Ubuntu aesthetics in African theatre of the South

Abstract

The centrality of Ubuntu in much of African theatre of the South is well documented. Likewise, discourses that explicate the stylistics and aesthetics of African theatre abound. In this paper, we harmonize these existing theorizations on the expression of Ubuntu within African theatre and the prevailing readings of the aesthetics of such theatrical practices into the notion of ‘Ubuntu aesthetics’. The idea of Ubuntu aesthetics or the ‘aesthetics of Ubuntu’ within African theatre is not novel. However, our contribution to this discourse in this paper is to show how the unification of Ubuntu and performance aesthetics presents alternate conceptual pathways of the appreciation, appraisal, and study of African theatre praxis underpinned by an Ubuntu sensibility. To this end, this paper is an introductory attempt at institutionalizing the notion of Ubuntu aesthetics. We locate and contextualize this codification of Ubuntu aesthetics within African theatre of the South, which is representative of alternative performance and ritual practices that operate within, in-between, and beyond the conventional theatre spatial orders. As case studies, we review the theatre production Ngoma The Musical, which embodied the dynamics of Ubuntu aesthetics, alongside Brett Bailey’s Exhibit series which problematizes this notion.