ocean. The two Nkosi’s\, destined to rule together\, are divided by circumstance and political forces beyond their control. After two decades of betrayal and conflict between their competing kingdoms\, the situation further escalates with the arrival of a fence which cuts the communities off from their village and resources and resurfaces past tensions and new resentments. Umkhosi Wenala weaves together many relevant moments from the last century of Northern Zululand’s history and uses humor\, pathos\, satire\, ritual and music to tell its story.THE CRISIS THE PLAY RESPONDS TONorthern Kwa-Zulu Natal has experienced generations of exclusion and environmental racism. During apartheid\, communities were forcibly removed from their ancestral homes to either make way for mining\, tourism and/or conservation. In the region around the IsiMangaliso National Park\, with ongoing wilderness expansion\, local Zulu and Tsonga people are still under threat of being dispossessed from the resting (and dwelling) place of their ancestors\, their land\, their livelihood practices\, and the realms in which their ancestral stories weave into daily practices with land and ocean. The region has been declared a world heritage site\, which while is an important demarcation for tourism and environmental protection\, the cultural heritage(s) that exist in this region have not been fully articulated and or included in the region's plans and projects. Furthermore\, with this demarcation as a heritage site\, no industry or industrial development is allowed in the region\, despite mining concessions that have been made nearby. This means rural youth growing up in this area have limited creative career options available to them\, namely two - conservation or extractive capitalism. Creative economies\, and the room for creative economies between these polar fields is desperately needed. Furthermore\, there is great potential in drawing from these creative and education economies as mediums for social justice and restoring the cultural heritages into the world heritage site - situated creative education as a powerful opportunity for capacity mobilization in the region. The central instrument used to justify dispossession and environmental racism is the process of mapping. Land and sea is divided and allocated value through spatial planning and mapping by governments\, NGOs\, and Big Business around conservation\, as well as by extractive industry\, drawn mainly from biological sciences and economics. Yet the spiritual\, social\, and intersecting cultural knowledge(s) that are also impacted by these spatial plans and zonations are not considered. This participative research and theatre-making/touring component of Umkhosi Wenala set out to create a new public dialogue and alternative approach to spatial planning of rural areas surrounding conservation and mining concessions. One in which traditional knowledge\, contemporary social dynamics\, and cultural phenomena are included in decision making processes. Using an innovative participative research and theatre methodology\,  Empatheatre in collaboration with the Mbazwana Creative Arts Centre in Northern Zululand by Sodwana Bay - set out to create a new capacity strengthening and capacity mobilising project\, tha…
LOCATION:St George's Cathedral
URL:https://www.mygigguide.co.za/events/10196
STATUS:CONFIRMED
TRANSP:OPAQUE
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