This is what the promo material starts with: “A day starts with a sunrise… the golden happiness of eGongolweni Village illuminates the summer flowing river like the cries of the gods. Nomzamo dances, moves and plays in the dust… up… up the dust fills up until covered. I can’t breathe; I need to move out… help… She cries yet the trees; rocks, birds and rivers do not hear her dances, her singing and her loud laughter anymore. Repeatedly she laments to the people around her… no don’t walk… I can’t, I need to walk, thorny the bushes, risky deep and dark… walking I walk…
This is director/writer Gcebile Dlamini’s personal story titled Nomzamo which will be celebrating women as part of Maboneng POPart’s August celebrations, but she’s also working for it to travel. Already they’re part of the Alex Olive Tree Festival in October.
Dlamini was born in Swaziland. But she wanted to reach a much wider world. First she earned her diploma in drama at the Durban University of Technology and completed her B-Tech at the Tshwane University of Technology. During her studies she was drawn to directing and community work which is where she knew she wanted to work. As a graduate of the Drama for Life Division at Wits where she completed her honours in Applied Drama and Theatre and was awarded the Dr John Kani Theatre award for social change, she started working at the Hillbrow Theatre where she works mainly with high school children from the inner city.
“It’s a place where we explore social issues and where I remember my feelings at that age,” she says. She had been raped as a girl (only 10 years old) by someone she trusted in the family. She describes that world as one of secrets and lies and she had to bury and carry her shame on her own. It was only when she was discussing rape with the children when one of the actresses, now part of the play, left the room crying that Dlamini understood that hers was a common crisis.
“Up to that point I had been very angry and would have these outbursts, but couldn’t understand why.” Now she knows that it is about the fear, hurt and damage of not being able to share. But she had been writing and singing about her woes and once she knew this was the topic that needed most urgent airing, she turned to her past memories.
“It’s out there all over the place,” she explains and that’s what gave her courage to tell this story. She knew she had to give these damaged girls a voice while giving hers wings.
She thinks it’s about culture and tradition and communities covering up something they see as shame. In the meantime, the vicitm, usually a girl, is confused and left to work through this attack which she doesn’t under-stand. “Writing was my best outlet,” says Dlamini and, with this play, it has been a healing experience for her and many others.
When she first started working with the inner city scholars attending her classes, two of her actors were sisters who have also had opera training with the Roodepoort Theatre as well as Gauteng Opera. Neliseka (gogo) and Thobeka Malinga (Isaac) fitted her demands perfectly. “I wanted to tell the story driven by music,” she says. As a girl, she often found solace in the forest where she listened to the birds and the wind. “I still go there today when I visit home,” she says.
Her Nomzamo for this production is a Market Lab graduate, Tsholofelo Pouline Mmbi, who tells her story exactly the way Dlamini wanted. Witnessing the play in Grahamstown, it is the authenticity of the voices and that the story is one that affects everyone in this country that gives hope.
“I’d love this to travel to schools across the country and think children from the age of 10 can hear the story. That’s when it happened to me,” she says by way of explanation.
But when playing to schools, she would like drama therapists as well as women’s organisations whom these affected children can turn to, to come on board. “We can’t tell these horrific stories without showing the way,” she says. Family secrets destroy a child,” she says but they have to know they have a choice.
l Nomzamo, Thursday to Sunday, POPart.