After a super short four-day run, Neo Muyanga’s début operetta, The Flower of Shembe, has left Cape Town audiences hungering for a fast comeback. Melding together traditional and classical forms with Afro-futurist costume design and sets, this production is a liberating future-forward fable, a 21^st century African fairy story in song.

Entering the theatre, you feel as if Star Trek has touched down in Polokwane, and the tribal space-age feeling of the production (accentuated by felt designs by Dutch artist Dianne Schepers) just gets more and more exhilarating right up until the epic climax featuring postmodern angels tussling in a swimming pool to a cathartic chorus of sublimely sung speech. Water is flung across the stage and the heroine, Addis, rises above the action with giant white wings epically spanning the mortal actions on the stage below.

A mythic maskanda operetta about faith and destiny, The Flower of Shembe is ‘elastically Pan African’ and shamelessly syncretic, drawing from urban Zulu music modes and harmonisation woven together with modern chamber orchestra accompaniment.

Born in Soweto, Muyanga studied the Italian Madrigal tradition with choral maestro, Piero Poclean, in Trieste, Italy – and continues to write, compose and play music in a hybrid style that owes no allegiance to any one culture, but enlarges musical boundaries. So it makes perfect sense that he is also the musical brains behind the Pan African Space Station – an archive of contemporary Pan African sound on the Internet (www.panafricanspacestation.org.za) and live at Tagore’s live bar in Observatory, Cape Town.

Expectations for the production were high considering his track record as one of South Africa’s most innovative and impassioned composers. He co-founded the legendary guitar duo, BLK Sonshine (with Malawian-born Mosauko Chipembere) blending hiphop, jazz and folk into soulful African tunes that expand musical culture. Whose knees didn’t collapse on first hearing Muyanga’s tender rendition of ‘When we Make Love’ – one of the most romantic ballads ever to span the diaspora?

‘Simply put, The Flower of Shembe is a fictional reimagining of what trials and tribulations might befall a messiah coming to terms with a most onerous destiny,’ explains Muyanga in the programme notes. ‘The narrative of the Messiah is one of hope for all the world. We celebrate and share it through stories like those about Mithra (the Persian deity), Jesus (of Nazareth), Saint Yared (in Ethiopia) and Isaiah Shembe (of Zululand).’

But Muyanga’s pop messiah is far from any one of these culturally ordained versions. For starters, she’s a girl. A dreamlike fantasy figure, Addis, is a beautiful young black woman who is forced to hide her gender and pose as a boy to conform to her militaristic father’s patriarchal expectations. Her shapeshifting androgyny is spectacularly brought to life by Fleur du Cap award-winning actress, dancer and puppeteer Chuma Sopotela. Meanwhile, Luvuyo Mabutho captures the power-hungry energy of her tyrannical father, Ledimo (the crazy, ke lehlanya), conjuring aspects of suspended ANC youth league president Julius Malema and Zairean despot Mobuto Sese Seko.

It’s Addis’s liberation from this gendered lie that fuels the drama of the production and its beautiful radicalism, considering the context of gender conservatism and the frequency of hate crimes being waged against women and LGBT communities in Africa. If you follow the cues and read between the lines, the operetta’s joyous subtext is an affirmation of the fact that true national, or even spiritual, liberation might never be possible without equal and accompanying gender liberation.

When I catch Muyanga for a few breathless minutes after a wave of thunderous applause has filled the Artscape auditorium, he tells me that the operetta has been a year in the making and that the libretto came to him in his dreams. ‘Whoever would have guessed I’d end up making an operetta about a black Jesus with breasts?’ he laughs mischievously. He confirms that, although no dates have yet been fixed, the company is planning to tour the production over the next two years, most likely starting with a run in Johannesburg later this year.

