Life and Times of poet, playwright and author Napo Masheane

By Edward Tsumele, CITYLIFE/ARTS Editor

It is difficult and almost impossible to talk to Napo Masheane without reference to her feminism inspired poetry and plays.

In fact the poet, playwright and author is part of a generation of post Apartheid artists whose voices on current socio-political issues have captured well contemporary issues facing  post Apartheid South Africa . While democratic South Africa is clearly different from the one before 1994 in many respects, especially when it comes to getting rid of the discriminatory laws that saw black people at the receiving end of injustices in education, business opportunities and the freedom to self-actualise and choose the leader they desired, contemporary South Africa still grapples with several issues.

It is therefore the role of artists to capture the hopes, anxieties and the scourges of contemporary times. Napo and fellow poets have not disappointed when it comes to that role of the artist in society in the past 20 years.

One issue that occupies Masheane’s art practice through the  poetry and plays she has penned over these past 20 years, is the issue of South African women and their place in society. Though the country is now free and opportunities are more available for everyone than before, women still have issues preventing them to enjoy the freedom on an equal footing with their male counterparts, for example the scourge of Gender Based Violence, to name but one such problematic issue which is disturbingly common in society as  everyday topic of discussion. And this is not because society has suddenly become more enlightened on the issue, but it is because of its frequency in occurrence in society. This therefore makes the role of artists such as Napo and others even more important in highlighting the issues of women in society.

Her feminism inspired poems and plays that she has published and put on stage today form a big chunk of the contemporary art production cannon. In fact from the year 2000 onwards Napo  and her generation of especially female artists mainly working in the genres of theatre, dance, literature  and poetry exploded on the local arts scene in a manner that had not been witnessed in recent memory. This is as these brave and talented women produced plays, published books and conceptualized and choreographed dance productions that properly  captured and till this day continue the contemporary issues afflicting South Africa. Their artistic output continues to have an impact on society.

In the case of Masheane it is the elevation of South African women and their issues, putting them right up on the national agenda and consciousness through her artistic output, that has become notable in her art practice..

Who will forget the all female group going by the not so surprising feminism influenced name of Feel A Sistah that besides Masheane, had in it Lebo Mashile, the late American born poet Myesha Jenkins and Ntsiki Mazwai. In fact it is safe to say that this group became a dominant force on the poetry scene, particularly the spoken word category during the early 2000s to the late 2000s, as they confidently strutted on stage unapologetically and powerfully carrying  their women affirming messages through their feminism inspired poetry.  And because of their infectious stage presence, charisma and the sleek manner of presentation, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that Feel A Sistah made poetry so sexy that even the often conservative government bureaucrats hired this group to perform at government functions and paid them a decent fee.

 In fact it was the first time in South Africa that poets earned decent fees for performances alongside musicians. Napo and her fellow sisters in poetry made it possible, and in a way made poetry to have some sort of currency in the commercial sphere.

It is probably the reason why some will remember those years with both a smile on their face and sadness in their soul because after putting the stakes so high for poetry on the country’s performance calendar, some had somehow believed  naively that at last poetry was getting the respect and  its exponents financial  rewards that  until that point, had eluded this often marginalized art form within  the broad art cannon in South Africa. Finally poetry as an art of performance especially,m was getting the recognition it deserved, poetry loved believed at the time.
In fact the success of this group influenced so many others that also made an impression on the poetry scene, especially young and talented poets.

But then something happened. The gigs stopped coming, both private and government gigs for the poetry groups, and as is often the case with many groups under such challenges of financial stress, group members retreated into their individual spaces, and the group eventually folded. Thereafter there was a cloud of sadness that enveloped the spoken word performance space. The hope that had permeated the air was instead replaced by despair in the poetry community. The dreams of several young poets who were inspired by Feel A Sistah, were rudely interrupted. Those that held a dream of a career as spoken word poets were left shattered as they were forced to look elsewhere for both inspiration and opportunities.

