Ibokwe zooms in on plight of women

Internationally acclaimed performance artist, dancer and flamboyant sangoma Albert Khoza is tackling the issue of femicide in his latest offering.

Khoza, who is famously known as Ibokwe (the goat), continues to deal with controversial subjects as he presents his ongoing performance work called Red Femicycle.

The performance will be staged at Soweto Theatre in Jabulani from today to Sunday.

The larger-than-life Khoza, who has collaborated with Oupa Sibeko, Lerato Matolodi and Musa Zwane, had a Q&A with Time Out: 

Tell us more about your show Red Femicycle?

The show basically speaks about different kinds of femicide that we are going through as people in this country and the whole world. For me, I am trying to sensitise people because we are so desensitised. We hear about rape and violence daily in the news and we consume such information so easily and I don’t think it is affecting us the way it is supposed to be affecting us. It’s kind of turning into a norm.

I guess it is also a tribute to the matriarchs that have formed me as a person and as an artist. My entire existence has been influenced by women on different scales, from my mother to my grandmother, from Winnie Madikizela-Mandela to the Miriam Makebas and Nina Simone’s of this world.

What inspired the show?

The show is inspired by the gender-based violence statistics that keep on rising every day. I look at my nieces, my twin sister and my mother that I live with. In the show I use the song, Tomorrow is My Turn by Nina Simone, because I feel that women are in that position where they constantly ask questions if tomorrow is my turn.

What can we learn from the show as an audience?

There is a lot and it comes up in different moments.  It is a moment of reflection and it is a ritual. Once you have a ritual then you have to have an audience. I always say that if there are a hundred people in a room and one person’s life mentality is transformed and shifted, I have done my job as an artist.

You are known for producing controversial works that push buttons, why?

I have always heard that my work is controversial and too in-your-face but my response to that has been that the truth cannot be compromised or sugarcoated. That is why I say South African audience always want to be spoon-fed. Art is a weapon to change mindset and reconstruct certain ideologies that are not relevant anymore. I use my art as a weapon to bring about change and make things better. People always ask me why I perform naked; it is not about the nakedness it is about the truth.

You spend most of your time performing outside South Africa, is your work not appreciated locally?

It is not. But you must also look at what happens in our own country. I am dealing with serious issues like fighting gatekeepers. I had personally moved my work out of theatres because of those gatekeepers who don’t think my work belongs to a theatre.

What can we learn from the show as an audience?

There is a lot and it comes up in different moments.  It is a moment of reflection and it is a ritual. Once you have a ritual then you have to have an audience. I always say that if there are a hundred people in a room and one person’s life mentality is transformed and shifted, I have done my job as an artist.

You are known for producing controversial works that push buttons, why?

I have always heard that my work is controversial and too in-your-face but my response to that has been that the truth cannot be compromised or sugarcoated. That is why I say South African audience always want to be spoon-fed. Art is a weapon to change mindset and reconstruct certain ideologies that are not relevant anymore. I use my art as a weapon to bring about change and make things better. People always ask me why I perform naked; it is not about the nakedness it is about the truth.

You spend most of your time performing outside South Africa, is your work not appreciated locally?

It is not. But you must also look at what happens in our own country. I am dealing with serious issues like fighting gatekeepers. I had personally moved my work out of theatres because of those gatekeepers who don’t think my work belongs to a theatre.