ndakanamata

14th Day, last day!!

Today is my last day and really enjoyed it. All the people I've worked with along the way, the dancers, the slums, Hussein, the Warehouse, I managed to re-visit them. I brought some music I made back in England and for me it was my own little experiment to see how they will adapt with rhythms I am very familiar with, them using the rhythms in their own traditional dynamic. I've managed to put a little video clip together to show my jourmey here in Malawi. My journey here has been like going back to the basics and with my experience today I have learnt a lot. Malawi is a country of art, which I already knew but even bigger than I imagined. I have really enjoyed the people, how trusting they are to each other and how helpful they are which is a breath of fresh air. I will be catching my plane back tomorrow and really looking forward to putting my research into practice.

12th, 13th Day

Sunday we met up with Hussein and we continued our conversation from the Saturday. Pretty much saturday and sunday was more of reflections day and comparing cultures. Today we met up at the Warehouse and we had a meeting with the National Theatre Association of Malawi with the Vice President - Henry Ntalika, Treasurer - Max DC and Hussein. I have just been fishing out how my company can be involved internationally especially Africa, it sounds very positive and hoping Tavaziva Dance will tour in Malawi. Tomorrow is my last day and I am going to focus more on music of Chewa and Tumbuka tribe, I am revisiting the slums, I really want to re - capture the sounds scape and the smell.

11th Day

Hussein came in at 10am, we decided today we talk about what has been happening for the past 10 days. Basically we have been talking about Gule Wamkulu in detail as I wasn't surprised he knows more than I thought. We went on to speak about Tumbuka tribe that he has much more information about. I asked him about the Namibian tribe and we shared ideas, I have accumilated a lot of information from the discussion.

10th Day

Today we met Hussein at the Warehouse, he said good news he has been asked to perform. We went to the village, the whole thing was an educational event about women's rights. It started with a few people then it seemed like the whole village was there. Mostly little boys and little girls, not as many adults. I enjoyed the energy of the audience and they seemed like they've got a certain sound or chant when they really enjoy something. I captured some amazing footage and I got to listen to the drumming that I learnt yesterday. What excited me was they had 2 different styles of african dance and Muganda was one of them, that reminded me this is really what I wanted to learn. With Muganda for me, it's the aggression and the elegance of the movement that I find tormenting. With my remaining days here in Malawi I want to master this style because it's got so much richness in it. It was really nice to see Hussein and his wife perform, I think Hussein has some spirit and I think he practices african medicine. I was overwhelmed with the drumming and the energy of the whole event. The children are always excited to see me and the camera and are happy to be in it. We changed the day that we are going to meet the director of Theatre of Arts and Culture to tomorrow as this event was last minute. Tomorrow I am looking forward to liase and hopefully something will come out of meeting these people.

9th Day

Today was the day we were learning a style called Penenga which is done by the Tumbuka tribe, Muganda from the northern Malawi version and Muganda2 southern Malawi. It was really interesting to go back to the basics to re-shape my vocabulary of african dance. Most of the movement I didn't find it alien to me, I have done some of it along the way or maybe just similar to my own Zimbabwe traditional dances. What really energised me was the Muganda drum which I got to learn a few rhythms of. This amazing drummer could also play the Gule Wamkulu sounds and I got to learn to play one of the rhythms. I have also been looking at songs of different tribes and I enjoyed the humour in the lyrics. We worked on a space that is concrete and outside but it seems the concrete is soft when you bash your knees into it. Maybe I think it's the heat that makes the floor softer. I've learnt a lot from his lectures whilst we were learning the steps, knowing where certain dances are done and what tribe. We will be continuing tomorrow going in detail with the Muganda2 which is my most favourite. After our rehearsal, we met a man who trained Hussein and he is a Director of the National Theatre of Arts in Malawi. So we are going to have a meeting tomorrow at the same place with the committee as they have a festival in October and we are hoping to involve the company to perform nect October.

