Mzoo Spot

I have now watched a few performances and would like to share my experience. The work of Paul Mpumelelo Grootboom is always interesting (to me). This time he brought two shows to the festival: "Cats and Dogs" and "Foreplay". Cats and Dogs which the author thinks will be changed to "Welcome To Rocksville" is a story of violence. A subject Grootboom likes to grapple with in his plays. Equally prominent in Grootboom's plays is sex, and that is explored in Foreplay. Grootboom is always hard hitting and does not mince his words. These plays were in the Fringe category. My Xhosa, which was performed in Egazini Center was also in this category. It attempted to take a nolstagic route into the Xhosa history. It wanted to promote the return to such useful values as Ubuntu and above all to be proud about one's identity. The subject of identity was also covered in the play ID Pending whose main character was the son of John Kani - Athandwa Kani. The play ...

The last time I was at the Grahamstown Arts Festival was in 1999. This time, ten years later I decided to do the famous G'town Arts Fest; this is arguably the biggest arts festival in Africa.A few things have remained unchanged since the last time I was there: for one, the street kids are still sprinkled all over the place; the free concert venue at the back of the City Hall is still there. On my visit to the stalls at the Village Green, I found the place desolate. Upon enquiry it turned out that this year there were two areas earmarked for trading, and this arrangement disadvantaged other traders. It would appear to me that the festival has two faces: one white and another black. The latter is represented by mainly foreign nationals from the African continent, local people from such areas as Joza etc, who after trading hours huddle in makeshift tents for a night's rest. These are the people who for some reason or other miss out on an opportunity to trade where the lucrative ma...