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Trials of Blackness – Phinda Mzala

Writer: Busisiwe Mahlangu | Photographs: Supplied

“I must define the value of humanity to myself and the value of myself to humanity” Ingoapele Madingoane

Don’t you love it when poets from different eras engage in conversation—through text, on stage, or in dialogue? How electrifying would it be to witness that transgenerational exchange? It puts the notion of change into perspective. Were poets of the ’70s and ’80s facing the same dilemmas as poets today? If Nina Simone’s words are true— “An artist’s duty is to reflect the times”—then poetry is one-time machine we can rely on.

“Trials of Blackness” brings Ingoapele Madingoane and Mak Manaka into the same space. It has been 27 years since the Poet Laureate of Soweto, Ingoapele, left this world, yet his work remains a clear mirror held up to our shared humanity. Instead of merely responding to Ingoapele, Mak Manaka will resurrect his poems, accompanied by two djembe drums (Gontse Makhene and Lebohang Mokhela) and DJ Skwash.

“I have tolerated this trial

for too long

I have wished and prayed

until my voice went silent

and now I

a prisoner

stand waiting,

for approaching

night of judgement to end

this”

black trial – Ingoapele Madingoane

Manaka will embody the epic poem Black Trial from Madingoane’s collection Africa My Beginning (1979). The poem is a textured portrait of a Black man’s yearning for freedom in apartheid South Africa. It is both a love letter, dedicated “to the women who love us in bondage,” and a cry for Africa’s exploited soul.

The journey Mak Manaka is taking us on is more than a revisit; it is scholarship. Here is a great poet saying: Come and see one of the greats who inspired me to speak without holding my tongue. Come and listen to our elders before amnesia pushes them into erasure. Let’s not forget them. Come and decide for yourself whether Africa has completed its revolution. For some audience members, it will be a reunion with Madingoane’s work; for others, an introduction. One thing is certain—this promises to be a spiritual experience at the intersection of poetry and music.

Come have a human experience at Phinda Mzala.

https://www.quicket.co.za/events/296147-trials-of-blackness/#/directions

177a Perth Road, Westdene

Ticket: R150 Quicket/ R200 Door

Date: 1 February 2025

Time: 15:00 – 19:00

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