8th Day

We have just come back from a long walk and mini bus journeys. We were going to an orphanage centre where we were going to learn some basic traditionally Tumbuka dances. Along the way we walked along the railway and passed through the slums which reminded me of 'Slum Dog Millionaire'. We were allowed to video the slums, one lady who makes her own beer let us in to see how the local beer is made. For me the whole place was a culture shock, sounds funny me being raised from this side of africa. A lot of drunk men on a wednesday daytime which I found very intimidating and very intense. One guy didn't want to be filmed and was quite aggressive about it and the other guy is calming him down. We walked through the slums, each house has its own business selling dried fish, charcoal, mice. There was an uncomfortable smell of the drains, Hussein told me some of the dancers live in the slums. We interviewed the lady who makes the beer and we managed to interview one guy who has passion for music. He did a rap song on camera which talked about don't rush to have a girlfriend as you need to wait for the one who is going to be a mother. Basically my understanding of that is don't just go with anyone and catch AIDS, be patient and it will happen for the better. We got out of the slums and we went to the orphanage, in my understanding the whole teaching and the kids being there was not well planned and because Hussein was late. We managed to meet Hussein's wife and she is supposed to be an amazing dancer, she speaks Shona, she is from Zimbabwe. After all couldn't manage to learn some dances, all the kids had gone to watch football, so we are going to do it on friday. Tomorrow we've booked a place called The Warehouse with Hussein, 3 more dancers and a drummer where they are going to teach me some dances, (Muganda).

7th Day

The day I was waiting for was today as I anticipated it, it was a very inspiring day in many,many ways. I feel like I have been fed with lots of life and I've been fed with lots of spirit in dancing. It has reminded why I do what I do. The way of their living, is what I visioned for my new work and this experience has made it solid supporting my idea. Today I've even managed to shake hands with Gule Wamkulu, which for you to know is very rare according to my up bringing. I've managed to speak to the dancers with help with the lovely Hussein, helping translating. I have learnt a lot about what goes through the initiation of being a boy to a man and a girl to a woman. Gule Wamkulu, for me with my understaning of today, is a culture you don't mess with. As my idea wanting to get initiated, I really have to think 3 or 4 times!! as I realised there is more to it than just getting beaten up. They were wiling to explain to me the dark side of the culture and that threw me a bit. For me with this research, it's either I take it far or I just research what I want to know. I haven't seen these people for years because now I live in England, today I still felt the same as when I was young, the fear. Right now the fear is controlling my decisions and I'm not sure if I want to know the Juju side of the culture. I want to think of my health first as they explained to me during the initiaion they would whip me, make me eat rotten food, eat raw chicken and drink the blood and the most worrying bit of it they would give me some Juju (potion). I am really energised, my brain is going, I'm feeling creative with some of the imageries of things I've seen with just people standing and relaxing. This culture has created a strong base music wise, dance wise and spiritually. Now I'm clear how I am going to bring other cultures that are similar to create a unique work, Sensual Africa. Tomorrow onwards, I will be learning the Tumbuka tribal dances which is a dance that is unpredictable and different to any other african dances (Muganda).

4th, 5th and 6th Day

I realised I can't take any money out of my account and saturday, sunday and monday I am broke. Tomorrow we have a big showing from the Gule Wamkulu and the day of the initiation for me if I decided to go through with it, as I am still debating the idea, is supposed to be tonight. I am doing a lot of research about the initiation before I throw myself into this. I am concerned about what razors they will use on me for whatever they are going to cut. I am concerned about what they are going to make me eat because if I fail according to the intereviews I've had so far I will have to pay for it, and you can actually go to Court if you don't pay. Today we went to Limbe and we sat down in a beer hole, we had Nsima. Amazing we managed to get some work done, we interviewed two women about how a woman is initiated and what they learn. Few of the woman were very camera shy, we managed to get two who were confident enough to come forward. They explained as much as possible about female initiation. After a while Hussein's friend passed through and he was in his police uniform looking drunk already. He sat down and he ordered a beer, we started asking him about the different initiations. I asked him if I could put him on camera intereviewing him because it was very interesring, but he refused as he is in his police uniform. We intereviewed him anyway off-camera and for me I have learnt a lot from him, which made me think we could set up an intereview when he is in his normal clothes. We did walk around and captured some footage of how the Chewa people live as Limbe is a very local village. Tomorrow is going to be a big day of my research for my new work to have a strong base and understanding on how to be a boy to be a man and how to be a girl to be a woman. I do believe Chewa people are the strong base of what my research is

