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South African Play Explores Impact of Historic Xhosa Prophetess Nongqawuse

Navdeep Jassal, has been traveling in South Africa for the last five months and recently had the opportunity to review a play in Johannesburg. Presented by Africa Creations Production Company, the play reveals the nature of African indigenous spirituality. “The Rise and Fall of the African Gospel: Nongqawuse” was created, written and directed by Mbongeni Moroke who was inspired by the historic events of 1856-7 and the miseducation that followed.

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Nongqawuse. Wikipedia image and Tiyo Soga. Wikipedia image
Nongqawuse. Wikipedia image and Tiyo Soga. Wikipedia image

By Navdeep Jassal
Post News Group Contributor

Navdeep Jassal, has been traveling in South Africa for the last five months and recently had the opportunity to review a play in Johannesburg. Presented by Africa Creations Production Company, the play reveals the nature of African indigenous spirituality.

“The Rise and Fall of the African Gospel: Nongqawuse” was created, written and directed by Mbongeni Moroke who was inspired by the historic events of 1856-7 and the miseducation that followed.

Though performed in the Xhosa language, with a few short excerpts in English for non-Xhosa speakers, I had the opportunity to speak with Moroke — who portrayed Mhlakaza, a sangoma (traditional healer) and father to Nongqawuse. This article is gleaned from our conversations.

The play is about two well-known historical figures for the Xhosa: Their young maiden prophetess, Nongqawuse, and South Africa’s first Black Christian Presbyterian minister, Tiyo Soga.

For background’s sake, it must be understood that according to African indigenous spirituality, cows are slaughtered to summon the ancestors’ protection. In 1856, cattle represented the primary measure of wealth among the Xhosa, and the word to the king from prophetess Nongqawuse that cattle should be killed to hide the wealth from the arriving Christian missionaries was shocking.

The message came in a time when the Xhosa nations’ strength and trust in its leadership had been eroding after a great king had been assassinated by Christian missionaries in the early 1800s following his betrayal by his own counsel and other Xhosa leaders.

That “negative aura persisted around the kings,” making for a continual threat to Xhosa unity, Moroke said.

And unity is key: According to South African spirituality, God the Creator cannot intervene in a divided nation; therefore, after the slaughter, the rising of the ancestors foreseen by Nongqawuse did not happen in the way it was expected.

Enter Tiyo Soga, the son of a chief counselor to the king who had turned away from Xhosa tradition and followed in his Christian mother’s footsteps. He eventually traveled to Scotland to study religion and theology and returned as a Christian evangelist.

By then, Xhosa society was divided like never before. The Christian missions became the sanctuary and refuge for the hordes of hungry, famished people — their grain silos empty, their cattle no more, and their land useless.

While 16-year-old Nongqawuse was labeled a false prophet and scapegoated, Soga and lesser-known Black individuals spread the new religion by white Christian missionaries throughout Xhosa land.

Moroke’s inspiration is a righteous one: The spirit of God the Creator existed before the Bible in

Africa and Moroke speaks from and uses the African indigenous spiritual lens in his work as playwright, director, actor, and musician, demonstrating that spirituality in ancient Africa was powerful.

Through entertainment, Moroke strives to re-educate Black South Africans on the value of their own history, valor and spirituality.

The opening scene takes place on Robben Island more than 100 years before Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was a political prisoner there. Three broken Xhosa kings shed tears as white Christian missionaries locked them up, thus destroying their ability to provide spiritual guidance to their tribesmen and women.

In his signature style, the first scene becomes the final scene as well, but for nearly two hours, Moroke takes the audience through the events that led to the kings’ capture.

“There are three things which control the world: economics, politics and religion,” said Moroke. “When a nation is ruling well within these three sectors, that nation becomes the most powerful nation in the world. So, white Christian missionaries took charge in Africa in these three sectors and used religion through the Bible to destroy and rule us.

“Every generation has its mandate and the last generation had politics as its mandate,” Moroke said. “As someone representing the current generation, the mandate is to revisit indigenous and spiritual history and go back to the core problems which led to apartheid. I am trying to answer a question of this generation in terms of what went wrong, and why are we here after all the struggles and voting in 1994.”

Although I could not piece it all together due to language barriers and lack of context, as I sat in the audience, I knew what I was watching was very moving and powerful.

There were some audience members crying because the play resonated with their backgrounds as African people. And, for others, the play resonated in terms of family whether it was family disfunction or affection.

Two Xhosa people said that when the ‘king’ was coming onto the stage, they had a vision of that actual king coming. Another sangoma said she learned many things from Moroke’s character about the discipline of a sangoma.

For more information direct message Africa Creations on social media: Facebook Africa-Creations; Instagram @africa_creations; Twitter @Afric_Creations; or email africacreationsmail@gmail.com and watch YouTube videos @africacreations8130.

Activism

Alternative Outcome to Slayings by Police Explored in One-Man Play

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira. Set against the backdrop of a presidential election, the play explores how political and cultural leaders wield the myth of the dangerous Black man to manipulate the masses for personal gain. Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour. 

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BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira.
BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira.

Special to The Post

What would happen if police officers who have gotten off for killing unarmed Black people started turning up dead?

BLACK MEN EVERYWHERE! is the explosive new one man play written, directed, and performed by Jinho “Piper” Ferreira. Set against the backdrop of a presidential election, the play explores how political and cultural leaders wield the myth of the dangerous Black man to manipulate the masses for personal gain.

