Word: zulu
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...culture" in a format that might easily be understood by the rest of the world. Msomi's epiphany came when he realized that the political background of Macbeth-- the half-mythologized atmosphere of the warring clans of medieval Scotland--was eerily similar to that of the birth of the Zulu nation, united out of many warring tribes under the great 19th-century leader Shaka Zulu. Moreover, Shaka's life was oddly parallel with that of Macbeth: a diviner prophesied in his youth that Shaka would become a "chief of chiefs," and his wife, Pampata, was his ablest and most ambitious...
...rather curious beast, and one isn't sure exactly what to make of it. Umabatha sticks fairly close to the main points of Shakespeare's text, retaining its great scenes and its characters, but, of course, those characters and the story itself undergo a process of transformation into a Zulu context...
...very first scene, for instance, introduces us to the famous three witches of Macbeth--who in Umabatha have become Sangomas, or Zulu diviner-women. rattling bones across the ground to tell the future and chanting maniacal melodies as they dance around their fire, the three Sangomas retain their function as eerie, ambiguous messengers of the world beyond, even as they are transformed into traditional icons of Zulu myth...
...area in which Umabatha encounters serious problems is language. Since the play is in Zulu, an odd set of unspoken assumptions seems to be established even before the play begins. The idea seems to be that the viewer will already be familiar with Macbeth and can thus follow Umabatha as it weaves variations on the original text. Unfortunately, a viewer who neither knows Shakespeare's play well nor understands Zulu is likely to find much of the action confusing. The play's program does provide scene summaries in English, and large LED boards flanking the stage periodically show abbreviated English...
...celebration of Zulu culture, Umabatha is an unqualified success. This is partly a product of the historical story, obliquely narrated through the filter of fiction, and partly a result of the other level on which the production triumphs: the level of spectacle. Song and dance are woven into the story as integral elements that move the narrative at pivotal moments: cheering the return of the soldiers home from war, mourning the sudden death of King Dangane, celebrating the coronation of Mabatha in the banquet scene at the center of the play...