Mshengu Kavanagh - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Mshengu Kavanagh
The Hwamanda is the kudu horn that calls the people to the dare, the meeting place. For me the mo... more The Hwamanda is the kudu horn that calls the people to the dare, the meeting place. For me the moan of the horn is the horn that brings the old and the young to the most pressing dare of all – namely, that of intergeneration communication. This paper is a memoir, written for a young student in Botswana who wanted to know something about ‘protest theatre’ in apartheid South Africa, Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed. The writer is an old man remembering and sharing the past with youth. I have largely written about what I personally experienced and participated in. No doubt there are times when my memory will get it wrong but I hope that more often it will get it right.
Robert Mshungu Kavanagh, 2024
Having already written a complete assessment of the life and work of the late Zimbabwean arts pol... more Having already written a complete assessment of the life and work of the late Zimbabwean arts polymath, the author describes Stephen Joel Chifunyise’s work from the perspective of the many years he has worked with him. Aware of the numerous other aspects of Chifunyise’s extraordinary life, he sets out to give a picture of the man as he knew him personally over a long period of collaboration. The author chooses to share five areas in Chifunyise’s life and work which he personally experienced, side by side with him, namely: the ideological and aesthetic tussles that characterised the early years of Zimbabwe’s independence; the founding of indigenous theatre in the form of the community theatre movement; theatre at the University of Zimbabwe and Chifunyise’s participation in it; the founding of a children’s and youth arts education for development and employment organisation called CHIPAWO, to which, as the Chairperson of the Board and an active participant, he gave his all up to the last days of his life; and his writing where, though Chifunyise was a prolific writer – of speeches, papers and, above all plays – he managed to find the time to write plays for the youth and children of CHIPAWO, in particular for CHIPAWO’s youth theatre, New Horizon, in which he took a special interest. All this activity, seen in the context of numerous other actives in which he played a part, reaffirms the fact that Chifunyise was indeed a literary and arts giant.
South African Theatre Journal
Human Rights Quarterly, 1999
Congolese song. This excellent history of King Leopold of Belgium's Congo Free State by Adam Hoch... more Congolese song. This excellent history of King Leopold of Belgium's Congo Free State by Adam Hochschild is both a literary and a political work. The politics and the literature of the West spring from the same source-the capitalist system. In the ideological sphere its intellectuals-academics, writers and artists-are the cadres of the system-whether they be, in Antonio Gramsci's categorisations, traditional or organic. As the fair face of capitalism, liberal intellectuals in the West, whether consciously or unconsciously, abet the system by camouflaging its essentially exploitative, unequal and unjust nature by touting and attempting to impose its values, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech, free and fair elections and so on on the rest of us. Gramsci fell a victim to the Italian fascists when in the time of Mussolini capitalism dumped its fair face and shamelessly revealed its naked posterior. When something like this happens the intellectual cadres of liberalism hasten to disown and condemn it as an aberration. There have been few times in history when capitalism's naked posterior was more nakedly exposed than in the terror it unleashed on Africa-the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Scramble for Africa, its unequal wars of occupation, colonial subjugation and economic exploitation. Never has the arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, rapacity, treachery, cruelty and basic inhumanity of capitalism come out into the open so blatantly and so shamelessly. Yet in the hellfire and brimstone of this capitalist free-for-all, no fire burnt more hellishly than King Leopold of Belgium's barbarities in what he cynically called his Congo Free State. And never has the inferno of the Congo been more truthfully and articulately exposed than it is
Theatre and Cultural Struggle under Apartheid, 2017
The theme of the event was: walking with our ancestors, ties that bind liberatory struggles, insp... more The theme of the event was: walking with our ancestors, ties that bind liberatory struggles, inspiring the present and preparing the future. The first part of the programme was dedicated to the celebration of five s/heroes of the African Struggle for Liberation who have recently died, namely Sydney Poitier, Kenneth Kaunda, Cicely Tyson, Archbishop Tutu and Nawal El Saadawi. Dahkil Hausif had compiled an impressive montage of videos on them, with scripting and voiceovers by PACCNY members. There was also a poem by Melodye Mῖcere Van Putten.
World Literature Today, 1983
In many parts of the underdeveloped world theatre is being used as a medium of education, problem... more In many parts of the underdeveloped world theatre is being used as a medium of education, problem-solving, dialogue and mobilization on development issues such as literacy, health, sanitation, agriculture self-help projects and co-operatives. ' The following is an account of a theatre project in an urban area in Zimbabwe. Up to now most theatre for development work has been conducted in rural areas. The Matapi Hostels experience reveals the problems of such work in urban conditions and prompts certain doubts concerning the long-term validity of theatre for development itself.
The American Political Science Review, 1986
Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 1987
EJ363652 - The NSERC Program of University Research Fellowships.
