Dancing With a Difference

Pic: FLYING WITHOUT WINGS, Hwamanda dance group in action.

I caught up with Hwamanda Dance Group at a agriculture field day in Shamva. Its a fantastic group that displays some dance routines that have a combination of traditional acts and those one could say are borrowed from gymnastics. I understand the group will be performing in Harare soon and iam very anxious about watching them once more.

The group, including all other dance groups that are spread in the country that i have watched over the years, have a hidden message emanating from their displays that so many people seem to miss. I have recently discovered, after watching Hwamanda perform that, traditional dances, besides entertainment, often dig deep into our minds for one to question his/her level of "Africanness" (attachment to our roots). The dances and songs that accompany them carry me back to my rural home and how i used to play around with my home boys in dusty dry lands of Mazvihwa. They are a reflection of our past and how we could possibly embrace it in the present time. I always visualise a society that has long gone where all those fairy tales and sound proverbs we grew up listening to, made real impact to society.

That was then, when grandpa was still a young boy. When most of the things were just "natural". There were no tarred roads, C02 emissions, GMOs', coca cola, cakes, Levis jeans and anything digital. Life was a friend of the natural. Is it true that life was so organised by then, as how my daddy puts it now?. There is one important factor that modern life seem not to change from all of us- that is our colour. Black or brown, iam still proud to be African, something i value especially through listening and watching traditional dances. I went to Europe this other year and within a few days i was already missing home. Not my two bedroom flat i once rented in the city, but my rural home. I missed my parents, homeboys and even the dry land that often grilled my skin. That is one hidden secret about my culture. Its like a companion you can trust and live without. Can someone make a movie out of it. I will suggest the title could be "When songs and dances shaped a man"