Mlu Zondi takes audience by storm

The 2010 Standard Bank Young Artist award winner for Dance, Mlu Zondi gave an interesting slant to contemporary dance in Cinema during the National Arts Festival which took place last year. Showing at the Great Hall, the audience walked into an odd landscape where a journey into the subconscious mind is made.

The audience could situate themselves anywhere on the bubble plastic that had been laid out on the ground, which created a popping sound with each movement. "I want to invite my audience to participate with the characters," says Zondi. The setting is unusual with images reflected on big screens behind the dancers, each one representing the main character's life and thoughts repeatedly. "I love working with film and video, therefore this is a way to interact with audience using this medium," Zondi said.

A colourful theme of blue, yellow and orange was used, with each colour representing the main characters' thoughts. As the audience walk in, the characters stand in a square wooden panel while a long path separates them. Blue, which is played by Dumisile Mqadi represents the wife, who sings songs of sorrow throughout the performance. Yellow, played by Sanele Mzinyane represents the main character's past. Orange, played by Thulisile Khumalo represents the girlfriend who had a bright future but something went wrong somewhere, resulting in all her dreams being shattered. All of this is interpreted and made immediately accessible through the innovative dance and music.

In the middle of the hall lies a long passage where the main character, played by Mlu Zondi walks on passing these characters that represent his subconscious. He does not dance at all, instead he is tied up in green plastic cable lighting, symbolising the entrapment of the mind as he walks along his path. "Before you die your life shows in front of you and these characters represent the past," Zondi explains. "I am crazy! When I create I get into a zone and when I'm done I ask myself how did I get there?" Zondi's main concern is the audience. "I want them to sit anywhere, and what I like about this is that they can see the characters closer and even see the details of my feet, whether they are smelly or not," he said with a laugh. He says the message of his performance is that everything one does has consequences. "What you do to another person now could have an effect on them later and you will succumb to the fact that you were the cause," he said.

Winning the Young Artist award has boosted Zondi's confidence as he would have not otherwise have been able to afford funding the show. "If it was in the Fringe programme then maybe I wouldn't have received so much attention from the public," he said with a smile. This is someone to watch out for so make sure you watch more of Mlu Zondi's work in this year's National Arts Festival.

Inhuman Existence

A future of a child born into hope is ruined by individuals. Individuals who seek to have the easy yet cruel way out of life. They shatter children’s dreams into pieces by the doors of shame they open to them. This is what the existence of human trafficking has done to innocent beings in South Africa.

It costs fifty thousand rand a head to move people between certain countries. Every month, thousands of children are smuggled by greedy opportunists and syndicates across South Africa’s international and provincial borders. Once they are on the other side of the border, they are sold as domestic workers for criminal activities or for hard labour on farms. The shocking truth is many of the children are young girls forced into prostitution. Unfortunately, as yet there is no law against human trafficking in South Africa. In June 2007, a human trafficking bill was drafted but until this year, 2011, it has not yet been passed.

Human trafficking is modern day slavery. It is the selling of people for exploitation. According to the International Organisation for Migration, human trafficking is the third most profitable crime in the world, following drug trafficking and weapon smuggling. Since there is no legislation criminalising human trafficking in South Africa, there are currently no official statistics available. South Africa is regarded as a source, destination and shipment country for human trafficking. This means that people are being trafficked within the country, be it from outside the country into South Africa or from South Africa to destinations abroad.

For the past seven years, girls aged between thirteen and sixteen have been rescued from brothels. I’m sure the age has decreased in time. Some of these children have been held captive since the tender age of eleven. Many of them have been made drug dependent and were used as prostituted. It saddens me to even write about this issue facing our democratic country because I am a young woman and it infuriates me to find that things like these are happening  around me.

The problem begins at home. In a situation where a child grows into poverty and realises that the world outside is better than the world at home will easily be lured into slavery. Children are very vulnerable little human beings. Adults are very influential big and matured human beings. The difference is that the matured one will tell the little one that there are better opportunities in life and because the little one has little or no knowledge of what is right and wrong, will fall in the trap. They will believe every word the matured one is telling them and yearn for the so called “better life”.

What is the definition of a better life? According to the mandate of the African National Congress, South Africa’s ruling party, a better life is free education, water, housing, more employment and eradication of poverty, just to name a few. This is their definition of a better life for all, which was the ANC logo in 2009. But, for a child who has lived in an impoverished home which is falling apart with no food, water and no education, a better life that the child hopes for is love, care, security, support and comfort. A better life is living in a stable home with a stable family, which gives the child a sense of belonging. If a child has lived the opposite life of better, when they are promised jobs, money, food, education and houses, then obviously that’s the direction of preference. But when all of these promises are lies, isn’t the life at home more than enough? The promise becomes worse than the situation at home.

