Ubuntu created and performed by South African youth theatre company Golden Future Faces. Tuggeranong Arts Centre, Sunday February 1.
"Ubuntu" means "all people together". The theme of their songs, dances and acting was reflected not only in their use of classical traditions from Xhosa, Zulu and Bantu cultures, but in the multicultural mix of the audience in the bright, new and exciting Tuggeranong Arts Centre. Golden Future Faces is a coup for Domenic Mico, artistic director of Tuggeranong Community Arts, which he says has been only one among many equally thrilling events in the National Multicultural Arts Festival.
The young people's skills, coming from cultures in which rhythm, dance and storytelling are endemic, put to shame the traditional Anglo cultural inhibitions. Spontaneous applause for the drumming, the drink can dance by the girls and the wellington boot dance by the boys could not be held back by the afternoon heat, occasionally tempered by a brief southerly buster across the lake.
The hour long show took us from the past to the present, and looked to the future. The classical past needs preserving in a changing world, and the present is not a happy place. The strength of social criticism, not only of apartheid but nowadays even more of the violence among black Africans, made the central scenes highly confrontational. I felt some embarrassment in the audience as we realised what these young people had to face in their lives: Sharpeville Day; the isolation from their families of the mineworkers; the prayer "We pray for happiness, so that once again our children can play in the streets - with no fear, with no fear, with no fear."
"Those killers, they must go", they sang. I feared for their safety when performing in South Africa with such direct messages, but no, they told me, no-one has tried to interfere. This is brave youth theatre, the quality of the performance strengthened by the commitment to Ubuntu. Extended applause and the giving of gifts from the Tuggeranong community gives hope that cultural exchange is no longer politely applauding exotic art. The South Africans, like Daniel Williams, Ngunnawal arts administration trainee who welcomed us on the didgeridoo, were here "to stamp our authority on the existence of our identity".
© Frank McKone, Canberra
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