![Research paper thumbnail of The Trauma We Share: Irish History for Young Africans [Themba Books, 2020] WHY DID I WRITE A HISTORY OF IRELAND FOR YOUNG AFRICANS](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/67612193/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](Themba Books recently published the second in its Young Africa series, entitled “The Trauma We Sh... more Themba Books recently published the second in its Young Africa series, entitled “The Trauma We Share: Irish History for Young Africans” by Robert Mshengu Kavanagh. It is possible that for many such a book may appear to be of little interest to young Africa. Yet anyone who has more than a passing knowledge of Irish and African history, will surely see the parallels. For the youth of Africa knowing about what happened in Ireland can play a part in helping them to deal with their own inherited experience of the slave trade, European colonialism and racial discrimination. It is crucial that young Africans should not grow up thinking that the trauma they and their ancestors have suffered is unique to them – to Africans and to black people in general. The history of Ireland and its people – white, Celtic and Catholic – developed in ways remarkably similar to their own history. The trauma of the Irish and the Africans was imposed on them by the same people and largely for the same reasons. The extraordinary parallels to the Apartheid system in South Africa and to genocide in Namibia under the Germans and the Congolese under the King Leopold of Belgium; endless wars of liberation and the massive loss of life they entailed; massacres; the loss of fertile agricultural heartlands and the dumping of thousands of evicted families in arid homelands; the resultant famine and starvation; cultural and religious persecution; massive forced migrations and the diaspora – all these followed very similar lines in Ireland and Africa. And then there is the other side of the coin, Africa and Ireland’s historic literary, cultural and artistic achievements and the great men and women who rose as heroes to face the invader or resist its injustices.
NATIONALISM AND COMMUNISM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL THOUGHT AND ACTION OF MAO ZEDONG AND MOSES KOTANE
Nationalism has always posed a problem to communists, especially in undeveloped countries. It is ... more Nationalism has always posed a problem to communists, especially in undeveloped countries. It is obviously a factor which requires great care and political imagination. It was a sensitive issue in China just as it was in South Africa. Mao, who ultimately came to lead the Chinese party, and Moses Kotane, who became General-Secretary of the South African party and led it for over thirty years, were in the thick of their parties’ attempts to deal with it. The objective situations in China and South Africa at the time were in many ways similar but at the same time rather different. The first thirty years of the twentieth century was a momentous epoch for the world and for communists –Japan’s defeat of Czarist Russia, the 1910 Act of Union in South Africa, followed by the founding of the Native National Congress [later to become the African National Congress], the World War, the Bolshevik Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union, the founding of the Communist Party of South Africa [CPSA], the first congress of the Chinese Communist Party - both in 1921 - the Rand Rebellion in 1922 and finally in 1928 the 6th Congress of the Communist International passed a resolution introducing the concept of a ‘Native Republic'. Kotane and Mao were both products of this epoch as well as influential players. This comparative analysis of the political thought and action of Mao Zedong and Moses Kotane attempts to trace their roles in the growth of the Chinese and South African Communist parties and examine how they handled the national question, with a view to understanding later developments in the two countries.
Halala, Maishe!: Celebrating Maishe Maponya, 2021
Maishe Maponya has made an immense contribution to theatre and poetry performance in South Africa... more Maishe Maponya has made an immense contribution to theatre and poetry performance in South Africa. It has been suggested that, as committed and passionate poet, he is the Pablo Neruda or Federico Garcia Lorca of his country. Though Southern Africa is rich in art, music, poetry, theatre and literature and fête them when they are dead, it is notorious for its neglect of artists and their work when they are alive. This is not only not good for the artists themselves but also for their countries. Maishe was forged in the crucible of the struggle against apartheid and first came to prominence in the wake of the Soweto Uprising of 1976. He fought oppression and denounced injustice in those dark days but then when the goals he and others fought for then and the dreams they dreamed came to be increasingly forgotten, Maponya did not hesitate to denounce this too. In the apartheid era he founded the Bahumutsi Theatre company and produced militant and electrifying plays. With the celebrated Allah Poets, he and the well-known playwright, Matsemela Manaka and the ‘Poet Laureate of Soweto’, Ingoapele Madingoane, staged dynamic performance theatre. After the fall of apartheid in 1994 Maponya became increasingly critical and published two brilliant and hard-hitting collections of poems, 'This Land is my Witness: Poems on the State of the Nation' and 'Truth be Told: Da’s Kak in die Land', both published by Themba Books. The apartheid government hounded and harassed him, banning his plays. The democratic post-apartheid government, simply ignored him – along with many other great South African writers and performers. It is time to give our artists their due and celebrate their lives and works while we still have them.
The articles on African theatre I have been writing of late are not the result of reading and res... more The articles on African theatre I have been writing of late are not the result of reading and research or the result of consultation of the works of famous people or world experts. None of these are cited. Instead these articles are a response – a reaction perhaps – to the invasive theory and practice of non-African theatre models and the need to provide alternative theoretical frameworks based on African theatre practice. The theoretical suggestions I am making are derived from long experience in theatre – not only my own theatre but also that of many other practitioners in Africa whose work has as yet not been been given theoretical expression.
In the case of this particular article – on playwriting and playmaking in Africa theatre – I am expressing thoughts which were suggested by a recent experience. I was asked to be external marker in an African university playwriting examination. A well-known book on playwriting by a Usonian author had been prescribed. This gave me food for thought and resulted in the following exploration of playwriting/playmaking in the context of African theatre.
H.I.E. Dhlomo along, with many other South African writers, poets, artists and intellectuals, wer... more H.I.E. Dhlomo along, with many other South African writers, poets, artists and intellectuals, were ignored by the mainstream, despite the fact that they and their people were and are the majority. The mainstream in South Africa, both during and post apartheid, has been and still is the arts, literature and culture of Western liberalism as mediated by the white minority. The theatre of Gibson Mtutuzeli Kente, the poetry of S.E.K. Mqhayi, the music of R.T. Caluza and the writings of Dhlomo were well known during their time, well known, that is, in the black sub-culture. But whatever is known at one time in that sub-culture rapidly recedes into the penumbra of insignificance and neglect whereas the equivalents in the mainstream of Afrikaans and English culture become national heritage. The life and work of H.I.E. Dhlomo is at one and the same time both a heroic and tragic illustration of the dilemmas and ultimate choices of the Christian, educated elite in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
This article is a re-writing of the section on Dhlomo in my book , A Contested Space: the Theatre... more This article is a re-writing of the section on Dhlomo in my book , A Contested Space: the Theatre of Gibson Mtutuzeli Kente. Up in the mountains, on the hills, in the high ground, it begins. In tiny fountains that bubble up and flow -into brooks, brooks into streams, streams into rivulets, rivulets into rivers, rivers into Amazons, Nigers, Congos and Zambezis, all governed by one compulsive tendency, the inexorable exigency to flow from high to low. From all directions they come -until one by one they merge and become a great and rolling river.