‘I hit on the idea of composing an operetta along these lines because the name “Shembe” also belongs to the family of my mother – children of the clan Ntungwa, of the praise name Ntlanzi (the fish),’ says Muyanga. ‘I remember jokingly asking my mother one day, “so does this mean we are directly related to God?” She, ever the pragmatist, burst out laughing at the mere thought.’

You only have to read the programme notes to see why this production oozes with such superlative talent. From the narrator, Kabi Thulo, ‘a Southern Sotho traditional healer (sangoma), theatre-practitioner, scholar and deep house DJ’, to the director, dancer and choreographer Ina Wichterich-Mogane, who has performed with the world-famous Pina Bausch Dance Theatre, this is one seriously knock-out cast of self-made performers, who careers follow no set path. It’s Muyanga’s genius to have pulled them all together under the auspices of Young Blood – the award-winning company that has staged Flower of Shembe, a visionary production that is likely to see many more standing ovations as the it continues to bloom over the next few seasons.

Underground and going places MC Choc headlined the event in downtown Johannesburg. On the decks were the lovely DJ Soulo Starr and DJ Party Time. You might know Party Time as one of half of the Dirty Paraffin duo.

Download DJ Party Time’s exclusive Throwdown by AfriPOP! mix.

Images by Jamal Nxedlana and Lynsey Chutel

Brenda Fassie: “Mama”
South African singer Brenda Fassie (RIP) offers a sweet tribute to mothers

Prince Nico: “Sweet Mother”
One of the most celebrated (and remade) songs out of Nigeria, “Sweet Mother” celebrates the strength and courage of mothers

Khadja Nin: “Mama”
Burundian singer Khadja Nin sings the praises of mothers in this classic

Asa: “So Beautiful”
“Everyday I pray for you, Queen of my life, You’re so beautiful mama,” sings British-Nigerian singer Asa

Deep Level: “Thula Mama”
South African hip hop group Deep Level pay tribute to their mother’s in this modern twist on a South African classic

Mimmo: “Muciari”
They may not have always gotten along, but Kenyan singer Mimmo knows her mother’s love s eternal

An award-winning Nigerian journalist (Arts and Culture Prize in the 2009 CNN Multichoice African Journalism Awards), Ogunlesi’s writing has appeared in The Independent, CNN.com, Economist.com, Publishing Perspectives and guardian.co.uk. His fiction and poetry have been published in The London Magazine, Wasafiri, Farafina, PEN Anthology of New Nigerian Writing, Stanford’s Black Arts Quarterly and World Literature Today.

His hilarious twitter timeline comments on African affairs and gives us a glimpse into the inner workings mind of his mind in real time. Spend a little time with out this week’s socialite, Tolu Ogunlesi.

Real Name:   Tolu Ogunlesi

Web Name: Tolu Ogunlesi (But I get called a “Twitter Thug” every now and then)

Best known for: Tweeting; Flooding OPT (Other Peoples Timelines); Befriending The Kola Boof

Where are you from/live?

I live in Lagos, I am from Abeokuta, Sagamu, Ibadan, Lagos, Norwich and fantasyland (not necessarily in that order)

Places to find you online: Twitter. Six months ago, Facebook would have counted, but I’ve now more or less abandoned it. Then there’s my wordpress blog.

When and how did you enter the social media game?
I was on Hi5 years ago, but I can’t even remember what that was like. (Who does?) My first experience of social media actually came via blogging. I used to be a prolific blogger, from around 2005/6. Blogville was last decade’s Twitter. Then Facebook came along, and I took to it passionately. It was life-transforming, really. And then Twitter came along, and I got hooked.

What do you mostly tend to use it for?
I tweet lots of my thoughts / musings. It’s somewhat like connecting the mind to a screen, whilst you carry on living your life. I also retweet and favorite lots of stuff I find funny or interesting. And then of course I meet people – all sorts of ‘em. Finally, it’s very good for staying connected to what’s happening around the world – the latest scandals and news stories and debates – and distractions (what would social media be without distractions?)

How has social media helped you grow your brand?