But Napo was not deterred. Instead she pursued both poetry and theatre, playing multiple roles with amazing success as a writer, director, and producer, who networked prolifically within these spaces both in South Africa and abroad.

In fact her artistic output after Feel A Sistah was spectacular, as she wrote and put on stage several plays and published her poetry. She also networked widely, something that is now paying off at this stage in her career. She also took time to get into the academic space, including going back to school.

The prolific artist in 2022 pulled a big one on the local creative and cultural space by conceptualisng and organizing an international theatre festival focusing on women playwrights from as far as the US, Canada, Zimbabwe, and Botswana, among other countries. These women artists who converged at the Soweto Theatre from August 1 -7 20222,  created magic on stage.

“How the idea came about is through a friend of mine who said to me, you cannot control things like Covid-19, but there is one thing that is within your control, and that is pour artistic output. I thought hard about that. I then phoned my networks that I had developed in my career as an artist throughout the world to find out If they would support something like this. They all side yes, we would.

“That positive response from my sisters, people I have collaborated with over the years, gave me that motivation to conceptualise HerStory  International Theatre Festival.  I also realized that networking is very important, and If you cannot rely on your network to make things happen, people that you have worked with over the years, then those years were simply wasted years,” Napo told me in an interview held at Mugg& Bean in Killarney Mall on June 22, 2022 as I sipped coffee and she had a juice.

Napo was speaking about her HerStory International Theatre Festival  that was billed to take place at Soweto Theatre from August 1 –to August 7, 2022 coinciding with Women’s Month celebrations.

“The festival was in fact inspired by the events of 1956 when South African Women marched to the Union Buildings over the Pass Laws. Both my paternal and maternal grandmothers, who were immigrants from Lesotho and had come to Johannesburg to work first as farm workers, but then ended up both working as domestic workers raising white kids, were part of that march. But sadly no one will write books about them or mention them in an article, and yet they played a crucial role. So this festival is paying tribute to many such women, who played a role in the struggle, and yet their names are never mentioned. I took it upon myself to raise their voice so that they get heard and their role in nhiustory is not lostm but captured for posterity, among those six or so women that are celebrated for the success of the 1956 march.

In fact the name of the festival is honouring my maternal grandmother whose home in Soweto was frequently raided by the Security  the Branch in the 70s as some jealous neighbours claimed that my grandfather, her husband who was a truck driver working within southern Africa  doubled as a was smuggler for freedom fighters to get outside the country to fight the then Apartheid regime,” she said.

Napo said that the experience of the  police harassing her grandmother in Soweto is still stuck in her consciousness till this day, even though at the time she was still young.

“Just because my grandfather was somehow doing well financially as a truck driver and could afford to take his grand children to the Zoo for example,  something he could not affaord to do for his own children, and he could afford to throw a party at his home for family and friends, that did not sit well with some people.

“But when the Special Branch came for the third time, my grandmother had had enough. She looked at them intently and told a hugely built policeman among the team that: “Now that you have been coming here for several times now  because you believed there are weapons hidden here and you have found nothing, you better not be here by the time that pot on the stove boils. This is because all that water will be emptied on one of your bodies. As a domestic worker I look after your children during the week in the suburbs while you go to work, and yet on weekends you come here in Soweto to harass the same woman accusing her of keeping guns that you never find. Enough is enough.” 

From that day, they never set foot at my grandmother’s home in Soweto. 

Napo went on to explain that although these women did not even know how to spell the word feminism, their actions and bravery point to the fact that they actually were feminists. This is If you analyse their actions in taking part in the 1956 Women’s March to the Union Buildings in Pretoria and their attitudes with regards to working hard in order to  become financially independent, instead of relying on men as the only provider for their families. 

“And  as for me, even though my work is within the area of feminist activism, and every play and poem I have ever written and performed till this day, is about women and their position in South Africa, I never plan what to write. My playwriting comes organically to me, while my poetry comes deep from a spiritual source,” she revealed.