TSEGAYE GEBRE-MEDHIN: LET HIS LIGHT SHINE, 2020
If I were to single out the great African playwrights, Tsegaye would definitely be among their nu... more If I were to single out the great African playwrights, Tsegaye would definitely be among their number. Yet he is comparatively unknown. Unlike Soyinka, Ngugi, Fugard and, increasingly, Gibson Kente, there are few critical commentaries on his work and no books. He does not feature in most discussions of African theatre. While from time to time African writers and critics have bewailed the dominance of the ex-colonial languages in African literature and urged the greater use of Africa’s own, few among the big fish have swum the talk. With the exception of two plays, The Oda Oak Oracle and The Collision of Altars, all Tsegaye’s over thirty theatre scripts have been written in the official language of Ethiopia, Amharic. Tsegaye’s fate is an object demonstration of what an African writer must sacrifice if he writes in his native tongue – fame and love among his people but insignificance in the Anglophone or Francophone international mainstream. Almost all Africa’s best-known writers write in a European language. Having known Tsegaye when I was helping to develop the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Zimbabwe, having seen one or two of his plays and have acted in one of them, I have experienced something of the power of his Amharic work. But until his work is translated Tsegaye’s deserved place in the African Theatre Hall of Fame will be denied him.
How does the director communicate with the actor? In my experience of non-African theatre demonst... more How does the director communicate with the actor? In my experience of non-African theatre demonstrating was always taboo. Talking and discussing – in other words, the process of eliciting understanding through words and ideas, and improvisations and exercises are the default methods. Yet in the fields of advertising, communication and applied art forms a lot of research is going into non-verbal or emotional communication. Theatre is communication and theatre workers, including directors, need to recognise the possibilities of communicating with their actors beyond the intellectual and verbal. I believe this is already being done in African theatre. I believe many an African director employs and has experienced alternative non-verbal forms of communication with their actors. There is not only one way. If we in Africa find that we as directors communicate with our actors differently, let us not doubt ourselves but instead continue with our practice – and then also write our own theory.
Whereas Brecht, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold, Grotowski and Artaud may have done something quite differe... more Whereas Brecht, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold, Grotowski and Artaud may have done something quite different, the standard texts in Western Theatre when it comes to working with actors still seem to be based on Stanisvaski's The Actor Prepares, Building a Character and Creating a Role. This is so because, despite various other quite different forms of theatre as practised in the West, the hegemonic form is realism-reinforced by the century old domination of the camera. In African Non-Realism a quite different method designed for a quite different theatre form is required. African Non-Realism is not Western Realism and thus we should not expect preparation of the actor, building character and creating roles to follow the Stanislavsky method.
The Hwamanda is the kudu horn that calls the people to the dare, the meeting place. For me the mo... more The Hwamanda is the kudu horn that calls the people to the dare, the meeting place. For me the moan of the horn is the horn that brings the old and the young to the most pressing dare of all – namely, that of intergeneration communication. This paper is a memoir, written for a young student in Botswana who wanted to know something about ‘protest theatre’ in apartheid South Africa, Augusto Boal and his Theatre of the Oppressed. The writer is an old man remembering and sharing the past with youth. I have largely written about what I personally experienced and participated in. No doubt there are times when my memory will get it wrong but I hope that more often it will get it right.
Robert Mshungu Kavanagh, 2024
Having already written a complete assessment of the life and work of the late Zimbabwean arts pol... more Having already written a complete assessment of the life and work of the late Zimbabwean arts polymath, the author describes Stephen Joel Chifunyise’s work from the perspective of the many years he has worked with him. Aware of the numerous other aspects of Chifunyise’s extraordinary life, he sets out to give a picture of the man as he knew him personally over a long period of collaboration. The author chooses to share five areas in Chifunyise’s life and work which he personally experienced, side by side with him, namely: the ideological and aesthetic tussles that characterised the early years of Zimbabwe’s independence; the founding of indigenous theatre in the form of the community theatre movement; theatre at the University of Zimbabwe and Chifunyise’s participation in it; the founding of a children’s and youth arts education for development and employment organisation called CHIPAWO, to which, as the Chairperson of the Board and an active participant, he gave his all up to the last days of his life; and his writing where, though Chifunyise was a prolific writer – of speeches, papers and, above all plays – he managed to find the time to write plays for the youth and children of CHIPAWO, in particular for CHIPAWO’s youth theatre, New Horizon, in which he took a special interest. All this activity, seen in the context of numerous other actives in which he played a part, reaffirms the fact that Chifunyise was indeed a literary and arts giant.
