Dancing with the ancestors

Abstract

I am twenty nine years old, born on 3 March 1975 in KwaMachi, Phum'za (KwaZulu-Natal). I am a dancer and choreographer with Durban's Siwela Sonke DanceTheatre. I don't really know why I was chosen for this profession but I realise it was inevitable I had to do it! This impulse to dance and create dance is for me like church, like being around all the beautiful spirits from my past. I have been called to choreograph my history as I dance with my ancestors. It is a strange journey for a big black woman with one foot in my rural hut and one foot in eThekwini, but the ancestors have called and I am learning to listen. I do not look like a dancer is supposed to look, but when God calls, you jump or in my case, leap and twirl. My Zulu belief in the ancestors is a way of life. I believe that all of us here in the material world are guided by those who have crossed over; starting from those who have recently died, and going way, way back to our great, great, great grandmothers. These ancestors are the ones who connect us to God; they mediate. our prayers and wishes. I talk with my ancestors and God in two ways. The first is the more traditional where I burn imphempho' and call my ancestors by saying'Okhokho'. Sometimes I leave fruit or money near the imphempho as part of my prayers and offering. I then call out the names of my ancestors. I have to call them specifically so that when they look back over time they will know me. I call them by saying a praise poem that speaks of them specifically; if they were tall, or if they had very black skin, long legs... I put a little bit of teasing into the call, because I think the ancestors like the humour I like, especially, to call on the women of my family and my history I know them to be wise and to understand me. I see white bones, wise 'A