I don’t consciously think of myself as having a brand, but I guess the truth is that in the 21st century, we are all brands (maybe that’s what Andy Warhol was trying to say all those years ago). Social media’s great for sharing my articles and rants and opinions. Then there is that awkward moment when we all realise that social media can help us make people think of us in certain ways…

What is your brand/message?
I actually haven’t ever sat down to think about this. I think we should ask the people that follow me and interact with me – their answer, and not mine, should be the valid one. If I were to consider my behaviour online, I’d reckon that whatever my brand message is (and I don’t know if I put out a unified message), humour would be a key ingredient. If I were to put up a tagline, it’d very likely be: “You Only Live ONCE. But As For LOL…”

If you could have one person follow you on twitter who would it be? 
Piers Morgan. I’m not sure why – maybe because he’s got a winning-combo: stinging wit + occasional ridiculousness + controversial bent + a global platform (his CNN show).

If you could have one person join twitter who would it be? 
My grandmother. She’d instantly become Nigeria’s oldest tweeter, I think. Plus I think we need more ‘senior citizens’ on Twitter. Twitter as it is is too young; too many people who can’t imagine a world where there was no IM. We need people to tell us, from firsthand experience, what life was like when Liverpool, for most people, was two eternal weeks away from Lagos…

Who should every African be following right now? Include why if you’d like

Does Bono count? How else could we say ‘Thank You’?

What is the role of social media in the “Africa” conversation?
Connecting Africans – Sometimes it is easier and quicker to go from Lagos to London, than from Lagos to Lome (for the benefit of the Americans reading this, Lome is in Togo, Togo is in West Africa, West Africa is in, guessed right, Africa!). The story of Africa is one of barriers and borders – absent highways, absent flight paths, stupid visa restrictions, etc. You must have heard of the recent diplomatic row between Nigeria and South Africa, with both countries embarking on a ridiculous deportation spree. With that in mind, I consider social media, and its endless potential for connecting people, one of the best things to happen to Africa. In the past, light arms, refugees and epidemics were the stuff that crossed borders unchallenged. Today, information and knowledge are flowing across, through the web. It is now actually impossible to stay ignorant of what is happening in Cairo – well, depending on who you follow, actually.

Who is benefiting most from the rise of Africans on social media sites?
Advertisers, and the sites that serve them, I think. Social media is designed to create, attract and/or dispense valuable ‘traffic’. With the power of ‘likes’ and RT and ‘check this out!’ etc, stuff can go viral in minutes. There is vastly increased life expectancy for links in the age of social media. The page-views party may soon be the biggest party in town!

If you could invent a social networking tool for the future, what would it be?
A platform that you couldn’t simply sign up for just because you felt like. Twitter and Facebook are too egalitarian – all you need to sign up is internet access and an email account. If I could invent a social networking tool it’d be like a VVIP club – but the decision on whom to admit would NOT involve human effort. There’d be an algorithm that scoured the entire World Wide Web for people’s e-footprints and ‘webehaviour’, rated and classified them, and then issued invitations to those it adjudged worthy to belong to my exclusive social network. No one, not even me the creator, would know the criteria for enlistment; the algorithm would be an inscrutable tyrant of sorts. And of course it’d be a closed network, like Blackberry Messenger; totally inaccessible to non-members, and out of bounds to Google searches.
The appropriate name for my social network would be VVd (pronounced Vivid) – VV from ‘VVIP’. To be ‘VVd’ would therefore be to become a recipient of that rarest of invitations from VVd inviting you to join “the world’s most exclusive social network.”

Follow Tolu on twitter

AfriPOP! socialite is a weekly  feature that introduces you to the internet’s socially prominent Africans and lovers of Africa. Not backed by a brand or organization, these are individuals who have used the internet to connect with fellow Africans to spread and discuss fresh ideas and thoughts on all things Africa. Their words are their message, their personality is their brand — the AfriPOP! socialite.

She describes her style as such:
“If I had to sum up my style I would probably say it’s preppy with personality. I like to dress according to how I feel when I wake up in the morning – so no planning outfits the day before! Looking back at my style diary, I guess a recurring theme would be the statement piece. I like to wear at least one piece a day that I find interesting and expresses my mood and then pair down the rest of the outfit with basics. Also, I’m a sucker for color coordination.”

Check out her five days of style below:

Photos by Thina Zibi

Monday: “I’m wearing a snakeskin print sheer mullet top (short in the front, long in the back) and fringed two-tone brogues from local retailer Mr Price. Any South African will tell you that Mr Price (or Mr P. as it’s affectionately referred to) is the place to go for seasonal, on-trend pieces that don’t break the bank. I picked up this vintage jacket at Cape Town’s You Me and Everyone We Know market, a great place to find unique one-of-a-kind pieces and black pants from GAP (a wardrobe staple).”

Tuesday: “One of my favorite t-shirts, this floral beauty was gifted to me by a friend (that’s what friends are for right?) and now I wear it at least once a week. Today I paired it with powder blue pants (also GAP), Country Road high-heel loafers and vintage bag, belt and necklace.”

Wednesday: “YAY for raincoats! This neon pink anorak from local boutique Journey, was a total impulse buy but I just couldn’t resist. And I’m so glad I didn’t because it brings me so much joy and brightens up even the grey-ist of days.”

Thursday: “Stripes and florals are one of my favourite pairs. I live the way they balance each other out.    I found the varsity jacket in the boys section at Mr Price (always look in the boys section!) and I found the gold converse in my sister’s cupboard (sorry Sarah!). The bag belonged to my grandmother and I recently rediscovered my “KATE” bracelet that my mom made for me when I was little. The full bracelet reads “Kate’s Crazy”. She obviously figured it out before everyone else did.”

Friday: “Ok so I know I said statement piece, but in this outfit it’s more like pieces. When I think about the individual items in this outfit it makes me want to sing “these are a few of my favorite things”. I picked up this amazing piece of costume jewellery at local vintage boutique, The Cat’s Meow. I love how the jewels mimic the jewels on my shirt, also vintage. And then of course, my color coordinating kicked in and I continued my ice-cream dream with mint shoes and pink glitter socks.”

YOU WILL LOVE: What I Wore This Week: Rosemary Kokuhilwa

“AfriPOP! What I Wore This Week” showcases the styles of the different African fashionistas worldwide. Our fashion junkie of the week will showcase what they wore going about in their daily lives; from a work day to a night out on the town! We are highlighting the fashion-forward, eclectic styles of those that look beyond brand names to focus on a personal style and aesthetic.

It’s so rare to hear the electro-kwaito-can’t-box-it-it-so-awesome beats that are propelling the likes of Mathambo and Dirty Paraffin to global recognition.

Well, it turns out Jo’burg is about to have some dynamism injected in the city’s night life.

AfriPOP! in association with host and event organizer AD85 bring you the Throwdown sessions.

Choc of South African reality show Creme Cartel has more up his sleeve than being one of South Africa’s first reality stars. Choc is also a master MC, with a flow rivaled only by his originality.

On the decks are DJ Soulo Starr and DJ Party Time. You might know DJ Party Time as none other than MalumKoolKat, one half of the afro-futurist dance duo Dirty Paraffin.

DJ Party Time has hooked us up with an exclusive mix of some the beats he’ll be hitting us with at Throwdown.

