Moving version of Mendi tragedy
SABAMNYE NOMENDI is a creative interdisciplinary and multimedia interpretation of the sinking of the SS Mendi.
It was a troop ship that sailed from Cape Town en route to La Havre in France on January 16, 1917, carrying the last contingent of the South African Native Labour Corps, comprising 805 black privates, five white officers and 17 non-commissioned officers, as well as 33 crew members.
The SS Mendi sank on February 21 and more than 600 black South African troops drowned.
Among those who perished were also men from Lesotho, the then Transvaal, and even Botswana.
Conceptualised and curated by Mandla Mbothwe, Sabamnye noMendi goes beyond the theatre walls and into the public space to investigate and creatively interpret SEK Mqhayi’s poem about the sinking of SS Mendi just off the Isle of Wight.
When watching this show, expect the unexpected, for this show was not staged on a theatre stage, but rather out in the open in the Makana Botanical Gardens.
There were no traditional ushers, but rather guides, leading the audience from one point to the next, in temperatures that never topped 8°C.
One of the main focuses on the tragedy, as retold by Brenda Shepherd, who wrote a book about the tragedy, was how cold the water was when the ship sank.
If it was the production team’s idea, for anyone attending the show, to get a sense of how cold it was for the more than 600 that died, by having parts of the show outside, well, they certainly succeeded.
In songs, dance, pictures, film and multimedia we all experienced a journey that took us, the audience, through times, spaces and memories to repossess this very sad story.
There existed a huge African theme throughout the show, something its creators seemed unapologetic about, and rightfully so.
At some point we were led into a small room where the smell of Imphepho lingered strongly. That in itself reminded me of my father and the rituals of slaughtering that he practised.
It then made me think about the families back in South Africa who would have lost their own fathers, brothers, uncles and even sole breadwinners.
The audience was also led to a room where a sangoma sat and spoke of how the spirits of the men that died were uneasy because they were still at sea, to this very day. This raw reminder of how these brave men died stirred up indescribable emotions.
It’s also worth noting the dramatic costumes and overall dramaturgy.
Yes, this story was told through metaphorical gestures and physical images, through sounds of call and response, songs of fear and defiance, dance drills, film interpretation and pictorial narrations.
But the story of those men who took off their boots and shouted war cries, then disappeared in the dark, icy waters, was also told through the emotions of the stellar cast.
Sabamnye noMendi is a fantastic piece of work.