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National Arts Festival:11 days of Amazing!


I had no idea that the annual winter National Arts Festival held in Grahamstown was started in 1974. I was born in 1974. My first interest  and curiosity about this festival was in 1999. Then venues and audience numbers were quite small. I recall then that the jazz festival was held at a small hotel room in the CBD. Now it has moved to a bigger hall at Diocesan School for Girls (DSG).  But what of this festival really?


The programme had over 250 pages, and so finding what to watch could be daunting for a novice. Of course there was a bewildering array of things to see, ranging from theatre, dance, exhibitions,cultural tours, music (jazz, contemporary, traditional...etc), films, "Thinkfest". Thinkfest is part of the festival that showcases discussions on topical issues like, politics, arts, environment, media...etc. It take the form of panel discussions and lectures series.

When I am at the festival, I make it a point to check the work of Paul Mpumelelo Grootboom. He is famous for writing the controversial play Cards. When Cards opened at The State Theatre a few years ago the venue was sold out. The play was extremely brazen in its portrayal of nudity, violence, and vulgar language. This play opened at the National Arts Festival earlier. It was set in Hilbrow brothel run by a Nigerian national. All sorts of bad things you can imagine happen. Grootboom is not politically correct in portraying them. This time though, he collaborated with Presley Chweneyagae and Tshepo wa Mamtu to produce a play called, Relativity: Townships Stories. Here too you can see the quintessential Grootboom, where characters are niftily crafted to be good and bad at the same time. His plays are not preachy, if anything they are controversial. They deal with rape, incest, breakdown of family unit. These are the issues Township Stories dealt with.

I also watched a play called Bantustan that was directed by Darlington Micheals of Isidingo fame. Here they were exploring an interesting piece of history totally ignored by many, where Sebe's brother attempted to assassinate him. I have no idea why they chose this slice of history, given that the actors of play struggled with isiXhosa. Anyway, I think they manage to ignite an interest in me to read more about that part of history.

There was a lot of comedy, especially standup. I watched David Kibuka and a free show by Khanyisa Bunu from Whitlesea. I think by far Sivuyile "Siv" Ngesi, Race Card show was the most popular. Twice I could  not get tickets for it. His 2009 Dekaf show was equally popular.

Towards the end of festival, most people start to talk about the jazz festival. The big acts this year were Andy Narrel,Ernie Smith, Sbongile Khumalo, and Bala Brothers. There was also Mango Groove. All music shows were well attended with Andy Narrel and Mango Groove shows totally sold out.

Like all townships, Grahamstown has a "Tshisa Nyama", KwaMakhaya at Fingo Village. The Saturday that was revelers chose to gather KwaMakhaya was terribly cold. This however seemed not a deterrent at all. In fact people drove from as far afield as Port Alfred, PE, King and other neighbouring towns just to be seen KwaMakhaya.

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