How to tell an African story
Makere Thekiso’s music video of rapper M.anifest’s ‘Simple Love’ has captured audiences. By Pearl Boshomane Tsotetsi
Ayoung dancer gracefully prances around in slow motion amid the chaotic buzz on the coast of Tema, Ghana. Women with bowls on their heads containing an assortment of goods walk around. Fishermen fill up ragged boats. Hawkers and panhandlers ply their trade. She dances through crowds of people, almost sprinkling magic and bringing light to a world too focused on the realities of everyday life. This is the premise of Simple Love, the latest music video by Ghanaian rapper M.anifest, who has worked with everyone from Damon Albarn (Blur/Gorillaz) to the late Hugh Masekela.
The vid — referred to as a “short film” by its creators — was directed by South African visual maestro Makere Thekiso. It’s received a lot of love online from audiences and the media — Thekiso says it’s been particularly well-received in West Africa.
He says: “People are writing articles about what the video means to them ... You can’t buy emotional connection to your work, no matter how hard you market it. For me that has been the most priceless aspect of Simple Love.”
He explains what the video is about:
“The inspiration is falling in love but in a chaotic world. The visuals represent that — chasing love, finding it and then being overwhelmed by it.”
Thekiso has a glittering CV: he’s worked on Idols, he was at the helm of season one of Vuzu’s popular rap reality-show The Hustle, he’s worked on projects like the unplugged music show Stripped Down (an audience favourite) and he’s directed commercials. In 2013 he won a Channel O African Music Video Award for directing Mafikizolo’s Khona video.
Along with his business partner Jobie Bakama, he runs the production company Callback Dreams.
Thekiso recently wrapped up two short films, one shot in Ghana and the other based on legendary South African rapper Tumi’s (aka Stogie T) 2003 poem Yvonne.
A passionate storyteller, Thekiso approaches projects with openness and honesty. “It is better to fail being myself than trying to be something I am not. It has taken me seven years to find my voice as a director.”
He says his nomadic experience of growing up in differing environments inspires his perspective and “creative eye”. He grew up in Matatiele, a small town 20km from Lesotho (“so much cultural richness”), the Cape Town township Khayelitsha, Joburg’s inner-city suburb Berea and the affluent suburb of Greenside.
When it comes to storytelling, African creatives need to own their stories, respect them and treat them with care.
“We need to be careful of our stories being sold right back to us while we can tell them ourselves and should be selling them to the rest of the world. Africa is a goldmine because we have so much culture, history and diversity.”
He adds: “We have our own perspective and very limited resources, but we are great storytellers … We should not measure our work by Western standards but create our own standards.”
Thekiso believes we “are living through a great storytelling revolution on the continent.
“Social media has given us a voice that we did not have for centuries. Technology has given us new tools to tell our stories and reach the world. Let’s take advantage of this third industrial revolution and rewrite the future.”
You can’t buy emotional connection to your work, no matter how hard you market it