Collaborative Conversations

Description

To celebrate Mothertongue's 21st anniversary, Collaborative Conversations weaves together the reflections of a group of artists, scholars and writers who have journeyed with the organisation over the last two decades. Since its inception in 2000 with What the Water Gave Me, The Mothertongue Project has used participatory, integrated arts methods to create theatrical works that strive for personal and collective dialogue and healing in South Africa. In poetry, scholarly writing and transcribed oral conversations, the contributors now think and feel their way through the aspirations and achievements - and the alchemy - of The Mothertongue Project's work. Accompanied by photographs of performances from across the 21 years, this book provides a sense of what a Mothertongue theatre piece does: it draws audience and performers into transformative, embodied conversations. Includes work by Awino Okech, Genna Gardini, Koleka Putuma, Makgati Mokwena, Malika Ndlovu, Mwenya B Kabwe, Nicosia Shakes, Nina Callaghan, Ntomboxolo Makhutshi and Rehane Abrahams.

Sujets

• Littérature Africaine
• Littérature Africaine
• Literary Criticism

Informations

• Publié par: Modjaji Books
• Date de parution: 13 octobre 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781991240101
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

Extrait

COLLABORATIVE CONVERSATIONS
Celebrating Twenty-One Years of The Mothertongue Project
COLLABORATIVE CONVERSATIONS
Celebrating Twenty-One Years of The Mothertongue Project
edited by
Alex Halligey and Sara Matchett

This book has been published with the support of the African Culture Fund – ACF.
© Publication The Mothertongue Project and Modjaji Books © Text: The Mothertongue Project © Images: The image rights remain with the photographers.
ISBN: 978-1-928433-16-3
First published in 2021 by Modjaji Books Pty Ltd and The Mothertongue Project
www.modjajibooks.co.za
Copy edited by Margot Bertelsman Book and cover design by Louise Topping Typeset in Odile
Front cover image: Rehane Abrahams in Womb of Fire at the 2018 South African Women’s Arts Festival, 2018. Photograph by Val Adamson. Back cover image: The Langeberg Youth Arts Project company in 2018. From left to right, Khayalethu Mkorwana, Denise Gandu, Jaydene Lekay, Ashley Seconds, Sandile Kosana, Sindiswa Mabadi. Photograph by Sara Matchett.
This book has been published with the support of the African Culture Fund – ACF.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Khayalethu Mkorwana (1991–2019). Khayalethu joined The Mothertongue Project in 2015 as a participant in the Beat TB project, a collaboration between the University of Cape Town, the South African Tuberculosis Vaccine Initiative and The Mothertongue Project. He was selected to join the Langeberg Youth Arts Project (LYAP) in 2017 where he thrived until his untimely death in 2019. Khaya was a dedicated and spirited performer, facilitator and team member who has left an indelible mark on all at The Mothertongue Project. His passion for theatre and particularly for sharing his skills with young performers from Nkqubela, where he lived, is an inspiration to all of us. His passing has left a gaping hole in the LYAP. Khaya, your memory lives on in our hearts. This book is dedicated to you and all that you stood for.

