'Thatha'
is an Ndebele word that means "Please Take" these 10
singers and dancers take us on a journey displaying the joys of
life through traditional and contemporary African song and dance.
I
found this show exciting, fascinating, uplifting and exhausting.
Just watching the non-stop energy and enthusiasm of all the
performers knowing they had just performed on the Royal Mile to
attract an audience, left me feeling unfit.
The whole spectacle of sound and vision is amazing, it is
also very fitting in the present climate just having had the Live
8 concerts during which parts of Thatha were performed at the Eden
Project.
Although
10 singers and dancers are on stage the programme only names 9:
Antony, Lucy, Magugu, Nicho, Richard, Tabeth, Tawanda, Thuba and
Tonde. They all dance
sing and play instruments.
Our
journey starts in the Ndebele Kingdom in southern Zimbabwe, where
we see 'Muchongoyo’ in the song Mbani, a warrior dance.
‘Isitshikitsha’ known as the “foot thumping and clapping”
is shown in the song Ngwalo. The song Baleka
literally translated means “get out of the way” which depicts
Indlamu and stick fighting.
In
the Shona Kingdom Mauya welcomes us, and the young girls dance ‘Mhande’,
the songs Mkwasha and Hondo finish off the
‘Dinhe’ harvest dance.
During apartheid, people from Zimbabwe and
other neighbouring countries had been migrating to South Africa to
find work, the ‘Gumboot (Welly)’ dance, was used to while away
time during breaks in the mines.
This is only part of the programme.
See it whilst in Edinburgh
as it is an exciting experience.
*****
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