THE HEAD and THE LOAD, Kentridge's Celebration and Homage to the Africa Soldiers who fought in World War I

The Head and the Load by William Kentridge is currently showing at the Joburg Theatre. Those who are familiar with the Joburg Theatre's Nelson Mandela Theatre will be surprised to be ushered past the auditorium's normal seating into what looks like the backstage of the theatre. Audience members are made to sit on the rostrum as if at the stadium. The title of the piece is inspired by the Ghanaian proverb, "The head and the load are the troubles of the neck." The lyricism, rhythm, and musicality of African languages are full of wisdom and humility; hence, the title builds anticipation and suspense for the potential audience.

Poster of the production. Source: The Head and The Load Facebook Page

The opening of this tapestry of artistic festivity is punctuated by the phalanx of dancers, actors, musicians and singers performing along what looks like a 500m riverbank, with the audience watching from across the bank.  The stage is the longest I have seen in length, suspended with a horizontal stage.  Ann Masina, the South African opera singer, walks the stage like a majestic African queen, embellished with an Ojikaiva - Herero hat - a horizontal horned headdress which is a symbol of respect and pays homage to the horned cattle and Ohorokova dress which is symbolic of the tragic history of the Herero people found in Central Namibia and Botswana. She sits gently behind the piano and the show takes off.

 

The piece takes on the qualities of the Nile River running along the African continent. The riverbank is a metaphor for therapeutic indulgence - a safe place to stand to look at the 'storms' of their lives, without having to jump into the water. Watching it flow, one is tempted to look everywhere because the stage is resplendent of multiple artistic festivities, mesmerising the audience. The stage of this Nile River has at least three central banks where one can decide where to focus, because there are many events simultaneously happening on stage. 

 

Hamilton Dhlamini as African military officer. Picture Source: The Head and The Load Facebook page 

Rooted in ancient proverbial wisdom, this exhilarating, stupefying and heart-wrenching stage piece chronicles, through song, dance, music, audio-visuals, pantomime, drama and projection of shadows with texts on the wall, a story of Africa's contributions to the First World War. It delves deep into the recounted roles played by Africans in one of the greatest wars in the history of humankind. Africans from different parts of the continent, including South Africa, served as porters and carriers, hauling cannons, munitions, provisions, and even ships across the continent.

 

Fred Khumalo, in his novel Dancing the Death Drill, reminds us of the tragedies of SS Mendi and pays homage to the often-unacknowledged role of Africans during the war. In The Head and The Load, Kentridge challenges his own ignorance and the ignorance of the wider white community about this dark history. Talking to The New Yorker's journalist Cynthia Zarin, Kentridge confessed: “We learned nothing, absolutely nothing, about the participation of the porters in the war. This piece, ‘The Head and the Load,’ was a way to answer an ignorance in myself. We did learn that, in 1917, the S.S. Mendi had sunk, with great loss of life, with many Africans aboard. But there was no discussion about what they were doing there, in the English Channel.”

Gregory Maqoma and his fellow troop on stage. Picture Source: The Head and The Load Facebook Page 

 

February 21, 1917 was a fateful day, when the S.S. Mendi sank off the Isle of Wight after colliding with another ship. The ship was carrying eight hundred and twenty-three men from the South African Native Labour Corps, mainly black Africans, on their way to serve in the French Army. The load being carried on stage by the armoury is that of the personalities and histories of Africans who perished in the First World War and the heads carried by the armoury as they walk across the stretched bank of a stage are portraits of leaders who resisted Africa's oppression by European colonial imperialists.

 

This star-studded piece includes Africa's luminaries: William Kentridge, Gregory Maqoma, Nhlanhla Mahlangu, Philip Miller and Thuthuka Sibisi, have come together to tell our tragic history. The production also features: Tlale Makhene on percussions and Guinean musician N'Faly Kouyaté on Kora. The story is told through several narrators: Dambuza Nqumashe plays the lead narrator who takes us through a journey encompassing the stories of African leaders such as John Chilembwe, who was a Baptist educator and political leader who organized an uprising against British colonial rule in Nyasaland (today Malawi). The second lead narrator is Hamilton Dhlamini, who plays the role of an African military general who oppresses his own black brother to please the whites. At the end of the piece, as he reads 'the list of the dead' African bodies, he remorsefully regrets the role he played. Somewhere during the production, Dhlamini, playing the part of a military officer, says, “They are not men, because they have no name. They are not soldiers, because they have no number. You don’t call them, you count them.”

 

Picture Source: The Head and The Load Facebook Page 

In The Head and The Load, we come into contact with the deafening silence of European colonial imperialists about Africa's contributions to the First World War - Africans who were cajoled and forced into participation. With all the fanfare at the annual commemoration of the war, little is said about the key players in the conflict: Africans. More than 1.5 million African soldiers, labourers and porters were important participants in the wars in Europe between 1914 and 1918, yet their role is rarely commemorated.

 

In the last act of this stage piece, where Gregory Maqoma is with a wounded man struggling to a give a wonky salute, he soldiers on and patiently picks the man up, puts him on his back and treads on, frequently stopping and offering salutations. The brutality in this scene breaks you down emotionally.  If you have held back or stored-up tears throughout the performance, now you're coaxed to open the floodgates of your eyes. White people in the audience are reminded that black people cannot 'just get over it' – the atrocities are too enormous to bear.

 

If you're a fanatic of history, art and culture, this is definitely a piece to watch - not once, but twice, in order to let it sink in.

 

THE HEAD AND THE LOAD opened at Joburg Theatre on the 21st of April and will run until the 6^th of May 2023.

Khehla Chepape Makgato is an independent visual artist, freelance arts writer and curator. He has a Master's Degree in Fine Art from University of Witwatersrand and is currently a PhD candidate in Art and Music at UNISA.