Cont Mhlanga and l

By The NewsDay | Aug. 8, 2022 | 5 Min read

Being 10 years younger, I had been introduced to the Cont Mhlanga doctrine through that most audacious of theatre pieces which announced Mhlanga’s arrival as a writer and director of note through Workshop Negative which is best summarised as Zimbabwe, 1984.

BY DAVIS GUZHA WE had heard of each other and yet never spoke. We had consumed each other’s works and yet never shared opinions.

Corruption is rife, black people are fighting black people, socialism is being replaced by rampant, vicious capitalism. Nobody is being brave”.

Fast forward to 1996, I am acutely aware of the high level of production value and intensity of creativity oozing out of Mhlanga at Amakhosi.

On my part I had just negotiated for the establishment of the (first) Theatre in the Park, Harare as a performance space.

I quickly realise that I am going to need Mhlanga and Amakhosi’s content to sustain the space. I make a one-day working visit to Bulawayo (no cellphones those days), through an appointment which had taken me the better part of seven days to secure through various landline calls which mostly ended with the secretary promising to relay my request for a meeting.

Straight to my face, Mhlanga tells me he is done with bringing his plays to Harare. I feel my time has been wasted and I tell him so as I exit his office in the city (close to 8th Street and something).

The establishment of a working relationship

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Two weeks after the Bulawayo failed visit, I hear a car hoot outside my gate and as I open it, Mhlanga rolls down the taxi window and tells me (Not request): “You are taking me to the airport at 5pm for my 7pm flight.”

I take his suitcase, sit him on the veranda and bring both of us water (after all as a KoreKore), I had been brought up to know the best way to withhold expressing one’s tirade, is to drink water. Brazen, was the word which occupied my psyche.

Not even how dare you. Mind you this was only the second time we had met one-on-one. About 10 minutes later, he tells me: “I will give you three plays for your theatre for the next four months.” Just like that, what was to be a lifelong friendship moulded in our love for theatre was birthed!

The theatre industry defining years: 1997-2003

As a result of the provocative entry into my life by Mhlanga, we organically entered into an arrangement which found us calling each other for lengthy industry-related issues every week.

Key outcomes of these deliberations included the National Touring Programme.

This brainchild of Mhlanga saw Amakhosi and Rooftop putting two fresh plays from each camp (four in total) every month.

These plays, which would cross over geographical boundaries, would be presented commercially at three venues in each province, being (normal theatre, community theatre hall and teachers training college/university/secondary schools).

In one stroke, Mhlanga, had proposed what turned out to be Zimbabwe’s biggest audience-building exercise the theatre industry has ever gone through.

Then came the Quota System whereby Amakhosi and Rooftop deliberately agreed on ensuring the unencumbered movement of talent between the two institutions.

In practice, each theatrical production would carry 30% of artists from each one’s region. I deliberately share the two key points to show the genuineness and how driven Mhlanga was in ensuring the survival of the theatre sector.

Taming a recalcitrant State: 2004-2009

As the country started experiencing shrinking spaces of public debate, it was pretty much left to the theatre sector as print media was under siege, to rise to the occasion.

Contrary to State perception, the outspoken and definitive works developed during these years were not sponsored in their development.

Rather there was a coalescing of ideologies among the content creators, community and audiences. It is in this epoch that Mhlanga, according to me becomes “an artist of and for the people”.

His most poignant work around this time, which he wrote in three days, directs in three days, and opens on the seventh day of which he approaches me to produce, is the iconic The Good President which makes him win the Freedom to create prize even as it gets banned.

It is also during this phase that Mhlanga agrees to collaborate on other pieces such as Dare/Enkundleni, and gives me the experience of a lifetime as he directs me in my one and only one person theatre piece to date The Two Leaders I know.

Beyond theatre business: Advisor

As the years go by and Mhlanga’s interest shifts to radio and later on television, he affords me the rare opportunity of letting me into his world.

He upgrades our relationship effortlessly where I would like to believe I become a confidante. When he comes to Harare, he refuses to sleep in hotels. Instead, he becomes a guest at our house. In the last 10 years, my wife and I become the hosts of choice for Mhlanga and his wife Thembi Ngwabi “Gogo”. Our conversations touch all aspects of life, family and business.

The last meeting/conversation

On the misty morning of July 28 (four days before he died), Peter Churu and myself left Harare around 4:30am headed for Bulawayo.

Mind you three days prior to this visit, Mhlanga and I had spoken on the phone and we tried in our best way to laugh a bit. I tried to correct his perception once again that I am a Gushungo (a moniker he had given me after our run in with the riot police in Bulawayo during the show of The Good President as he took a swipe at Harare and the late former President Robert Mugabe’s tactics. Still he would not heed my protest to say I am a Nyamasvisva!

I digress, back to the drive of July 28. We arrived around 10am and Gcina Mhlanga (daughter of the late doyen) graciously ushered me in to see Mhlanga.

He and I spent over 13 minutes talking about how he saw the future and wanted certain things done. During this last meeting of ours, dear world, Mhlanga, in his words, said: “You, you are family.”

Four days later, I got the call from his daughter announcing his passing on.

How does one even begin to process such loss? Is it a loss even? Mhlanga empowered me and each and every one of us to stand head above shoulders about who we are as a sector and as a people. He understood the great power of theatre and as such that is why he requested to be celebrated as a playwright! Thank you for the gift of sight Malume!