What: 📅 MOCHUDI - Staged reading and dialogue
https://www.quicket.co.za/events/350145-mochudi-staged-reading-and-dialogue/
When:
Where: 🕳 Afrikan Freedom Station
How much:
🆓 Quicket
Set in 1882, Mochudi dramatizes the Bakgatla resistance against Boer invasion. After an impasse, Commandos seize land and enslave villagers. In his response, Kgosi Lentswe balances strategic patience with his people’s demand for immediate action. His brother, Segale the warrior-diplomat, leads unsuccessful negotiations with the Boers. Kgosi Lentswe subsequently dispatches the tracker Mathudi to gather intelligence on the enemy. Through the ancestral ritual, go foka marumo, Bakgatla prepare spiritually, then ambush Boer forces at the Madikwe River. When invaders retaliate, the entire community - warriors, women, and children - mobilizes to defend Mochudi and drive back the colonial forces. Framed as a traditional fable about Kgabo the Fire Monkey (resilience) versus Kgodumodumo the Hater of Life (destruction), the play connects historical resistance to contemporary land struggles across Africa and indigenous communities worldwide, affirming that ‘Naga ya kgomo ga e robale’- the land of cattle does not sleep, and neither can its defenders.
Writer: Kgafela oa Magogodi
Readers / Cast : Neo M MatsunyaneWarona SeaneGontse NtshegangMonageng MotshabiLucky MqoboliFolasade SepengTrevayne WeberJoel LeonardWarona Tabane MagogodiAs discussants:Warona SeaneMonageng Motshabi Dr Kgafela oa Magogodi