3rd Day

Hussein came in today 9.05am and I'll I explained to him about my lost luggage, this kind of changed the days schedule as we had to go to the airport and double good news I got my bag and one of the guys who works at the airport his next dooor neighbour is a Nyawu dancer. He decided to take us to the village and introduced us to two od the dancers and the dancers took us to the Chief. We sat down and the Chief was surprisingly welcoming and we explained to him our mission. For me I am really worried about the money situation but anyway I decided to ask him as he was explaining that he has 100 dancers and they will display the whole Gule Wamkulu to the fullest and explain each Gule characters. From my own understanding as a Zimbabwean Gule Wamkulu does not expose their secrets of their society and wouldn't just let anybody watch the background scenes. When I asked them how much is it going to cost, the Chief said it is going to be 60,000 kwacha which is a lot of money. After saying that he said they are not a business it is their culture, they are happy to share their culture and maybe contribute as much as I can. This is quite tricky for me how to go about it. I decided to phone Iyshea, on my side I am worried about the money as this poroject is starting to become expensive and Iyshea reflected the same through the phone and she was really down and very worried, which worried me even more. I said to the Chief we will come back on tuesday and they can display what I really want to learn. After that we travelled 3 hours to Mowa village which is a museum of arts and culture. We got to video the first part of the museum but they refused for us to video the costumes of the Gule. On our way back we stopped to interview people and they spoke about the basic of Gule Wamkulu, but never went into too much detail. I've got all this footage on video. I feel like this was a very constructive day, we drove back the next 3 hours. For me it feels like driving to Mowa village and driving back from Mowa village is a lesson just by itself. Watching how they live, just seeing women carrying water on their heads, small children as young as 3 walking by themselves for miles. We dropped off one of the boys who we intereviewed home, and if we hadn't picked him up he would have been walking for 2 hours just to get home from school. He does this everyday there and back.

2nd Day

Finally met up with Violet and Hussein. Hussein is the guy who is taking me around and today we started by going to the museum. The museum is unbelievable basic, but I've learnt more than I learnt at school. In the museum there was the history from the stone age to present and somehow along the lines in that museum, Nyau "Gule Wamkulu" is put on the line of evolution. The way all the other tools and history that were shown, equalled- these people use such things (Gule Wamkulu). In other words, they were saying from stone age to present the Chewa people were in the evolution. We went to see some arts centres, for me they are really beautiful theatres. They are outdoor ones. For you to understand this is nothing like an theatre in England. It's very raw and it has own spirit. Talking to Hussein, he is an artist on his own, he is a choreographer, traditional dancer and a musician. His company does very well, it does a lot touring across the world and I'm very lucky that he knows most of his Malawian history and he knows where to go, what to see. We did a four day schedule to intereview Gule people and the female side of it. We've decided to intereview some of the different tribes, like the Tumbuka people. These people we are going ot find them in Mowa village.Hopefully I am going to be able to participate in some of these traditional dances these tribes do.

1st Day in Malawi

Very excited to meet the people who are going to be taking me around, nowhere to be found as of yet. Luggage didn't pitch up, maybe in Johannesburg, it's got all my cables for my camera to start filming tomorrow and all my clothes. The hotel no electricity and very expensive. I had to pay £2 an hour for internet. Haven't been home in a long time, this place just reminds me of home but it's a version of Zimbabwe old times, always is a back to reality card and I'm very appreciative of the strong culture they have. Tomorrow I am hoping the people who is taking me around are coming. The staff at the Lodge are fantastic, being treated well.