WeeklySA_AdminINVISIBLE: Motshabi’s works initiate dialogue and preserve our history…
By Gugu Sibiya
The curtain may have dropped on Monageng Vice Motshabi’s The Red on the Rainbow, but there’s no doubt that the play has triggered a mixed bag of feelings.
Besides giving the audience food for thought, it’s taken them back to that tragic day. A moment that’s going to haunt Black folks for a long time to come.
Inspired by Mahlomola Mosoeu’s heartbreaking story, the play is set on a sunflower farm in the North West small town of Coligny, where 16-year old Mosoeu was murdered by a white farmer’s son and his friends for allegedly stealing sunflower.
What saddened, stunned and elicited a de javu feeling among Black South Africa, was the subsequent acquittal of the murderers.
Award-winning Motshabi’s journey on The Red was ignited in Germany.
“I landed on this experience first and foremost because it’s an area of interest generally. I arrived at this particular one while I was looking at the issue of invisibility on a writing residency. I was in Berlin at the time.
“Central to the exploration, was the task we were all asked to work on, invisibility. How government can render citizens invisible, and one part can render another part of society invisible. I started thinking a lot about the realism of an invisible man while I was digging on the implication of that.
“I was then reminded of the small towns of South Africa, the little dorpies, where Black people’s lives are not valued. They are invisible. Not that in cities we are visible. It’s just that it’s a lot darker in those places. Apartheid goes on and on as if 1994 never happened.
“It was around that time I got drawn to this particular story which reminded me of the 2018 incident at a Coligny sunflower farm. I read more and watched documentaries on the case. It felt like the perfect vehicle for what I had in mind.”
As drawn to the Mosoeu incident as he was, he’s never met the family, though. “It wasn’t really necessary since we weren’t creating a documentary but rehashing that story. Ours is fictitious and not necessarily biographical. We are inspired by Mahlomola Mosoeu’s story, though we’re not telling it, but elevating it to speak to all similar events around the country,” adds Motshabi, putting things into perspective.
Thoughtfully he adds, “There are other stories that wanted to be told that I wasn’t aware they are sitting in my body. They found a channel through Mahlomola’s story. Like my mother’s story, which is also my younger brother’s, to whom I’ve dedicated the play to, and Mahlomola.”
On those that have been at the receiving end of this cruelty, Motshabi says “I understood when I saw Mahlomola ’s mother being interviewed. I could tell that she still had faith in the justice system, and how deeply shattered she was when it failed her family.
The depth of powerlessness that comes with not having an outlet when she wasn’t getting justice. The realisation that there’s nothing she can do except count on others to fight for her. I understood that powerlessness for what it is, I’d seen it on my mother’s face.
“Her own story wanted to come out through this one, which is also my brother’s story. So, there’s a lot that was essentially ficticious, that’s produced more of what’ s real,” he explains.
The playwright’s brother was murdered and the family hasn’t had justice or answers on what happened to their loved one. “Being in the dark about what transpired, has left that gaping wound of longing for the truth in order to find closure. I saw what it did to my mother. Her health failed. You feel her sorrow and this loss is still in her eyes.”
This important theatrical masterpiece was adapted into a short film in Germany. “I’m ecstatic that the Black German theatre company got the play. It spoke for them as well since there was a young Black man who was killed by police and there was no justice. So, they also made it about him. There are cultural nuances that were not clear to them, though they’re Black.
“They didn’t have the experience of being Black. One of the scenes is where the mother fetches the spirit of the son where he died. They were lost, so they cut it out. Otherwise, they loved the play,’’ a content Motshabi says.
“I didn’t feel any pressure, I’ve always done plays that are meaningful and important to our people. I’m happy the Germans recognised my work and what I’m trying to do. It’s my contribution to resisting and reimagining ourselves as a people.”
On the turn out, Motshabi adds: “I believe it’s been a beautiful experience for us, the team and those who’ve seen the play. It works from many levels for most people. Though tackling a heavy subject, it’s also enjoyable. It doesn’t leave you in a gloomy place.
“I’ve always given myself the responsibility to create an atmosphere of beauty. It’s complex but it allows the audience to laugh, to colour it in so that it doesn’t send them into a dark place.
“We were hoping that people leave the theatre feeling some level of power and courage. That it would enable them to resist instead of feeling incapacitated to challenge injustices.
“Resistance is centre to this play. Question is, can we empower people to resist in small ways, big ways, depending who you are and what your strengths are,” he asks rhetorically.
Among Motshabi’s fascinating works is Ankobia and The Book of Revelations. Both are set in the future. Ankobia which was done in 2017, looks at landlessness and religion used to emasculate people to quit resisting. A scared government and big business frighten masses by faking Jesus Christ’s coming back.
“People in the know tell the truth about the masterminds. I worked with Omphile Molusi,” he says, recalling how Ankobia was ignored, which something they had anticipated.
With regard to the Book of Revelations, he worked on the project with Kgafela wa Mogogodi in 2014. “It’s a government determined to stay in power. The leader goes wild to scare people only to emerge as their saviour. It shows that fed up people do rise against a regime that doesn’t work for them.
“It had a successful run at the Soweto and Cape Town theatres.” Although nominated on both accounts, it didn’t scoop any awards.
The Standard Bank Artist Award winner says, “We can all do with a pause, it will enrich us. We’ve been at it for some time. We’re thankful for the warm reception and audiences coming back over and over again. It’s been rewarding to see.”
Black people’s lives
are not valued.
Apartheid goes on
and on as if 1994 never happened…
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