The country is seen as a land of hope where all things are possible. It is seen as a rainbow nation that does not discriminate people because of the colour of their skin or where they come from. Therefore this means that all foreigners are welcome in the country. But how can we tell who the bad guys are? Various campaigns against child trafficking have been launched since 1996, however many challenges remain. These are:

·         The AIDS epidemic.

·         The persistence of harmful cultural practices.

·          The growth of organised crime.

·          The persistent loss of women and children to sexual abuse and forced labour.

All these areas require constant attention.

Lured by promise of work and new life in the big city, children as young as 13 are being brought into cities from rural areas to work. They are fed, but rarely paid. Many run away and alone in a strange city then take to the streets to join the city’s brigade of street kids. You will see these kids begging by the traffic lights. Traffickers lure them with promise of employment, marriage or even educational opportunities abroad.

The gloomy part is that these traffickers often lure children of poor families with promises of a better way of life. Victims who could be kidnapped or forced to follow their traffickers are subjected to threats of violence to ensure obedience. In this dysfunctional system, too many children have been lost and broken, only to be buried indifferently. Over and over again it is drilled into their heads that they have no one to turn to and no place to go. They are told that their parents, uncle or gogo sold them into slavery. This is sometimes untrue, though the excuse through which a girl is attained is usually totally separate from reality. Education, employment, learning a skill, money – these are excuses wielded like a fine sheen of rain after a drought, which is the drought alluding to the lack of food, opportunity, access to education, one or both parents missing, living with Aids and a grandmother who has too many stomachs to feed.

Human trafficking infringes the rights of women and children contained in The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. “Every human being has certain fundamental rights which the government must uphold and respect”. These rights include the right to life, freedom from torture and freedom from slavery.

Hence human trafficking is a crime. It also infringes the rights contained in The Constitution, Chapter 2 of the Bill of Rights:

·         The Right to Human dignity where everyone has inherent dignity and the right to have their dignity respected and protected.

·         Freedom to be free from all forms of violence from either public or private sources and to security and control over their body.

·         Slavery and forced labour where no one may be subjected to slavery or forced labour.

Children’s rights are also protected by The Constitution. Every child has the right to be protected from exploitative labour practices; not to be required or permitted to perform work or provide services that are inappropriate for a person of that child’s age. When the above-mentioned rights are infringed in any form due to human trafficking then it makes the act a crime.

Human Trafficking is an inhuman existence. The duty lies with those who know the truth and are willing to change this country. South Africa needs to look back at the dream it once had to free its people and step to reality to start living that dream.

The prayer in Alan Paton’s autobiography is one that brings hope to Africans:

“God bless Africa

Guard her children

Guide her leaders

And give her peace

Amen.”

On A Positive Note: The Truth About ARV Treatment

The 21^st Century is about realizing that when one is diagnosed with HIV, it is not the end of the world. There is stigma attached to having the virus and one can live a longer and healthier life with the use of antiretroviral drugs.

Every person in this country has a responsibility to protect themselves and others from the spread of HIV, to know their status and seek appropriate care and support when diagnosed with the virus. According to Nozuko Msongelwa, A pharmacist of Provincial Hospital in Port Elizabeth, she says it is wise to treat your sexual partner as a potential HIV positive person until their status is known to you. “No matter how long your relationship has been, if you have not yet tested together as a couple then you must stay on condoms” she says. However, this statement does not necessarily mean that is you find out that you are both negative then you should stop using them. It is extremely vital to use condoms at all times.

Our society tends to be ignorant when it comes to HIV / AIDS. We think an HIV positive person will probably be on a ‘death bed’ and not be healthy, of which this is untrue. A person may contract the virus five years ago or more and still look healthy, reason being that the virus itself is slow to progress in his or her body. In other cases the person’s immune system takes longer to go down, but the sad part of this situation is that the healthy looking person could be HIV positive and possibly infect others because it is not written in their face or body that they have the virus. “Looking healthy doesn’t mean you are not HIV positive until proven by an HIV test” Msogelwa says.

Msongelwa advises everybody to make HIV testing part of your package when you enter new relationships. “Always take precautions, say no to unprotected sex and in condom use without compromise” she says. On a positive note, when diagnosed with HIV there is a guarantee to live a normal and healthy life. Antiretroviral drugs are available for all HIV positive people and they have been calculated to extend life expectancy in people on Antiretroviral Therapy by 35 years and more. Msongelwa says that ART (Antiretroviral Therapy) has improved the quality of life in individuals and has also prevented mother-to-child transmission of the virus. This has resulted in many HIV negative babies born from HIV positive couples. The 2010 guidelines have come up with safe ART convenient regimes.