Piper penned the follow-up to his ground-breaking solo play, “Cops and Robbers,” after an impromptu cross-country Black history tour.

“My wife and I had been talking about it for years,” Ferreira said. They had taken their three children to Brazil several times and West Africa but had yet to explore their history as Black people in this country. “It was Juneteenth last year and I realized we had a few weeks to make it happen, so we just jumped in the car and left” Piper said.

Three weeks later the family had seen everything from the African American Museum of History and Culture in Wash., D.C., to the phenomenally preserved Whitney Plantation in Louisiana. They’d stood outside of the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., walked across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., and paid their respects at the Africa Town cemetery – where the passengers of the Clotilda (the last known U.S. slave ship to smuggle captured Africans into this country) were buried near Mobile, Ala.

“We had the kids keep a journal of the trip and my wife and I took notes, but once we got back home, I knew I had to make the pen move,” he said.

Ferreira plays 21 characters in the 60-minute emotional roller coaster ride; personalities we all know. While brilliantly weaving in themes of revolution, treachery, and revenge, “Black Men Everywhere!” is surprisingly — more than anything else — a love story.

“I wrote the play for Black men and everyone who loves us,” Ferreira said. “The play is narrated by a sistah and performed in front of the deeply spiritual artwork of Nedra T. Williams, an Oakland priestess of Olokun. It’s called ‘Black Men Everywhere!’ but we don’t exist without the Black woman.”

For tickets, please go to: http://tinyurl.com/5dm3mhra

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Art

City of Stockton Seeks Applications for Public Art Murals

The City of Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) has announced the opportunity for artist(s) and/or artist teams to apply to design and paint original artwork on City-owned property through a Public Art Mural Program. The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

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The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.
The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

City of Stockton

The City of Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) has announced the opportunity for artist(s) and/or artist teams to apply to design and paint original artwork on City-owned property through a Public Art Mural Program.

The deadline for applications is Friday, March 8, 2024, at 5 p.m. Applications and additional information are available online at www.stocktonca.gov/publicart.

The Public Art Mural Program incentivizes mural installations by providing city funding and the means of curating the City’s collection of murals.

This program has $50,000 in available funds for artist(s) and is also available for those who have already identified funds and would like to complete a mural project on city-owned property. Applications will be reviewed on a competitive basis and selected by the SAC.

To learn more about the Stockton Arts Commission (SAC) or qualifications and eligibility for Public Art Mural Program, please visit www.stocktonca.gov/publicart or call the Community Services Department at (209) 937-8206.

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Art

Black Nativity: A Unique Adaptation of the Christmas Story

“Black Nativity” is a cultural adaptation that tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Created by the poet, novelist, playwright and activist Langston Hughes, and performed by an all-Black cast, this unique musical production showcases traditional Christmas carols sung in a gospel style, along with some new songs specifically written for the show.

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Poet, novelist, playwright and activist Langston Hughes.
Poet, novelist, playwright and activist Langston Hughes.

By Tamara Shiloh

“Black Nativity” is a cultural adaptation that tells the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Created by the poet, novelist, playwright and activist Langston Hughes, and performed by an all-Black cast, this unique musical production showcases traditional Christmas carols sung in a gospel style, along with some new songs specifically written for the show.

The show made its debut Off-Broadway on Dec. 11, 1961. It was a groundbreaking moment because it was one of the first plays written by an African American to be staged in New York City. The play gained popularity quickly and even toured Europe in 1962, with one notable performance at the Spoleto Festival of Two Worlds in Italy.

“Black Nativity” has become an annual tradition in Boston, since 1970. It has been performed at various locations, including the Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts, Boston Opera House, Tremont Temple, Roxbury Community College, Northeastern University’s Blackman Auditorium, and Emerson College’s Paramount Theater. This production is considered the longest-running rendition of the Langston Hughes’ classic.

The original cast included 160 singers, classified by age group and vocal range. They were accompanied by soloists, a narrator, and unique portrayals of Mary and Joseph, who communicated without speaking. Musicians and American Sign Language (ASL) interpreters added depth to the performance.

The show begins in complete darkness as barefoot singers, dressed in white robes and carrying electric candles, walk in while singing the classic hymn “Go Tell It on the Mountain.” This creates a captivating and atmospheric start to the performance.

One of the most dramatic moments in the play is the portrayal of Jesus’ birth. The stage transforms from orange and blue lights to a deep red hue. African drums and percussion are used to echo Mary’s contractions, adding a unique touch to the story. The Three Wise Men, often prominent members of the local Black community, play their roles without singing.

The show concludes with the chorus singing a reprise of “Go Tell It on the Mountain” as they exit in darkness. A final soliloquy delivered by a young child brings emotional closure to the performance.

Originally, the play was named “Wasn’t It a Mighty Day?”

Notably, Alvin Ailey, a renowned dancer and choreographer, was part of the original Off-Broadway cast. However, both he and Carmen de Lavallade left the production due to a dispute over changing the title to “Black Nativity.”

In 2004, a documentary film was made about the world premiere performance and the creation of the best-selling gospel Christmas album, “Black Nativity – In Concert: A Gospel Celebration.” This original cast performance took place at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Portland, ME.

A film adaptation of “Black Nativity” directed by Kasi Lemmons and starring Forest Whitaker and Angela Bassett was released on Nov. 27, 2013, bringing this remarkable Nativity story to a broader audience.

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