Photograph by Nolufefe Ntshuntshe
Khayalethu Mkorwana rehearsing In 2 Out , for the Early Years Theatre age group 5 to 7 years in 2017.
CONTENTS
FOREWORD Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki
CONTRIBUTOR BIOGRAPHIES
CONVERSATION 1 WITH REHANE ABRAHAMS, ALEX HALLIGEY AND MALIKA NDLOVU, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION, Sara Matchett and Alex Halligey
CONVERSATION 2 WITH REHANE ABRAHAMS, NICOSIA SHAKES AND NINA CALLAGHAN, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 2: ACTIVIST AESTHETICS AND THE WORK OF THE MOTHERTONGUE PROJECT, Nicosia Shakes
CONVERSATION 3 WITH SARA MATCHETT, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 3: ECHOLOCATING WHAT THE WATER GAVE ME , Rehane Abrahams
CONVERSATION 4 WITH AWINO OKECH AND MALIKA NDLOVU, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 4: RITE OF BEING : GENDER AND BODILY AUTONOMY IN MANENBERG, Awino Okech with poetry by Malika Ndlovu
CONVERSATION 5 WITH MALIKA NDLOVU, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 5: UHAMBO: PIECES OF A DREAM : IMAGES AND POETRY, poetry by Malika Ndlovu from Uhambo: pieces of a dream with introduction by Sara Matchett
CONVERSATION 6 WITH SARA MATCHETT AND ALEX HALLIGEY, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 6: CROSS-COMMUNITY PROFESSIONAL THEATRE AS SOCIO-SPATIAL ACTIVISM IN BREATHING SPACE , Alex Halligey
CONVERSATION 7 WITH NICOSIA SHAKES AND MALIKA NDLOVU, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 7: WASHA MOLLO : THEATRE AS A MILIEU FOR CONVERSATIONS AND HEALING, Sara Matchett and Makgati Mokwena
CONVERSATION 8 WITH MALIKA NDLOVU, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
‘SPEAK’ , a poem by Koleka Putuma from Walk
CHAPTER 8: WALK : PERFORMANCE, GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND SOUTH AFRICA, Genna Gardini
‘MORE OF A COMMENT THAN A QUESTION’, text extract by Genna Gardini from Walk
CONVERSATION 9 WITH MAKGATI MOKWENA, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 9: CURATING CARE: THE LANGEBERG YOUTH ARTS PROJECT, Sara Matchett
CONVERSATION 10 WITH NINA CALLAGHAN, SARA MATCHETT AND MAKGATI MOKWENA, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 10: THE MOTHERTONGUE LANGEBERG YOUTH ARTS PROJECT: ARTS DEVELOPMENT AS A WAY OF BELONGING TO SELF AND PLACE, Nina Callaghan
CONVERSATION 11 WITH MAKGATI MOKWENA, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
CHAPTER 11: THE MAKING OF WOMB OF FIRE : THE APPLICATION OF A TRANSLATIONAL PERFORMANCE METHOD USING ARCHIVAL MATERIAL, PERSONAL NARRATIVE, MYTHOLOGY AND SOMATIC PRACTICES, Sara Matchett and Rehane Abrahams
CONVERSATION 12 WITH MWENYA KABWE, SARA MATCHETT, REHANE ABRAHAMS AND MALIKA NDLOVU, selected and edited by Mwenya Kabwe
FOREWORD:
THE MOTHERTONGUE PROJECT AND ITS DIVERSE LANGUAGE EXPRESSIONS/DIALECTS
By Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki
I
Over the last three years, I have been working closely with Sara Matchett, one of the co-founders of The Mothertongue Project (MTP) on a cross-disciplinary project that brings together a group of eight people/womxn, mostly street sex workers, one of the most marginalised groups in South Africa. The global gender and cultures of in/equalities project — GlobalGRACE 1 deploys participatory theatre as the main research methodology imbricated within decolonial feminist praxes, very similar to the kind of work the MTP is doing. The project is entitled ‘Participatory theatre and the production of cultures of equality among sex workers in South Africa’ — a collaboratory project between the African Gender Institute and the Centre for Theatre, Dance and Performance studies at the University of Cape Town as well as the NGO Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Task force (SWEAT). The project draws on SWEAT’s radical approaches to creative activism framed within destigmatisation and decriminalisation of sex work in South Africa. As a decolonial feminist scholar and practitioner 2 , the GlobalGRACE project was my first rigorous encounter with the discipline of theatre and performance, which opened up for me more possibilities of plural and embodied epistemologies. My contribution through this foreword to a book reflecting on MTP’s work over the last twenty years is a privileged honour.
This book considers not only the commendable work that the MTP has done and continues to do but also brings to life the cross-disciplinary nature of theatre and performance with feminism in its intersections with race, class, gender, sexuality and ableism, all imbricated in activism — creative activism. The work of the MTP as articulated through this book is the epitome of theatre practices rooted in creative activism and notions of well-being, healing of the body, as well as African decolonial feminist praxes, all necessary in a context like South Africa that has endured 400 years of colonisation 3 and 50 years of apartheid. Their hangover effects (modernity/coloniality 4 ) are very much evident in the various expressions of structural and physical violence such as gender-based violence, gangsterism, poverty, neglect of well-being and drug abuse in the communities the MTP has worked in. The kind of work and intervention that the MTP is doing matters, especially as a decolonial counter to histories of colonisation and apartheid grounded in plural epistemologies of social justice and well-being.
II
Here, I would like to highlight three broad themes in the book — by evoking the notion of storytelling. I start off with the layout of the book, i.e., how the story is told. The aesthetic of each chapter begins with excerpts from conversations from several stakeholders and theatre practitioners in the MTP who are also authors of the various chapters in the book. These opening conversations are curated in such a way that they set the stage of what is to come in the chapter that follows. Hence the storytelling tone of the book is such that it brings together conversations, reflective narratives and theorisation as well as poetry. This tone of storytelling lends the book a profound lyricism. Moreover, the opening conversations show the connection or bond between the MTP theatre practitioners, speaking to more than 20 years of nurturing radical relationships between womxn theatre practitioners.
I bring the consideration of storytelling forward for several reasons, one prompted by Sara Matchett’s opening conversation for Chapter 3 by Rehane Abrahams. This conversation captures both the formation of the MTP as well as its very first performance, What the Water Gave Me , written and performed by Rehane Abrahams, directed by Sara Matchett, both co-founders of the MTP. In the conversation excerpt, Matchett states:

… This led to us calling ourselves the Mothertongue Project. The production ended up being called What the Water Gave Me . The correlation between ‘the tongue of the mother as storyteller’ and the metaphor of water are made explicit by filmmaker, writer, academic and composer, Trinh T Minh-ha, who speaks in her book Women, Native, Other about the storytelling being associated with water in symbolic and feminine ways. The storyteller, like water, is irrepressible in her defiance of being categorised and contained. She is all-inclusive; possessing the immense power and profound wisdom of the universe, she is respected and is honoured in the community. Min-ha equates the storyteller with Great Mother who guards womxn and presides over all waters. (58)
This quote points to storytelling as a central idea in the book. Secondly, it emphasises storytelling as symbolically resonant with motherhood and community/community-building. The notion of motherhood is one that is highly contested in (western) feminist scholarship. Early Marxists, feminists and social critics noted how ideals of motherhood shaped expectations of womxn in society: expectations that relegated motherhood to the private sphere and as devalued labour with the excessive burden of care placed on womxn. Liberal and radical feminists’ critique was directed to the nuclear family, one also relegated to the private domain as an oppressive mechanism that maintains patriarch