Another advantage on the use of ARVs is that they prevent HIV infection when an individual is exposed to it through needles or sexual assault, for example rape. Following such exposure, ARVs prevent the risk of an individual becoming HIV positive, but the important response in this case is to seek help within 72 hours after the incident.

“If a person is tested positive, there is no stigma to this. The only stigma is when one doesn’t seek early intervention until the virus starts to set in” Msongelwa says. One must decide immediately on committing themselves to ART, knowing that the success of this intervention will require the following:

Support System:

In many cases, when a person diagnosed with HIV decides to disclose to their family, especially parents, then ARV treatment success is guaranteed. These are the people who will love you, care for you, support and encourage you.

Adherence to Treatment:

The amount of virus in the blood is not detected on screening or through a test; therefore the blood must always have enough concentration of the ARV drugs. In order to do this, one must take the ARV drug 12 or 24 hourly and the drug will stay in the system for that time depending on the time the drug is taken. This should be repeated on a 12 or 24 hour basis, if not this might lead to drug resistance and cause illness.

ART is a long term commitment and the condition of having HIV is then treated on the same principle as chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension or heart disease. One needs to adjust and adapt to a proper lifestyle.

Msongelwa suggests that HIV positive people must be knowledgeable about their condition and research about new developments, new successes and even best treatments. They should consult experts in this field and the most important thing to know is that your condition is not life threatening, but is manageable.

The message she gives to HIV positive people is that they should not give up on their career or progress in life because ARVs prolong one’s life. “Do not stop what you are doing, do not change jobs or end relationships because of your status and nothing should stop you from getting married. Be strong and encouraged: she says.

Is it every girl's dream to get married?

Being a 22 year old woman in the 21^st Century has many pressures of how to live life. I must go to school and have an education. I must go to church and thank God for giving me that education. I must respect my elders. Other pressures include dressing to impress at all times, believe me you don’t want to be seen on a bad hair day. Then I must wear those heels to go to the club on a Friday night with my friends, hoping to find that ‘perfect’ guy, or should I say man.

There seem to be many pressures for me in particular right? Wrong. In this century, when I do eventually meet that guy at the club feeling a bit intoxicated I can get away with it, but one pressure that doesn’t exist in my circle of association is to actually marry that guy. Marriage is, or should I say used to be such a sacred ceremony between two people who are in love and want to show that love by spending the rest of their lives together. This means they make a vow in church before the priest, the people attending the wedding and most importantly, before God. When I think of this, I realize that it is a huge commitment to make, especially if you’re a black man. Why? Well I think the reasons are obvious:

1.)  The majority of them cheat.

2.)  They mostly have a child or kids with different baby mammas before they marry you.

3.)  They lie at the alter before the priest, your family and God about being faithful to you.

Ok fellows don’t bite my head off, I am just expressing my view. For me and a few other women out there, the pressure of getting married has dropped immensely.  Women of this century, young and old are doing it for themselves. They are educated, own businesses and are single moms raising two children, meaning they don’t really need a man to give them a helping hand. What I am communicating is the fact that a less number of women feel that they should get married in order to be classified as ‘normal’. Long ago it was a normal thing for a woman to go to school, graduate, and work a few years, then get married to start a family. Now that sort of thing has faded with more and more women walking around with oval shaped stomachs and no ring on their finger. More women are single mothers and others have decided to quit the dating game and settle down on their own.

My question remains, is it every girl’s dream to get married. I can only answer this question for myself based on my ethics and morals. The answer is yes, reason being that I grew up in a marriage and would not want my children to be raised out of marriage. Then again based on the ethics and morals of the 21^st Century, I would not even consider getting married because of the way anti-marriage has spread amongst women today. I respect this special ceremony and believe that it is something very important, but in reality, this ceremony just might become extinct.

Nomfy's Space

Hi everyone! Welcome to Nomfy's Space, my new blog. I am so excited to share my inner thoughts with you and expose them in writing for you to explore. I look forward to sharing my views on absolutely anything and everything that happens around me. The key point is to let you into my space and give you a chance to comment on what I write. Be prepared to discuss all topics from fashion to politics and have a much broader aspect of life in general. Nomfy's Space will be a fun, intense, ironic and a free place to be in because I will write what I like but will also do my best in giving you research on what I write. I look forward to sharing this space with you. Enjoy!

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Nomfundo