Showcasing artistic talent in the townships

THIS time of year Grahamstown transforms into a mini Cape Town. In the space of 11 days you have your Greenmarket Square on High Street, your art galleries scattered across town, car guards in each and every parking bay, packed theatre and film screening halls, exorbitant food prices, copious amounts of wine being quaffed at semi-bohemian restaurants.

The only thing missing is Table Mountain and the beach.

That aside, one cannot take away from the sheer scale of the National Arts Festival; 628 shows, 2 498 performances, an estimated R90 million added to the GDP of Grahamstown.

Independent Media’s Eastern Cape newspaper, I’solezwe lesiXhosa, naturally had to move from crawling to running to ensure we were present at the 41st staging of this festival.

Upon arrival we were confronted with a slight dilemma. We looked at the programme, saw the acts and thought “how can we tell this story to our readers?”

We write our paper for a Xhosa literate reader, working- to middle- class, who resides in the townships and rural areas in the Eastern Cape.

Comedy, art, theatre, film and music rarely take place where we distribute our Xhosa newspapers. What would make this relevant, when every person who has such dreams in our province has to migrate from the Eastern Cape to Joburg or Cape Town in order to pursue them?

Enter Gcina Mhlophe. Poet, playwright, author, actor and renowned Xhosa storyteller. You could hear her bold voice thundering through the windows of the Fingo Village’s community hall where she had more than 50 children enthralled with her short stories.

Fingo, on the outskirts of Grahamstown, is its oldest township, where the annual Fingo Festival is staged until tomorrow.

Mornings start with a children’s programme followed by community dialogue sessions and the day is wrapped up with music and drama performances. It takes place on Fingo Square where hundreds of Grahamstown township residents participate.

Festival organiser, Xolile Madinda, describes this festival as a way of getting township communities to also share in the festivities. “We have mam’ uGcina Mhlophe for the children and we also have various dialogues that highlight the plight of the arts in the townships. We aim to discuss and showcase the talent that lies in this township.”