The Market Theatre will once again become a meeting place for artists, thinkers, audiences and activists as the Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival returns from August 20 to 23 for its third edition.
Presented through a partnership between mehlo-maya (eye-to-the-sun) and The Market Theatre in Johannesburg, the festival is rapidly establishing itself as one of the country’s most distinctive platforms for Pan-African artistic expression and political discourse.
Zimbabwean theatre producer Daves Guzha describes it as “one of the most defining and deserving festivals of our time with a slant on Pan Africanism”.
This year’s festival takes as its theme Memory Against Forgetting, drawing inspiration from Milan Kundera’s famous formulation of the “struggle of memory against forgetting” in "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting".
It is a theme that feels particularly urgent in contemporary South Africa as the country navigates a particularly difficult time in its relationship with the rest of the continent.
Festival Programme
Kaza Kamba Pan African Theatre Festival programme brings a range of theatre, music, film, workshops, and a Colloquium.
According to the festival organisers, the festival is committed to bringing together the arts with political discourse.
Bobby Rodwell, the festival's co-curator, said from starting humbly in 2024 the festival has developed every year.
"The festival is a meeting place of history, art and politics. We are aware that its many anniversaries this year, like the 50th anniversary of June 16, 30 years since the opening of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), 70 years of the Women's March in Pretoria. We questioning whether we learnt sufficiently from our history or continue without taking account.
"Pan Africanism is one of the most important ideological positions on the continent. We feel we redefine and re-energise the ideology of Pan Africanism in a deep way. We feel arts and culture is a very important platform. It brings us together and allows a sharing of ideas, languages, rituals and is a powerful means of communication," said Rodwell.
At the heart of the festival is a production titled "Marikana Still...fontein" by the jazz band iPhupho L’ka Biko.
The multidisciplinary work will revisit the Marikana massacre through both memory and reflection, the production becomes a lament for those who died and those who survived, while examining fractured solidarities and imagining a Pan-African future grounded in dignity, memory and collective liberation.
Nhlanhla Ngqaqu, founder, creative director and composer of iPhupho L'ka Biko said the production is a musical with a bit of theatre skits, poetry and movement.
"The music drives the narrative and makes the production unique. The story is around the Marikana massacre and touches on the issue of Zama Zamas and illegal mining.
"The theme this year is important not to forget where we came from and the events that have taken place in our country. A woman must be killed or raped for us to remember that we live in a country that is not safe. The struggle of the miners is a struggle that is felt by others in various sectors," said Ngqaqu.
Questions confronting SA
Music and poetry take centre stage in "Sounding the South", featuring pianist Yonela Mnana, poet Lesego Rampolokeng and percussionist Gontse Makhene. The collaboration brings together piano, spoken word and percussion in an atmospheric encounter that moves beyond performance into communal reflection.
Spearheaded by the fearless and provocative Rampolokeng, the work creates an artistic space for critical and therapeutic engagement with the questions confronting South Africa and the wider continent.
The theatre programme continues with Phillip Dikotla’s acclaimed "Skierlik", inspired by the racially motivated shooting that took place in the informal settlement of "Skierlik" on January 14, 2008. Dikotla’s poetic storytelling follows Thomas as he returns to the place where his wife and young daughter were killed, exploring grief, love, loss and the possibility of hope.
Rodwell said each year they have a play from a different country. Previously from Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
This year from Kenya, "The Dying Need No Shoes" arrives via the Kenyan International Theatre Festival. Written by Fred Mbogo, directed by Alacoque Ntome and performed by Emmanuel Shikuku and Ann Keveli, the production explores how memory begins within the family.
Purity Munanda finds herself face-to-face with her father after years of silence and fear. As buried trauma rises to the surface, their confrontation becomes a battle over truth, power and survival, exposing the secrets that families can carry across generations.
Meanwhile, "A Season of Hillbrow", presented by The Windybrow Arts Centre, reimagines Arthur Rimbaud’s "A Season in Hell" through the unfinished reality of post-apartheid Johannesburg.
Here, Hillbrow becomes a landscape of abandonment, multilingualism, youth and rebellion. Performed by students of The Windybrow Arts Centre and directed by Sibahle Mangena and Gerard Bester, the production transforms the city into poetry, movement and collective voice.
From the screen
The Kaza Kamba Film Festival extends the theme of memory onto the screen.
The programme includes the landmark revolutionary film "The Battle of Algiers" (1966), offering audiences an opportunity to revisit one of cinema’s most enduring portrayals of anti-colonial struggle.
South African identity and political consciousness are explored in "Word Down the Line" (2015), which engages poets on their journeys through Black Consciousness and Pan-Africanism and asks the deceptively simple question: Who are we today?
Chris Djuma’s Rearview follows an e-hailing driver hoping for an ordinary day on the streets of Johannesburg, only to find himself confronted by memories of the Kivu massacre.
The programme also features "Sudan…Remember Us" (2024), followed by a discussion with members of Sudan Solidarity South Africa, creating a direct bridge between cinema, current political realities and public dialogue.
A new initiative, Bioscope Beyond Borders, will launch during the festival as a small, intimate cinema housed in The Market Theatre’s Lindelani Buthelezi Gallery.
With just 10 chairs, the space is deliberately personal. South African films exploring migration and identity will invite viewers into an individual encounter with stories that often become reduced to statistics and headlines.
The project is designed as a mobile festival in its own right and will travel to cultural events around the country, including the Warrenton Festival in the Northern Cape in November.
Workshops
Rodwell said the workshops remain a central part of Kaza Kamba, creating opportunities for young and established practitioners to exchange knowledge and experiment across disciplines.
"We believe in training. This year we looking at the issue of language and indigenous language in theatre. We got a workshop on drumming, dance and traditional isiZulu chanting. There is even a workshop welcoming children from as young as three where they create a play," she said.
"The festival also introduces a development platform through play readings, offering audiences an opportunity not simply to watch new work but to help shape it. They both connect with stories around the TRC," she said.
Two new plays, Khutjo Green’s "Maki Next Door" and Jonathan Maseng’s "Sobukwe", will be presented for audience feedback, discussion and debate.
The literary programme features the launch of Rising to Palestine: Africans in Solidarity for Decolonisation and Liberation, edited by Raouf Farrah and Suraya Dadoo. Bringing together African scholars, the book connects struggles and solidarities across Gaza, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Western Sahara.
And for those looking for something less formal, the Kaza Kamba Pavement Café will animate The Market Theatre Precinct from Thursday to Saturday night.
There will be music, an open mic, food and drinks, alongside stalls offering clothing, jewellery, earrings, materials and other locally sourced treasures.
It is an extension of the festival’s philosophy: that political conversation and artistic exchange do not have to happen only inside theatres and conference rooms. They can happen over food, in the street, through music, between performances and among strangers.
At its core, Kaza Kamba is asking audiences to remember, but also to ask what remembrance demands of us.
In a moment when questions of identity, migration, solidarity, violence, liberation and Pan-Africanism remain deeply contested, Memory Against Forgetting offers more than a festival theme. It becomes an invitation to look backwards, interrogate the present and imagine what might come next.
With theatre, music, film, workshops, new writing, food, debate and community gathering packed into four days, there is plenty to experience.
All documentary films and workshops are free.
taschica.pillay@nationalmg.co.za