South African Theatre Journal
Human Rights Quarterly, 1999
Congolese song. This excellent history of King Leopold of Belgium's Congo Free State by Adam Hoch... more Congolese song. This excellent history of King Leopold of Belgium's Congo Free State by Adam Hochschild is both a literary and a political work. The politics and the literature of the West spring from the same source-the capitalist system. In the ideological sphere its intellectuals-academics, writers and artists-are the cadres of the system-whether they be, in Antonio Gramsci's categorisations, traditional or organic. As the fair face of capitalism, liberal intellectuals in the West, whether consciously or unconsciously, abet the system by camouflaging its essentially exploitative, unequal and unjust nature by touting and attempting to impose its values, democracy, human rights, the rule of law, freedom of speech, free and fair elections and so on on the rest of us. Gramsci fell a victim to the Italian fascists when in the time of Mussolini capitalism dumped its fair face and shamelessly revealed its naked posterior. When something like this happens the intellectual cadres of liberalism hasten to disown and condemn it as an aberration. There have been few times in history when capitalism's naked posterior was more nakedly exposed than in the terror it unleashed on Africa-the Atlantic Slave Trade, the Scramble for Africa, its unequal wars of occupation, colonial subjugation and economic exploitation. Never has the arrogance, hypocrisy, greed, rapacity, treachery, cruelty and basic inhumanity of capitalism come out into the open so blatantly and so shamelessly. Yet in the hellfire and brimstone of this capitalist free-for-all, no fire burnt more hellishly than King Leopold of Belgium's barbarities in what he cynically called his Congo Free State. And never has the inferno of the Congo been more truthfully and articulately exposed than it is
Theatre and Cultural Struggle under Apartheid, 2017
The theme of the event was: walking with our ancestors, ties that bind liberatory struggles, insp... more The theme of the event was: walking with our ancestors, ties that bind liberatory struggles, inspiring the present and preparing the future. The first part of the programme was dedicated to the celebration of five s/heroes of the African Struggle for Liberation who have recently died, namely Sydney Poitier, Kenneth Kaunda, Cicely Tyson, Archbishop Tutu and Nawal El Saadawi. Dahkil Hausif had compiled an impressive montage of videos on them, with scripting and voiceovers by PACCNY members. There was also a poem by Melodye Mῖcere Van Putten.
World Literature Today, 1983
In many parts of the underdeveloped world theatre is being used as a medium of education, problem... more In many parts of the underdeveloped world theatre is being used as a medium of education, problem-solving, dialogue and mobilization on development issues such as literacy, health, sanitation, agriculture self-help projects and co-operatives. ' The following is an account of a theatre project in an urban area in Zimbabwe. Up to now most theatre for development work has been conducted in rural areas. The Matapi Hostels experience reveals the problems of such work in urban conditions and prompts certain doubts concerning the long-term validity of theatre for development itself.
The American Political Science Review, 1986
Canadian Journal of Higher Education, 1987
EJ363652 - The NSERC Program of University Research Fellowships.
Themba Books recently published the second in its Young Africa series, entitled “The Trauma We Sh... more Themba Books recently published the second in its Young Africa series, entitled “The Trauma We Share: Irish History for Young Africans” by Robert Mshengu Kavanagh. It is possible that for many such a book may appear to be of little interest to young Africa. Yet anyone who has more than a passing knowledge of Irish and African history, will surely see the parallels. For the youth of Africa knowing about what happened in Ireland can play a part in helping them to deal with their own inherited experience of the slave trade, European colonialism and racial discrimination. It is crucial that young Africans should not grow up thinking that the trauma they and their ancestors have suffered is unique to them – to Africans and to black people in general. The history of Ireland and its people – white, Celtic and Catholic – developed in ways remarkably similar to their own history. The trauma of the Irish and the Africans was imposed on them by the same people and largely for the same reasons. The extraordinary parallels to the Apartheid system in South Africa and to genocide in Namibia under the Germans and the Congolese under the King Leopold of Belgium; endless wars of liberation and the massive loss of life they entailed; massacres; the loss of fertile agricultural heartlands and the dumping of thousands of evicted families in arid homelands; the resultant famine and starvation; cultural and religious persecution; massive forced migrations and the diaspora – all these followed very similar lines in Ireland and Africa. And then there is the other side of the coin, Africa and Ireland’s historic literary, cultural and artistic achievements and the great men and women who rose as heroes to face the invader or resist its injustices.
NATIONALISM AND COMMUNISM: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL THOUGHT AND ACTION OF MAO ZEDONG AND MOSES KOTANE
Nationalism has always posed a problem to communists, especially in undeveloped countries. It is ... more Nationalism has always posed a problem to communists, especially in undeveloped countries. It is obviously a factor which requires great care and political imagination. It was a sensitive issue in China just as it was in South Africa. Mao, who ultimately came to lead the Chinese party, and Moses Kotane, who became General-Secretary of the South African party and led it for over thirty years, were in the thick of their parties’ attempts to deal with it. The objective situations in China and South Africa at the time were in many ways similar but at the same time rather different. The first thirty years of the twentieth century was a momentous epoch for the world and for communists –Japan’s defeat of Czarist Russia, the 1910 Act of Union in South Africa, followed by the founding of the Native National Congress [later to become the African National Congress], the World War, the Bolshevik Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union, the founding of the Communist Party of South Africa [CPSA], the first congress of the Chinese Communist Party - both in 1921 - the Rand Rebellion in 1922 and finally in 1928 the 6th Congress of the Communist International passed a resolution introducing the concept of a ‘Native Republic'. Kotane and Mao were both products of this epoch as well as influential players. This comparative analysis of the political thought and action of Mao Zedong and Moses Kotane attempts to trace their roles in the growth of the Chinese and South African Communist parties and examine how they handled the national question, with a view to understanding later developments in the two countries.
