Brett Hooton
Hour

Bheki Ndlovu compares his role in Amakhosi: The Kings of Africa to a recurring character in African folklore. A sort of medicine man, this figure keeps tabs on everything happening in his village. His privileged position permits him to interact with different groups, functioning as an unbiased arbitrator who resolves conflicts and maintains peace in the community. As a performer in the production, as well as its director and choreographer, Ndlovu works constantly to balance the individual artistic identities of 40-odd dancers, musicians and acrobats and his overall creative vision. "We try to improvise more in people finding themselves as leaders or as people powerful enough to give direction," he says. "Like that, it's easier to conquer more of the problems that we have [as performers], even as individuals."

His idea of shared responsibility and mutual respect dovetails nicely with the moral of Amakhosi. The show recounts a traditional fable from Cape Town about how the city's Table Mountain came to exist. It begins once upon a time with an evil queen and her good-hearted daughter. After the child falls in love with a man from a nearby town, the couple wage war against the tyrannical matriarch in order to free the would-be bride from her craggy prison. According to the legend, the ensuing battle flattened the mountain.

To recreate this epic confrontation, Ndlovu and his crew fill an enormous tent with gravity-defying tumbling, tear-jerking melodies and gut-vibrating drums. Nevertheless he stresses that a deeper

meaning resides behind the spectacle. "If you're taking all the stories in Africa, people will sing and dance not because they're happy, but because they're trying to deliver a point."

And for modern audiences, multiculturalism is the message. Through its music, costumes and dancing techniques, Amakhosi blends several African cultures without obliterating the individual influences. The result, Ndlovu believes, offers an important example for his home continent, which continues to suffer the intractable challenges of war, disease and poverty."You've got the resolutions to problems whereby everyone at the end of the day comes together in the celebrating. Through all the chaos, we can come back and actually celebrate something which is common to each other. We look more on the values of what we have alike and make it work."

Amakhosi: The Kings of Africa
At the Jacques-Cartier Quay, Old Port,Montreal until Aug. 17

 

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