Driven by care and love for the imprisoned, three artists performing at the National Arts Festival took the festivities to the Grahamstown Correctional Centre last week.
Driven by care and love for the imprisoned, three artists performing at the National Arts Festival took the festivities to the Grahamstown Correctional Centre last week.
Masauko Chipembere of international band Blk Sonshine, slam poet and hip-hop artist Iain Ewok Robinson and Zimbabwean guitarist and singer Kito Mudzinganyama took a break from their Festival commitments to inspire a large crowd of inmates with songs of hope.
Not only do these artists preach revolution in their music they also go out and put it in practice. While addressing the inmates, Masauko reflected that many of the world’s heroes like Nelson Mandela, Steve Biko and Oliver Tambo all went through the emancipation while fighting for change before they became the heroes they are today.
He urged them to embark upon the same route to freedom. Born in the USA from Malawian and Mozambican parents, Masauko spoke about his African ancestry, mentioning the relationship between the Mozambicans and the Ngunis, from which the Xhosas originated.
“I don’t believe that prisons should exist, especially in Africa, even the ancient Egyptians existed for over a thousand years without using them,” he said. “All South African prisons are the result of colonialism.
A prison is like a scar in the heart of society.” He then played around the concept of Nkosi (King) and enkosi (thanksgiving) while performing the popular song Nkosi.
Ewok then took to the floor and explained his involvement in hip-hop and how life changing it is. “We need to break the doors on the outside but most importantly break the walls within ourselves!” he exclaimed.
Ewok is an active member of the Durban hip-hop crew, Illuminating Shadows and explained how the group survives through the teachings brought about through hip-hop.
He also demonstrated the spontaneous style of rapping called freestyle, where an artist is driven from within during a performance, rather than through what is pre-planned.
Two inmate rappers joined in and shared some of their in-prison writing while Ewok and Ecalpar were beat-boxing and Masauko was strumming a guitar.
Kito adjusted his Shona to suit the Xhosa-oriented crowd with prayers like Nkosi Yethu (Our Father) and a song he dedicated to the many leaders who misuse their positions in the political world.
The artists created a sense of freedom and relation between themselves and the inmates as they mingled and chatted freely.
Masauko then emphasised the stigmas surrounding prisoners saying that what people should see is a human being and if one looks closely they too will feel more human.
“A criminal is a criminal only because you decide that he is a criminal.” The inmates were overjoyed and they seemed saddened by the artists’ departure and so were the artists.
Masauko declared: “It was a wonderful experience, probably my best performance ever but the sad part is when we had to go home and they had to stay behind.”
