THE NATIVE, THE SETTLER AND SORGHUM BREW – uMqombothi, uBhokweni neJuba (Installation)
Russel Hlongwane | Tammy Langtry (Durban | Johannesburg)
Schedule
European Premiere
A starting point for this installation is the 1908 Native Beer Act, a state sanctioned act that illegalised and controlled the age-old production of traditional sorghum-based beer called umqombothi. The act was part of a global colonial system, in which the production and trade of alcohol was used to dispossess black peoples in the so-called colonies across the African continent. The umqombothi age-old brewing process was part of the domestic work and therefore the exclusive reserve of the women.
Women living in the cities sold uMqombothi as a main source of income. The prohibition on the production and distribution meant that they lost this source of income and their men were forced to purchase from state built Beerhalls. This move altered the leisure and resulted in the alcohol dependency of black men. This multifaceted work finds expression in an installation in which archive and research material is presented. The work is accompanied by two-time performance lectures on 03.11., 15:00 – 15:45 and on 04.11., 16:45 – 17:30, that bring this system of so-called alco-colonialism closer.
Biography
Russel Hlongwane (Durban) and Tammy Langtry (Johannesburg) employ artistic research methods with which they scrutinise and occasionally alter historical contexts. As a cultural producer, Russel Hlongwane does work based on Black people’s lives at the intersections of heritage and modernity and culture and tradition. He is currently pursuing his master’s degree in Southern Urbanism at the African Centre for Cities at Cape Town University. Tammy Langtry is a freelance curator who combines culture and history in her work. She holds a BA (Hons) degree in Art History from the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Cast
Installation Russel Hlongwane I Tammy Langtry Photography Thembinkosi Hlatshwayo Screenprints Danger Gevaar Ingozi (DGI) Research Assistant Niamh Walsh-Vorster
Film:
Direction, Research & Script Russel Hlongwane | Tammy Langtry Voice-Over Phumzile Nkosi Editor & Sound Keanan Naidu
Info
02.11.
14:00-22:00 Installation
03.11.
15:00-15:45 Performance Lecture
16:00-22:00 Installation
04.11.
14:00-15:00 Installation
16:45-17:30 Performance Lecture
17:30-22:00 Installation
Accessibility
Production & Realization
Supported by OSUN – Center for Human Rights and the Arts | Division of the Bard College Arts Faculty | Fisher Center LAB | SPIELART Theatre Festival