Halala, Maishe!: Celebrating Maishe Maponya, 2021
Maishe Maponya has made an immense contribution to theatre and poetry performance in South Africa... more Maishe Maponya has made an immense contribution to theatre and poetry performance in South Africa. It has been suggested that, as committed and passionate poet, he is the Pablo Neruda or Federico Garcia Lorca of his country. Though Southern Africa is rich in art, music, poetry, theatre and literature and fête them when they are dead, it is notorious for its neglect of artists and their work when they are alive. This is not only not good for the artists themselves but also for their countries. Maishe was forged in the crucible of the struggle against apartheid and first came to prominence in the wake of the Soweto Uprising of 1976. He fought oppression and denounced injustice in those dark days but then when the goals he and others fought for then and the dreams they dreamed came to be increasingly forgotten, Maponya did not hesitate to denounce this too. In the apartheid era he founded the Bahumutsi Theatre company and produced militant and electrifying plays. With the celebrated Allah Poets, he and the well-known playwright, Matsemela Manaka and the ‘Poet Laureate of Soweto’, Ingoapele Madingoane, staged dynamic performance theatre. After the fall of apartheid in 1994 Maponya became increasingly critical and published two brilliant and hard-hitting collections of poems, 'This Land is my Witness: Poems on the State of the Nation' and 'Truth be Told: Da’s Kak in die Land', both published by Themba Books. The apartheid government hounded and harassed him, banning his plays. The democratic post-apartheid government, simply ignored him – along with many other great South African writers and performers. It is time to give our artists their due and celebrate their lives and works while we still have them.
The articles on African theatre I have been writing of late are not the result of reading and res... more The articles on African theatre I have been writing of late are not the result of reading and research or the result of consultation of the works of famous people or world experts. None of these are cited. Instead these articles are a response – a reaction perhaps – to the invasive theory and practice of non-African theatre models and the need to provide alternative theoretical frameworks based on African theatre practice. The theoretical suggestions I am making are derived from long experience in theatre – not only my own theatre but also that of many other practitioners in Africa whose work has as yet not been been given theoretical expression.
In the case of this particular article – on playwriting and playmaking in Africa theatre – I am expressing thoughts which were suggested by a recent experience. I was asked to be external marker in an African university playwriting examination. A well-known book on playwriting by a Usonian author had been prescribed. This gave me food for thought and resulted in the following exploration of playwriting/playmaking in the context of African theatre.
H.I.E. Dhlomo along, with many other South African writers, poets, artists and intellectuals, wer... more H.I.E. Dhlomo along, with many other South African writers, poets, artists and intellectuals, were ignored by the mainstream, despite the fact that they and their people were and are the majority. The mainstream in South Africa, both during and post apartheid, has been and still is the arts, literature and culture of Western liberalism as mediated by the white minority. The theatre of Gibson Mtutuzeli Kente, the poetry of S.E.K. Mqhayi, the music of R.T. Caluza and the writings of Dhlomo were well known during their time, well known, that is, in the black sub-culture. But whatever is known at one time in that sub-culture rapidly recedes into the penumbra of insignificance and neglect whereas the equivalents in the mainstream of Afrikaans and English culture become national heritage. The life and work of H.I.E. Dhlomo is at one and the same time both a heroic and tragic illustration of the dilemmas and ultimate choices of the Christian, educated elite in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.
This article is a re-writing of the section on Dhlomo in my book , A Contested Space: the Theatre... more This article is a re-writing of the section on Dhlomo in my book , A Contested Space: the Theatre of Gibson Mtutuzeli Kente. Up in the mountains, on the hills, in the high ground, it begins. In tiny fountains that bubble up and flow -into brooks, brooks into streams, streams into rivulets, rivulets into rivers, rivers into Amazons, Nigers, Congos and Zambezis, all governed by one compulsive tendency, the inexorable exigency to flow from high to low. From all directions they come -until one by one they merge and become a great and rolling river.
TSEGAYE GEBRE-MEDHIN: LET HIS LIGHT SHINE, 2020
If I were to single out the great African playwrights, Tsegaye would definitely be among their nu... more If I were to single out the great African playwrights, Tsegaye would definitely be among their number. Yet he is comparatively unknown. Unlike Soyinka, Ngugi, Fugard and, increasingly, Gibson Kente, there are few critical commentaries on his work and no books. He does not feature in most discussions of African theatre. While from time to time African writers and critics have bewailed the dominance of the ex-colonial languages in African literature and urged the greater use of Africa’s own, few among the big fish have swum the talk. With the exception of two plays, The Oda Oak Oracle and The Collision of Altars, all Tsegaye’s over thirty theatre scripts have been written in the official language of Ethiopia, Amharic. Tsegaye’s fate is an object demonstration of what an African writer must sacrifice if he writes in his native tongue – fame and love among his people but insignificance in the Anglophone or Francophone international mainstream. Almost all Africa’s best-known writers write in a European language. Having known Tsegaye when I was helping to develop the Theatre Arts Department at the University of Zimbabwe, having seen one or two of his plays and have acted in one of them, I have experienced something of the power of his Amharic work. But until his work is translated Tsegaye’s deserved place in the African Theatre Hall of Fame will be denied him.
How does the director communicate with the actor? In my experience of non-African theatre demonst... more How does the director communicate with the actor? In my experience of non-African theatre demonstrating was always taboo. Talking and discussing – in other words, the process of eliciting understanding through words and ideas, and improvisations and exercises are the default methods. Yet in the fields of advertising, communication and applied art forms a lot of research is going into non-verbal or emotional communication. Theatre is communication and theatre workers, including directors, need to recognise the possibilities of communicating with their actors beyond the intellectual and verbal. I believe this is already being done in African theatre. I believe many an African director employs and has experienced alternative non-verbal forms of communication with their actors. There is not only one way. If we in Africa find that we as directors communicate with our actors differently, let us not doubt ourselves but instead continue with our practice – and then also write our own theory.