Some of the poetry she is talking about are to be found in her published poetry anthology  books to date, Caves Speak in Metaphors, Fat Songs for My Girlfriends and Heart Beat of the Rain. 

“Heart Beat of Rain came from my Masters Thesis in Creative Writing from Rhodes University. My Thesis focused on both poetry and theatre because I could not choose one over the other. Both poetry and theatre constitute my being equally. Raising women’s issues in my art practice is so natural that it is part of my creative DNA,”  she explained.

Napo explained that although she had long worked as a poet and playwright before deciding to take formal studies as a creative writer, she found the experience fulfilling. “The process of learning assisted me as lot as it allowed me to experiment with form, and I could test my poetry through the comments and feedback I got from fellow students. I also discovered what in my poetry needed to be improved because sometimes as writers we think that a poem works, wheras actually it does not. It may sound great being performed on stage, but on paper, it actually says nothing. So going to university helped me to reflect on my writing process and extend my imagination in writing both poetry and plays.”

What is also clear in Napo’s poetry is that her collection is very much influenced by her love and pride in her Sesotho language. She is so proud of that heritage so much that even her English poems are infused with Sesotho words.

“I never write an English poem in English wholly without infusing some Sesotho words or verses. That would not be me and that would not be natural me. And most of the poetry that I write are informed by ordinary things within the seSotho culture. Though I was born in Soweto, I was raised in Qwaqwa and I am very much immersed in the Sesotho culture, whether it is reciting clan names or using some nuggets of the wisdom one gets when conversing with elders in from the Sesotho culture,” she explained.

Essentially Napo’s oeuvre is made up of plays and poetry, but at the time of the interview,  the artist was thinking over the idea of creating a play which is a far departure from what has now become her comfort zone of writing about women.

The plays that have made her famous within the theatre landscape as a writer include herd debut stage play, My Bums Are genetic, Deal with It,  Fat Black Women Sing, A New Song, My Virgina  Was Not Buried with Him and Elelloang, all dealing with women’s issues. These plays were critically acclaimed wherever they performed. For example, When fat Black Women Sing was performed on the main stages of the Market Theatre, The John Kani Theatre it became the first time that a black women written, directed and produced was ever on the stages of the Market Theatre since institution was founded in 1976 by the late Barney Simon and Mannie Manim, artists of vision and imagination.

During the interview, her debut anthology of plays called My Bum is Genetic, Deal With It and Plays was with the publishers and was going to be launched during the HerStory International Theatre Festival (August1 -7 August, 2022 at Soweto Theatre). 

Some of those poems are from her MA  Degree in  Creative Writing Thesis (Rhodes University), and  by publishing her plays, that makes Napo one of a few playwrights in the country who have published their plays, and therefore creating an archive of plays that will be useful to future generations. This means that their works will outlive their lives, assuming their own existence beyond the lifespan of the creator.

But now with the new play she is contemplating writing about the culture, especially in black communities for some who increasingly take out funeral cover policies on their relatives with the aim of cashing in on when they die, Napo is traversing a new terrain  as a playwright.

“It will be the first time that I would have written a play that has nothing to do with women’s issues. I am in my mind currently thinking over the idea of people taking out funeral policies for their relatives that in actually fact they do not care much about them.  In fact whenever such a relative dies, several relatives fight over laying their hands first on the death certificate. I am not sure yet what will come out of that play, but that is the issue preoccupying my creativity right now,” she said.

And in recent years Napo took the bold decision of packing her bags heading back to university to study further.

“For my Masters Degree in Creative Writing at Rhodes University, I submitted two (parts of MA Thesis) thesis one, on poetry, and the other on theatre. This is how strong both these art forms are part of my intellectual make up. I could not choose one over the other.

If she is not on local stages performing or writing either the next play of poetry, Napo works in academic spaces. 

“I have just come back from Sweden where I teach a course on African theatre to university as a guest lecturer. I go there once, and sometimes twice a year to teach,” she said.

Please share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *