Soul healing

Performance artist Albert Ibokwe Khoza is a soul collector. In African cultures, when someone dies outside their home (particularly when the death was violent), a ritual is often performed to facilitate the collection and return of the spirit/soul home for peaceful transition.

As a healer in artistic practice and through the work of The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu, Khoza has been collecting the souls of the Africans who were sold out of the continent into slavery.

“They prefer air-travel,” Khoza says in the piece. “They fear the sea because that’s where some of them died.”

The internationally-travelled piece has sold out venues and performed to critical acclaim in cities such as Amsterdam, Liverpool, New York and Barcelona. It has been hosted by progressive festivals and organisations, including the Liverpool Biennial and the US-based Boom Arts. Locally it has been briefly shown in Cape Town, Soweto and Johannesburg.

Though the work may have the same content and structure, its spiritual tinge can’t be the same when performed locally because the spirits it carries are now on the home continent. This Market Theatre iteration of The Black Circus is important to be a part of. It’s bigger than its creator.

“I can't claim it as mine,” Khoza said. “I'm a mere portal and vessel for the work to exist and to reach those it reaches. I believe most ideas (which come in images) are given to me by the ones that came before. My input is to figure out how to make all that is given to me palatable and audible for the modern eye and ear.”

The work — part ritual, performance, provocation and contemplation — is a tribute to the victims of the legacy of slavery. It invokes the violent effects of ethnological expositions such as human zoos and exhibitions in Western societies, popularised by the human curiosities movement between the 19th and 20th century. Through this movement, Black people — most notably Sarah Baartman or Mbye Otabenga (Ota Benga) — were uprooted from their homelands, commercially exploited and intrusively paraded for the white fetish and gaze. The production is a visceral experience that invites audiences to engage with and re-examine this shared history for reclamation, reflection and confrontation.

The ritualistic aspect of the show breaks down the boundaries between audience and performer for a communal experience. Even before entering the theatre doors, you’re already engaged. The show is sacred (and the sacred is a deeply respectful undertaking), absurd, daring, thought-provoking and at times uncomfortable. But to sit with the discomfort is an invitation.

Princess Mhlongo’s direction holds space for the performer with considered restraint that allows Khoza’s ideas, questions and soul to land with impact through a poetic audiovisual language.

Khoza delves into effects of the colonial gaze and disruption on black people and its modern-day manifestations, suggesting that black creatives are still chained like slaves who need a white master in the form of international curators and funding organisations to penetrate local and global markets.

“I am questioning the freedom of the performer and whether they’re still caged, if the stage is the modern-day human zoo,” Khoza said. “In paying tribute to the victims of the horrific legacy of slavery, I confront my own exploitation as a performer. Am I that different from them even now?

Through the work, Khoza emphasises the need for spiritual healing from the generational trauma inflicted on black bodies and reclamation of violated dignities. But asks, “where does healing begin, and who heals the healer?”

For the ideas and questions that the show poses, the show in itself may provide an answer. Healing begins with confrontation and it is not comfortable. The Black Circus of the Republic of Bantu is a soulful hour of engaging  and important work that deserves our time.

The show is on at the Market Theatre (with performances on weekends) until June 29.