Whereas Brecht, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold, Grotowski and Artaud may have done something quite differe... more Whereas Brecht, Vakhtangov, Meyerhold, Grotowski and Artaud may have done something quite different, the standard texts in Western Theatre when it comes to working with actors still seem to be based on Stanisvaski's The Actor Prepares, Building a Character and Creating a Role. This is so because, despite various other quite different forms of theatre as practised in the West, the hegemonic form is realism-reinforced by the century old domination of the camera. In African Non-Realism a quite different method designed for a quite different theatre form is required. African Non-Realism is not Western Realism and thus we should not expect preparation of the actor, building character and creating roles to follow the Stanislavsky method.
One night in the dark days of apartheid a house in the comparatively upmarket Soweto township of ... more One night in the dark days of apartheid a house in the comparatively upmarket Soweto township of Dube was petrol-bombed. The young activists who were responsible had labelled the owner a sell-out for creating a hit television series on government-controlled television. His house was gutted. All his papers and manuscripts went up in smoke, including the scripts of his prolific theatre oevre. It is a great tragedy that of the over sixty plays staged by South Africa’s greatest ever theatre impresario and playmaker, Gibson Mtutuzeli Kente, only four scripts survive. Of these only one is based on an authentic script. The other three were put together by actors who did a wonderful job recalling the dialogue. The surviving scripts have just been published in a collection entitled Selected Plays IV: All That’s Left. Gibson Kente began his stage career in the mid-sixties and never stopped producing until shortly before he died in 2004. The four plays in this volume – Sikalo, Lifa, How Long and Too late – all date from the heyday of Kente’s career, namely the years leading up to the Soweto Uprising in 1976. The rest is silence. The Selected Plays series is published by Mshengu Publications. So far seven collections have been published - in an effort to preserve and make accessible African plays that would otherwise be lost. In All That’s Left the scripts of Kente’s plays are preceded by detailed introductions and accompanied by virtually the only surviving photographs of scenes from the plays.
Paradoxically and almost perversely, apartheid legislation in the early 1960s led to the developm... more Paradoxically and almost perversely, apartheid legislation in the early 1960s led to the development of a rich and dynamic theatre in the black urban and sometimes rural areas, a development which was checked by the uprisings in 1976. Up to now academics, authors, students and practitioners who have shown an interest in the arts of that period have had little grist for their mill. I was active in the theatre during those years and have written a fair amount about it. However I am now in a position to make available a number of resources which I hope will contribute to a deeper and more detailed understanding of the theatre of that time. .
![Research paper thumbnail of The Complete S'ketsh' [Theatre Magazine] - Facsimile Edition](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/45273628/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](At last theatre and visual and performing arts practitioners, scholars, students and anyone inter... more At last theatre and visual and performing arts practitioners, scholars, students and anyone interested in what was going on in the unsegregated arts activity of South Africa in the 1970s can access the hugely informative pages of S'ketsh' Magazine, which described itself as 'South Africa's magazine for popular theatre and entertainment' [first five issues] and 'South Africa's magazine for theatre and entertainment' [last two issues]. A number of researchers and authors have published on or included a study of the theatre and performing arts of the 1970's but hitherto the treasure trove of information contained in the pages of S'ketsh' has been literally a closed book to them. This should now change as at last that book can be opened in the form of this facsimile edition. In addition to the complete texts and graphics of the seven issues, The Complete S'ketsh' includes a Reading List at the end of the book for those who wish to find out more about the theatre personalities, developments and works referred to in S'ketsh' Magazine. There is also a Consolidated Contents and a list of contributors.
InsilakaShaka, published in 1930, almost a hundred years ago, is the first book of its kind writt... more InsilakaShaka, published in 1930, almost a hundred years ago, is the first book of its kind written and published in isiZulu.
Dube was born in 1871 and died in 1946. During his relatively long life he registered a number of extremely impressive achievements, among them being the establishment in 1901 of the Christian Industrial School, later to change its name to the Ohlange Institute; the founding two years later of IlangalaseNatali[the Natal Sun], the first newspaper in isiZulu, which still operates to this day; another two years later his election as the first President of the South African National Native Council [SANNC], later to become the African National Congress [ANC]; and finally the publication of the first novel in isiZulu.
He was a prolific writer with most of his works being of a polemical or political nature. His only literary works were "Insila ka Shaka" and biographies on, among others, King Dinizulu and Isaiah Shembe, founder of the independent Shembe Church or IbandlalamaNazaretha [literal translation ‘church of the people of Nazareth’].
![Research paper thumbnail of The Complete S'ketsh' [Magazine], Facsimile Edition](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/45308341/thumbnails/1.jpg)
](At last theatre and visual and performing arts practitioners, scholars, students and anyone inter... more At last theatre and visual and performing arts practitioners, scholars, students and anyone interested in what was going on in the unsegregated arts activity of South Africa in the 1970s can access the hugely informative pages of S'ketsh' Magazine, which described itself as 'South Africa's magazine for popular theatre and entertainment' [first five issues] and 'South Africa's magazine for theatre and entertainment' [last two issues]. A number of researchers and authors have published on or included a study of the theatre and performing arts of the 1970's but hitherto the treasure trove of information contained in the pages of S'ketsh' has been literally a closed book to them. This should now change as at last that book can be opened in the form of this facsimile edition. In addition to the complete texts and graphics of the seven issues, The Complete S'ketsh' includes a Reading List at the end of the book for those who wish to find out more about the theatre personalities, developments and works referred to in S'ketsh' Magazine. There is also a Consolidated Contents and a list of contributors.
KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST Of all the horrendous crimes committed in Africa after the coming of the Eur... more KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST
Of all the horrendous crimes committed in Africa after the coming of the Europeans, only the horror of the Atlantic Slave Trade can compare with that of King Leopold II in his so-called Congo Free State. KING LEOPOLD’S GHOST: A STORY OF GREED, TERROR AND HEROISM IN COLONIAL AFRICA is a book which can in many ways be compared to Eduardo Galeano’s 'Open Veins of Latin America'. In it Adam Hoschschild tells two equally disturbing stories – the African story, in other words what went on in the Congo Free State, and the Western story, namely Leopold and his activities in the context of Belgium, Europe and the United States. It is a meticulously and exhaustively researched book. Hochschild writes extremely well. He not only describes the actual events and happenings but describes them in such a way as to unfold their full horror or the extent of their heroism, which ever the case might be. On the one hand there is the shocking brutality of Leopold’s white agents and his private army, the Force Publique, and on the other the dedicated struggles of those who tried and eventually succeeded in bringing the truth to the outside world despite Leopold and his formidable public relations apparatus’s every effort to discredit them. Hochschild not only portrays the painful experiences of Leopold’s Congolese victims but also their heroism in fighting back. And then he points out that Leopold’s Congo was but one of many colonial horror stories. He shows how those pillaging other parts of Africa envied Leopold’s methods and the lack of accountability which made them possible. By so doing Hochschild began a new story, one which it was not in his power to continue. He and those who campaigned to expose Leopold’s inhumanity and greed were not able to understand that such crimes are not aberrations but simply extreme examples of a socio-economic system based on greed and profit and a world in which inequality, injustice and exploitation are endemic.
In my research for a book on the Pre-Colonial history of Africa, I noticed what I had long suspec... more In my research for a book on the Pre-Colonial history of Africa, I noticed what I had long suspected - a certain reluctance on the part of historians to account for the ancient people in Zimbabwe, South Africa, Malawi and Mozambique who built in stone. One of the largest and best preserved examples is in Zimbabwe. It is called Great Zimbabwe.
With this book, Great Zimbabwe: Who Built It and Why, Nyamutswa contends that in order to understand Great Zimbabwe and the other stone buildings in the region, what must demonstrated is how the features of the site and in particular the artefacts found at the site corroborate the theory. No-one has been able to do this so far. Nyamutswa believes that this is precisely what he has done in his book, Great Zimbabwe: Who Built It and Why.
Hamespuns: Scottish poems and songs from Africa, 2019
Among the many thousands of Irish and Scots who were forced to join the great Celtic migration to... more Among the many thousands of Irish and Scots who were forced to join the great Celtic migration to the New World and elsewhere, was my great grandfather, David Low Duncan. He left the Glens of Angus in Scotland and went to South Africa in the middle of the 19th century. He played the fiddle, sang the old Scots songs and wrote poems and songs himself, including two published collections, "Hamearts: and "Hamespuns". The former is still lost but the latter is soon to be re-published. Most of the poems are written in broad Scots - with the inevitable echoes of Robert Burns. But Duncan is a Scot in Africa - and that gives his work a special interest. The poems make a creditable contribution to the literature of the Scottish diaspora,
Jan's Book, 2017
The author reviews his own book. The reason for this is that he believes the book is an important... more The author reviews his own book. The reason for this is that he believes the book is an important one and a good one and he would like to let his readership know about it. It deals with an issue of social importance, namely the effect that elite private boys boarding schools have on the little boys unfortunately sent off to these institutions at an early age as well as the negative repercussions for their families. Those these schools produce tend to constitute an influential social elite. In the new South Africa the system is alive and well and with the assimilation of black children many of the new black elite are now being co-opted. The book places this topic in the context of the political and social developments that took place in South Africa, starting in the 1960s and continuing up to the present time.
"Knocknagow is no more": some notes on hidden literature by an African, 2019
In the literature syllabi of Western universities in the author's time, the period of Leavis's Gr... more In the literature syllabi of Western universities in the author's time, the period of Leavis's Great Tradition, there was a corpus of novels which were judged to be the great classic novels in English. With the flowering of socialist, Indian and African literatures the corpus was greatly enlarged. However, there remained works of genius which somehow never attracted much attention. In this review a few of these are cited, one example of them being the Irish writer, Charles Kickham's, "Knocknagow". The review discusses how an African critic might regard such a work as a classic despite a less enthusiastic assessment among many English and even Irish critics.
African history is being re-written every day, not to a large extent by the Africans themselves, ... more African history is being re-written every day, not to a large extent by the Africans themselves, but by the international media and publishing industry that has a vested interest in developing and propagating stereotypes and myths about Africa which when presented over and over again begin to be accepted, by Africans themselves, as facts, which no longer need to be analysed or argued.
In 2010 Professor Scoones published his book on Zimbabwe, entitled Zimbabwe’s Land Reform: Myths and Reality, in which he set out to prove that much of what was being touted by various authors and the media about the land reform in Zimbabwe was not true and was simply myths. In 2013 I published my own book, Zimbabwe: Challenging the Stereotypes, in which I too tried to show that there is an alternative story to be told about Zimbabwe.
