University of the Western Cape: Dr Thozama April’s unique study comes to life in MAXEKE puppetry and object theatre production
Dr Thozama April conducted her research on Charlotte Maxeke, the ‘Mother of Black Freedom’ in South Africa, to pursue her doctoral studies in the Department of History at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in the early 2000s.
In addition to the positive reception of Dr April’s expansive and unique study, it has now been adapted for the new puppetry and object theatre production, MAXEKE: This work is not for yourselves, which will premiere at the Star Theatre (formerly the Fugard Theatre) in Cape Town from 7 to 11 February 2023.
Dr April’s research as a Next Generation Scholar at the Centre for Humanities Research (CHR) at UWC connects postgraduate study and advanced research to puppetry and object theatre, and sound and visual art, which sets the CHR apart from other institutions of higher education. It also speaks to UWC’s Institutional Operating Plan goal of contributing to the transformation of society through knowledge production.
Maxeke was the first black woman from South Africa to graduate with a university degree in the sciences, which she received from Wilberforce University in the USA in 1903. She became a renowned intellectual of the Black Atlantic, an early political campaigner for the plight of women in South Africa, and a hugely significant thinker and modernist at the turn of the 20th Century whose intellectual leadership influenced many of the early leaders of the freedom struggle.
Maxeke was also an artist and a singer. Her astounding experiences across the world as a member of the African Jubilee Choir in Europe and America in the late 1890s provide the production with references and textures of her remarkable and worldly life experiences at the turn of the 20th Century.
Dr April, based at the University of Fort Hare, recalled that she first came across Maxeke’s name in her undergraduate studies in the Department of History at UWC while she was doing a course titled, “Women And Resistance in Southern Africa”. The course offered a broad survey of the literature on women’s resistance in Southern Africa.
“From my initial encounter with this literature, I detected the manner in which women are generally written out/erased from the histories they made. It is then that I decided to pursue a study on Charlotte Maxeke,” she said.
Dr April said it never occurred to her that the study would make such an impact. “But in retrospect, given the positive reception and rigorous critique of my work, I am really humbled by the manner in which the story has evolved, of course acknowledging the interventions of other researchers and artists who are beginning to take the story forward.
“I am excited for the younger generation of researchers who now have a narrative about the women who made significant strides in society, whose histories are now beginning to set the tone in public conversations about social redress, gender and equality. Her monumental contribution enhances our learning experience beyond the areas that have habitually been presented to women in society. Here I refer specifically to Maxeke’s interventions in the arts, education, religion and politics. In many ways, the play encapsulates the ethos of Maxeke’s work, only if society and the world could learn from her example.”
The production – according to CHR Director, Professor Heidi Grunebaum – is not biographical but is re-imagining Maxeke’s ideas and life’s work through puppetry arts, combining memory, history and object theatre to breathe life into the story of an extraordinary South African woman which dominant historical records have seemingly deemed a minor reference.
Maxeke is directed by the CHR’s Itumeleng wa Lehulere in collaboration with the Ukwanda Puppets and Design Collective. It is based on an original play text by Buhle Ngaba with musical direction by Neo Muyanga, puppetry direction by Aja Marneweck and projection design and creation by Kirstin Cummings.
Professor Grunebaum revealed that the original rod puppets for the production were created by the Ukwanda Puppets and Design Collective with Ukwanda’s Luyanda Nogondlwana as head designer, in collaboration with master puppet maker, Adrian Kohler of Handspring Puppet Company, bringing exquisitely crafted puppets to the centre of the live performance.
Kinetic objects and puppetry combine with set and lighting design by Patrick Curtis and Kirstin Cumming’s multimedia projections to drive the visual world of the production, which cuts between past and present, destabilising the idea of a coherent biographical narrative. Neo Muyanga’s reworking of the musical legacies of the famous African Jubilee Choir is brought to life by a stellar cast of singers, musicians and puppeteers led by Babalwa Zimbini, Noxolo Blandile, Carlo Daniels, Ntando Ngcume, Vuyolwethu Dunge, Marty Kintu, Sipho Ngxola and Siphokazi Mpofu.