Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
WHEN Cont Mhlanga died in 2022, some thought his passing would be the death knell on Amakhosi Cultural Centre.
In some ways, this was understandable. Cont and Amakhosi were intertwined, two peas in a pod that could never be separated. Cont was Amakhosi and Amakhosi was Cont.
So when dust was piled on Mhlanga’s grave at his rural home in Lupane District on 6 August 2022, some felt that a crucial piece of the country’s arts history was being buried with him.
However, it appears as if news of Amakhosi’s demise might have been premature and overstated.
Two-and-a-half years after the death of Cont, there is a breath of new life at the institution.
The Amakhosi Performing Arts Academy has reopened its doors, offering short courses over weekends and through the holidays. These courses vary in length from a few weeks to six months.
The institution also offers full-time courses that run for two years.
The centre has also enacted its schools’ programme that is designed to support the Government’s heritage-based learning curriculum. Through this initiative, Amakhosi has hosted schools, some from as far as Matobo District and Harare, who partake in dance and theatre performances while making traditional clothes and accessories and indulging in traditional food.
In December Amakhosi, in partnership with koMaseko Cultural Village, launched its gallery which offers pottery lessons for clay enthusiasts, with weekend art lessons for children and teens on Saturdays. Meanwhile, companies, families and other social groups can also book paint and sip sessions for team building or just as a way to relax or bond with colleagues and loved ones.
If Amakhosi is dead, then it is a rather hyperactive corpse that is showing a healthy appetite for even more life.
At the helm of all this change is Gcina Warabile Mhlanga (34), the late art doyen’s daughter.
While Amakhosi might have ceased to be a force on the local arts scene while Cont himself was still alive, Gcina acknowledges that the new team at the helm is still guided by his spectacular vision.
“We continue to restructure the institution to try and find a direction for it since the loss of its pioneer uBaba uMhlanga,” she told Sunday Life in an interview.
“Naturally this has proven to be a very huge feat because it is impossible to fill in his shoes, and what the current administration is trying to do is carry on his vision and continue to celebrate his legacy.
“We have several programmes running now that are designed to complement each other and which have a very strong bias on skills development for young people as well as trying to have activities that engage, excite, and give various development platforms to the young people we work with. A lot of our activities are taking longer than anticipated to kick off due to funding constraints, however, we are not deterred by this. We will continue to look for resources to ensure that the mandate of the centre is carried out.”
“Umkhulu loMsebenzi”, Amakhosi’s motto reads, and while Gcina is optimistic about the present and future, she said she was also acutely aware of the challenges facing her. For one, while her father was a seasoned veteran and giant in the arts, she is a relatively unknown figure without a comparable list of achievements as the man she has succeeded.
This, she said, was something that she had not let distract her from the task at hand.
“Well, naturally having to lead after such a great man comes with a ton of scrutiny and very intense critique because the temptation is always to try and draw comparisons between myself and my predecessor. That combined with the fact that I am young and my work is unknown does create a lot of scepticism about that which I’m capable of in running an institution of that size with a brand that is widely popular overseas.
“All of these things, and more, are very natural wherever there are such transitions so I don’t take it personally. I do understand that there’s a great responsibility that comes with the role I have now and I’m up for the task. That is why even now we can discuss the re-opening of the Centre and its various activities after it had been closed since around 2016,” she said.
While the sky is the limit for a reborn Amakhosi, Gcina said funding struggles had put the brakes on how fast she could drive the centre forward.
“As an institution, the greatest challenge has been securing sponsorship and funding for our programming and operations. We do hope that soon that will be an issue we can have sorted so our work with young people can continue with minimum restrictions,” she said.
While some might be looking forward to a robust Amakhosi that will quickly reclaim its reputation as the country’s most trusted conveyor belt of talent, Gcina cautioned that fans of the old centre should remember that the new administration is now operating in different times.
In the age of streaming and social media, arts administrators have to find ways of swimming against the tide and those in charge of Amakhosi are no different.
There is a long way to go before Amakhosi becomes the nursery of talent that it once was.
“It’s inevitable that Amakhosi no longer functions at the level that it used to be because it now operates in a very different landscape from when it started. As things stand now, economically things are different the world over, so much that donor and Government priorities are constantly shifting away from the arts and entertainment. The centre itself shifted from content production at some point and even if we did get back to high levels of production, the audience interaction with the arts and entertainment is very different now because of the amount of content available at their disposal. So, no akungethusi because I understand the context in which we’re operating, however, I do acknowledge that it is going to be a very tough hill to climb because of the reasons I have stated above. Tough as it may be, it’s a challenge I am ready and willing to take on,” she said.
Gcina gave a nod to Owen Maseko one of the city’s artists who had been eager to give the new Amakhosi a helping hand.
“The current structures and environment we have been operating with haven’t been suitable to accommodate multiple collaborators. However, since we opened we have been trying to see how best we can accommodate individuals who have been forthcoming to work with us. Owen Maseko has played a very pivotal role in the establishment of our gallery, but I don’t want to go into a list of who has been working with us lest I end up forgetting some names,” she said.
Besides reviving the centre’s old programmes, Gcina said they were also keen on embracing the digital world in a way that would allow Amakhosi to continue telling African stories in a way that is palatable to today’s young generation.
“Apart from continuing what the centre is well known for, we have an amazing digital creative programme that’s going to transform how we tell African stories and how far they reach. We have partnered with Cebiso M Studio, a digital creative company based in the UK, to help us develop various digital projects such as virtual reality experiences that explore African stories and narratives. So our future is grounded on embracing technology to make the arts and culture easier to access. Although this approach is more expensive to sustain, it has an immeasurable role in making sure our stories don’t just end with us or in a dusty book somewhere that our children will not have any interest in opening,” she said.
Bongani Ndlovu