It is not only Zimbabwe that attracts the mythmakers and stereotype peddlers. The same media and publishing industry is also hard at work on Africa itself. In a book of over 700 pages Martin Meredith has provided an exhaustive account of Africa’s record since independence in an attempt to prove that Africa’s situation is hopeless and the reason for its hopeless predicament is African leadership.
I have written this review of Meredith’s book on the 57th anniversary of the assassination of Patrice Lumumba in order to evalue Meredith’s arguments and interrogate his contention that Africa’s situation is hopeless and that African leadership is responsible for this.
THE UNPUBLISHED THEATRE COMMITTEE PRESENTATION AT THE CULTURE IN ANOTHER SOUTH AFRICA CONFERENCE ... more THE UNPUBLISHED THEATRE COMMITTEE PRESENTATION AT THE CULTURE IN ANOTHER SOUTH AFRICA CONFERENCE AND FESTIVAL [14-19 DECEMBER, 1987] IN AMSTERDAM
Organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement in the Netherlands, the Culture in Another South Africa (CASA) conference and festival took place in Amsterdam between 14 - 19 December, 1987. The aim of the conference was to facilitate ‘cultural workers and artists to organise themselves and create structures, both locally and internationally, in order to co-ordinate their activities and to take an organised stand against apartheid from an arts and cultural perspective’.
All sectors of South African literature, arts and culture both in exile and in South Africa itself were represented. Each sector formed a committee and each of the sector committees delivered a paper. These papers were collected into a publication called Culture in Another South Africa, published by Zed Books. All the papers were included in the book except that of the theatre committee. This was never published and is only now, by this posting, being made available to academics, researchers, artists and activists.
One can only speculate why it was excluded. No communication ever took place on the issue. The short answer is that it probably challenged a fundamental fission in the function of the CASA meeting. On the one hand, CASA was seen as another way of mobilising support in Europe and elsewhere outside South in the context of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and therefore it had to appeal to a broad cross-section of Europeans and Americans. On the other hand, especially for some of the South African activists, it was an opportunity to plan among themselves how to use culture as a weapon and above all begin to sketch out a cultural policy for a new transformed South Africa.
This submission of the theatre committee must have appeared off-putting when considered in the context of the Anti-Apartheid movement’s methods and objectives. However, it is a historic document and some may feel that as a statement by South African theatre artists on what needed to be done in the pre- and post-democracy theatre scene, it is a pity that it has remained hidden and unknown all these years.
This text is the full version of a talk given at a meeting to commemorate Africa Day, organised b... more This text is the full version of a talk given at a meeting to commemorate Africa Day, organised by the Pan African Community of Central New York [PACCNY] on 21st May, 2022. The theme of the event was: walking with our ancestors, ties that bind liberatory struggles, inspiring the present and preparing the future. The first part of the programme was dedicated to the celebration of five s/heroes of the African Struggle for Liberation who have recently died and a poem by the Bermudan poet and educationist, Melodye Mwalumu Micere Van Putten.
The Keynote Address aimed to highlight the following issues as they relate to the struggle for liberation: the true meaning of ‘colonial’ and what really happened in Africa; the continuity and connectivity of the African struggle for liberation; culture as the key to comprehensive liberation; the role of women in the struggle; and the fact that the African struggle for liberation started a long time ago and is not yet over. One more characteristic of the African struggle for liberation was that expressed in the theme of the meeting, namely, ‘walking in the steps of the ancestors’.
The talk proposed that the struggle for the liberation of Africa needs to be seen as having four stages as follows: the Resistance to the invasion and conquest of Africa by the European powers and that of the African people over the years of occupation and exploitation; the struggle for National Independence; the Recovery, the struggle for Africa’s wealth, the land, her resources and the economy; and, finally, the Propaganda War, the battle for the soul, hearts and the minds of our African people, especially the youth, through the domination of culture and the re-writing of history.
The Annual Ibsen Lecture, 2020, took place on 10th December as a virtual event organised by the I... more The Annual Ibsen Lecture, 2020, took place on 10th December as a virtual event organised by the Ibsen Centre at the University of Oslo. The theme was Decolonising Ibsen and, appropriately, in a departure from the hallowed tradition, this year’s lecture was shared between Sabiha Huk, Professor of English at Kulna University, Bangladesh, and Dr. Robert McLaren [Robert Mshengu Kavanagh], a South African living in Zimbabwe. Previous presentations have in the main featured lecturers from the First World. While Professor Huk focussed on the impact of Ibsen’s work and the way in which theatres have related it to their own political and cultural milieus in South-East Asia, Robert Mshengu Kavanagh concentrated on negotiating Ibsen in the African context, southern Africa in particular. The lecture began by tackling the notion of decolonisation. It pointed that the very fact that the two annual Ibsen Lecturers this year were from Bangladesh and southern Africa was an aspect of decolonisation – not to mention the rare opportunity for south-south dialogue as well. The lecture went on to describe the stages of colonialism and neo-colonialism, how they affect Africa and what Africa needs to do to get rid of them. Norway and the work of Ibsen as it functions in southern Africa and the concept of ‘unequal development’ in a theatre context introduced the work of the Zimbabwean arts education organisation, CHIPAWO, and how its youth have used the plays of Ibsen in a number of contexts. CHIPAWO had earlier won an Ibsen Award for a southern African project involving young actors from Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe entitled ‘Interrogating Ibsen in southern Africa’, which culminated in an Ibsen Camp at which the young actors developed their own plays based on Ghosts, Enemy of the People and A Doll’s House by discussing them in the context of the political and social contexts of their own countries.