Tracklisting:

Claude Von Stroke – Warming up the bass machines
Choclate – Nka Mo Dira
J Davey – Trans
Bhubesii – Kleva Bhari
Spoek Mathambo – Put some red on it
The Weeknd – Initiation
Usher – Climax
Hudson Mohawke – FUSE
Tyler, The Creator – Yonkers ( Lil Silva Remix )
Wiley x J2K – Sugacakes
Big Fkn Gun – Pop Models

Check out Black Acrylic in full here
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Phiona: Have you been to Congo and Angola
Yannick: I have but for a very short while though

So do you identify most with South Africa culturally?
Well, not really. Since I’m not from SA. And SA people aren’t the most welcoming either

How do you mean?
Just ignorant shit happening. It’s always been amongst the blacks that reject other blacks from other countries which I don’t understand.

Have you ever experienced it?
There (have been) a few ignorant comments thrown from my friends here and there but nothing ever serious. But I’ve seen shit go down though. Like the one time I took a taxi and this woman was being humiliated after they burnt her house or something.
I try to stay well grounded in where I come from but try to push it forward, instead of sticking to what already is if that makes sense…

Give me an example
Ok, well, people in general get comfortable sub consciously and with the whole culture thing I think that’s where we get trapped into thinking things have to be done in a certain way when it doesn’t, you get me ? Culture isn’t wearing your dad’s hat. It’s buying a new one. 5 years down the line we won’t be doing the same shit though, hopefully. That’s why I’m starting this Waves Generation thing.

Tell me what you listened to growing up
I was listening to mad R&B type stuff, then I started listening to a lot of Blink182, Sum41. Then Istarted getting more into some Nirvana and a lot of electronic music. I really used to enjoy and still do enjoy some metal type stuff. I’ve never really been limited to a certain kind of music.

Did you listen to radio?
uhmm.. yeah. Pop is always good man. I never hated it like alot of people do. Yeah, I enjoyed the radio. But I was always on the internet trying to find out what the next best thing was at like 14, 15. I always say if you can appreciate a Britney song as much as you can appreciate a Radiohead song then you’re on the right track.

What did you know of Fela Kuti before Red Hot Riot came along?
That stuff was always around me at home. African music was always around me playing in the house or at a family function. I knew quite a bit about Fela. His doccie changed my life man, proper! Whenever I make music I always ask myself if it would have as much of an impact on people as his music did but I’m not about to run around the stage naked though.

What sort of answers do you tend to come up with as far as impact or longevity?
Longevity is a one the most important things if you listen to my music then you would notice that I always speak about living forever. I think my music is still growing, man. When the time is right it will be bigger than everything but right now i think it’s impacted a few people already.

You produce?
I produce everything.

How did you hone the skill?
I started playing guitar 7 years ago. I was in a few other bands and things and learnt to write songs and music. I started playing around with computer programs and watching Terrence.

Which artists and producers do you rate today?
I love Dev Heynes man, from Blood Orange. I love Lil B too. I’m like obsessed. A$ap… a lot of rappers. Death Grips are cool, The weeknd, Drake, Frankie Rose, and Lex Lugar kills it as a producer! Kendrick Lemar, Little Dragon, M83, santigold, Clams Casino, Neon Indian, Morrissey, Fally Ipupa – he’s dope. It always feels like like the African artists are a given you know cause it hits home.

Is the music by Popskarr and Petite Noir different?
Yeah. Petite Noir is a genre that I call Noir Wave which is the New Wave with an African Aesthetic with a bit of pop. Popskarr is nu disco with a pop structure and writing content is different too. I’m in two different mindsets when writing.

What gives it its African aesthetic?
Me. Being African first of all and just using all my influence and digging a bit deeper into where im from.

What, if any Congolese or Angolan music can you count as influences for you?
The only Angolan stuff I really listen to is kuduro. Other than that it’s more the Congolese stuff. I like a lot of Papa Wemba. The musicality in African music is amazing man, it’s on another level! But Fally is cool, Pepe Cale, most of the stuff my parents listen to. The crazy thing is I used to get irritated hearing that stuff as a kid.

What we should know about the new EP?
It’s going to be amazing, and just something new. Not coming from South Africa or just Africa but the world!

Till We Ghosts will be the debut EP by Petite Noir