By STYLE REPORTER
Norway-based Zimbabwe-born artiste Anna Mudeka (pictured) will next month embark on an ambitious tour de force one-woman show across the United Kingdom retracing the movement of the Bantu tribe and their history in a theatre piece titled Kure Kure/ Faraway.
Mudeka — a multi-instrumentalist, dancer and actress — has taken the world by storm by telling the “true” African traditional story through music and dance.
Kure Kure/Faraway is a multi-dimensional show that employs Mudeka’s skills as a highly talented mbira player, drummer, singer and dancer set alongside multi-media imagery and video.
Many of the shows are accompanied by interactive and immersive workshops, perfect for all ages and abilities to learn clapping rhythms, shakers and drumming as well as dance moves. The workshops offer an insight into the uplifting and soulful spiritualism of a bira — a Shona celebration.
The theatre work chronicles the mass exodus of the Bantu tribe across central Africa and Mudeka frames it in her personal struggle of balancing a quest for global adventure while remaining true to the traditions of her dynastic forebears. It’s a story of identity, assimilation, and challenges faced by migrants, as relevant in ancient times as they are today.
Told through the music, dance and mesmerising ululation of the Shona people, accomplished mbira player Mudeka sets the scene for an epic odyssey traversing legends of the African diaspora, evoking ancestral and modern identities. From the fabled great march of the Bantu tribe across the Tanganyika and Baka regions to Zimbabwe some 5 000 years ago, Kure Kure/Faraway, explores seismic shifts in the region’s cultural history.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
The tour, which runs up to November, will see Mudeka performing in Norwich, Oxford, Wells-next-the-sea, Halesworth, Islington, Margate, Holt, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Ipswich, Birmingham, Southend-on-sea, Manchester, Slough, Bristol, Cromer, Colchester, Kings Lynn, Twickenham, Thetford, Diss as well as Lowestoft.
Mudeka, who left Zimbabwe to stay in the UK in 1994, has remained true to her traditions.
“I am a proud Bantu, munhu, umuntu — human being. My identity, my history, my ancestral beliefs, my DNA has made me who I am. I am everything and everyone who has lived before me!” she said.
Kure Kure/Faraway is an original theatre work devised by Mudeka and a team of associate artistes. Directed by David Farmer, produced by Arts La’Olam and co-commissioned by Norwich Arts Centre, the tour is funded by Arts Council England.
