“Creative arts are the soul of a nation”
"We must never allow fear to overwhelm us to a point where we cannot connect with each other in songs, poems, dance, stories and fine arts," Dr Gcina Mhlophe.
WHILE the uncertainty of the coronavirus still sweeps across globally, Gcinamasiko Arts and Heritage Trust stands firm, just like the Storytelling Tree fig tree on the Bluff Showgrounds, that art is the soul of the community and should be shared and celebrated.
“The event on Saturday, 21 March was cancelled but I decided to host a few friends and colleagues in the Peace Garden at our home. It is a very colourful and enchanted space. That worked well. We used sanitisers and washed hands regularly. We also shared a bring-and-share meal, a story or two and then we prayed for those who have been devastated by this Covid-19 pandemic,” said Dr Gcina Mhlophe.
The big fig tree on the showgrounds is fast becoming a legendary place for gatherings of infinate wisdom such as its roots and branches. A dream now realised, Songs and Stories Under the Storytelling Tree, has brought the world’s most sharpest and wisest minds to converge on the local-based stage.
“This is a dream I have had for years. I kept identifying trees in different parts of greater Durban but they didn’t work out for various reasons,” explained Dr Gcina Mhlophe, curator and founder of these family-orientated events.
A nudge from eThekwini Culture and Heritage Department, eThekwini Libraries and ward 66 councillor, JP Prinsloo, saw the birth of this concept late last year and while Dr Mhlophe believes there’s a lot to be done still, the event has made strides in leaps and bounds.
The event has hosted Dr Lindiwe Mabuza from Pretoria, Prof Ntombana from Nelson Mandela University, historian Ntuthuko Khuzwayo, music legend Madala Kunene, Dr Nobuhle Zondo from UKZN and indigenous musicians like Gogo MaBhengu from eShowe, eThekwini head of libraries Tebogo Mzizi and Themba Mchunu of Living Cultures and Linda Mbonambi of AMB among others.
Dr Mhlophe said the highlight of events was the official launch of National Storytelling Day on 24 October 2019. “People came from different universities and organisations in different provinces. It was so humbling,” she exclaimed.
Another milestone the eThekwini Living Legend has seen through these free and family-orientated events is the collaboration she and her daughter, Nomakhwezi Becker, have achieved. Becker, an honours degree in drama graduate who completed her internship in a theatre in Braunschweig, Germany and has also taken her play to the Grahamstown Festival, shares the stage with her mother at the events.
“It’s been very helpful and exciting because some of the ideas and concepts she is familiar with even before they are revealed to the public. Now we seem to have loads of fun sharing this stage. We also started working together late last year on a theatre production of Fudukazi’s Magic at Playhouse,” she said.
“These are terrible times of great instability. But the creative arts are the very soul of a nation. We must never allow fear to overwhelm us to a point where we cannot connect with each other in songs, poems, dance, stories and fine arts. No matter how small the gatherings are – connecting with one another is what will lift our spirits no matter how dark the times. We at Gcinamasiko always say we, ‘Touch the past and feel the future’. What we learnt from our ancestors, we must pass on to future generations. Whatever colour, culture or religion these values are timeless. The Storytelling Tree on the Bluff has to grown into a real beacon of hope for us the residents as well as citizens of our beautiful South Africa. Nkosi Sikelela iAfrika,” Dr Mhlophe said.
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