This music was composed to accompany the dance-drama collaboration between Jazzart and Magnet Theatre, “Cargo”, this being the year marking the bi-centennial commemoration of the abolition of the slave trade by Britain in all her territories.
Slavery, defined as the legal ownership of one person by another, is technically no longer a reality in our world.
Yet in setting out to create this work, I came to imagine just how closely we all are still entwined with the phantoms of this, our past.
In crafting this material, I have referred quite a lot to the Islamic Qasidah, the European Quadrille, the Merengue of Mozambique and Angola, and Afrikaans liedtjies and minstrel tunes - these are some of the foundations of what we today regard as the natural music of the Cape.
While digging for hooks on which to hang my musical ideas, I uncovered incredible gems like these words written by Tuan Guru, a legendary Imam who lived in Cape Town during the 18th century:
“Be good of heart, my children, for one day, your liberty will be restored to you and your descendants ... to live in a circle of kramats, safe from fire and famine, plague and earthquake and tidal waves”.
These words arrested me from the moment I first met them. I think this was because they seemed to live outside of their designated time ...
How far are we from our collective past? Is it possible to interact with history today? Could stories of the past change our lives?
Some bushman clans used to believe time does not flow like a river, that it is not a linear sequence of past present and future. Some bushmen say tomorrow happened yesterday, and today is always with us...
Neo Muyanga (February 2007)
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